Ariana DeBose is ready to Calypso…
The 31-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/singer/dancer, who made history with her SAG Awards win on Sunday, is set to join Sony Pictures’ Marvel film Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor Johnson in the titular role.
Although it’s unconfirmed, sources say DeBose would play Calypso in the movie.
J.C. Chandor is directing the film with Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach producing. Art Marcum and Matt Holloway and Richard Wenk penned the screenplay.
One of Sony Pictures’ universe of Marvel characters, Kraven is among Marvel’s most iconic and notorious antiheroes who has encountered Venom and Black Panther among many others as well as being one of Spider-Man’s best-known and most-formidable enemies. The film will be released theatrically January 13, 2023.
As for Calypso, she is a voodoo priestess who utilizes magic potions, and besides being an adversary of Spider-Man, she is also the occasional partner and lover of Kraven.
Sony is coming off a hot streak, with Spider-Man: No Way Home becoming the biggest film of 2021 with $1.8 billion in worldwide sales after Venom: Let There Be Carnage made more than $500 million worldwide. As for future films, the Jared Leto-starrer Morbius bows in the U.S. in April, and the studio just named Dakota Johnson to lead Madame Web.
DeBose’s stock has been skyrocketing following her scene-stealing role as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated West Side Story adaptation. Besides taking home the SAG Award for Supporting Actress, DeBose also has Oscars, BAFTA and Critics Choice nominations in the same category.
She’ll next appear in Matthew Vaughn’s action film Argylle from Apple, starring opposite Henry Cavill, Bryan Cranston, Samuel L. Jackson and Dua Lipa, and will also star in Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s space thriller I.S.S. alongside Chris Messina and Pilou Asbaek.