New Spider-Man: No Way Home Cover May Have Confirmed Another Villain

Spider-Man: No Way Home is one of the most mysterious superhero movies ever put out, as we've barely learned any concrete details about the stories, cameos, and Spider-Verse crossovers that are coming with the Marvel threequel. However, the marketing campaign for Spider-Man: No Way Home is slowly but surely beginning to unfold, and Empire Magazine set things off today with the reveal of some new Spider-Man: No Way Home magazine covers. Well, it's clear why Sony and Marvel Studios have been hesitating to market this flick; it took all of two seconds for fans to confirm a certain Spider-Man villain's return!

As you can see in the magazine cover above, the villain of Sandman (played by actor Thomas Hayden Church) from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 seems all but confirmed to be making a comeback. Sandman was one of the villains who seemed to make a 'blink and you'll miss it' appearance in the trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home, along Rhys Ifans' Lizard and Jamie Foxx's Electro (from The Amazing Spider-Man films). Now that Empire's covers have seemingly revealed that Sandman is a part of the film, we can put the speculation to rest. 

After the first trailer for No Way Home hit, our Comicbook.com Marvel staff posed an intriguing question: will Sandman flip sides and turn hero during No Way Home? Spider-Man 3 painted Flint Marko as a desperate man pulling robberies to save his daughter from a rare disease. He wasn't as evil as Spidey's other movie foes - even though his power to control sand and transform into it could be cataclysmic. 

However, it would make a lot of sense for Marko to flip sides in No Way Home. After all, when faced with the reality of an entire multiverse of possibilities out there, Marko would have all the motivation he needs to fight for a world in which his daughter didn't suffer the same fate. Or, Sandman would be the one villain in the expected "Sinister Six" lineup that would actually have reason to want to get back to his home universe and family. 

Either way, Sandman may be a welcome addition to the "good guy" team that is proposed to included Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man characters - plus (SPOILER!) Tom Hardy's Venom as well! 

Spider-Man: No Way Home will be in theaters on December 17th.