Even before cameras started rolling in the United Kingdom on Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the online rumor mill was busy at work theorizing who Spidey might be up against in his fourth solo bow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The latest rumors state that there may be as many eight villains in Brand New Day, with a majority of them reportedly appearing briefly via a montage at the top of the film. After taking down Vulture and Mysterio, helping the Avengers defeat Thanos, and battling Sandman, Green Goblin, and Doctor Octopus from other universes, it’s clear Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton wants to up the ante for Peter Parker, and we’re excited.
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However, there are definitely some villains we’re more excited about than others, given their comics history and dramatic potential. With the rumor of Mister Negative seemingly debunked, we ranked all the remaining potential villains that could be in Brand New Day from least to most exciting below.
12) Ramrod
An injured construction foreman turned cyborg, we can’t say we’re all the excited about Ramrod appearing in Brand New Day, as imposing and dangerous as he may be with his standard superhuman abilities and massive frame reinforced by steel plates. Even in the Brand New Day comic, he’s a supporting character at best — we don’t even learn his true name. Plus, in our current pop culture climate, cyborgs just aren’t all that novel anymore.
11) Boomerang
Sure, he’s been on a number of iconic villain/anti-hero teams like the Thunderbolts, but we’re really not all that excited at the possibility of Boomerang appearing in Brand New Day. His power set is pretty limited — a prodigious pitching arm and an arsenal of specialized boomerangs. So unless Cretton and his team put a really imaginative spin (see what we did there?) on the character, we’re hoping that Boomerang is one of the villains relegated to the reported montage in the upcoming film.
10) Chameleon
Technically, we’ve seen Chameleon before in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Spidey’s first ever villain in the comics, Chameleon was played by Numan Acar. While the method behind the madness has changed over the years, Chameleon is always a master of disguise that can impersonate virtually anyone and has a career as a hitman, spy, and criminal mastermind. Though his power set and connections to Kraven the Hunter make him more threatening than others on this list, we’ve already seen shape-shifting and impersonation via the Scrolls in the MCU, and we’re less excited about the danger he could bring Spidey than others. But we wouldn’t be mad if he popped up in a montage, however.
9) Savage Hulk
Forgive us Mark Ruffalo, but we’re just not all that excited by the idea of “Savage Hulk” returning in Brand New Day. The Incredible Hulk and The Avengers movies did a great job exploring Bruce Banner’s relationship with his massive green alter ego, and we’ve already seen Hulk revert to a semi-permanent savage-like state in Thor: Ragnarok. Plus, after having gotten a taste of Smart Hulk in Avengers: Endgame, it feels like Marvel is giving us more of the same rather than something exciting or new. That being said, we’re not entirely sure that Hulk will be Peter’s enemy at all in Brand New Day. He may start the film as an ally of Spider-Man’s and stay that way.
8) Venom
This one depends on who’s hosting the symbiote. Despite his cameo in the post-credits scene of Spider-Man: No Way Home, we have a hard time seeing Eddie Brock as Venom fitting into the street-level, more grounded story Cretton’s going for with Brand New Day. We’d be more excited however, to have the symbiote, or an MCU variant of it, enter Spidey’s world and infect a new character like Mac Gargan, who may already be a part of the upcoming film, or Peter’s friend Flash Thompson.
7) Vulture
Beyond the Vulture being one of Spider-Man’s most enduring villains, the MCU brilliantly incorporated him into its films by making him the father of Peter’s crush. There’s now a new quirk in their dynamic too, as no one remembers Peter should the adversaries meet again. While we doubt Vulture will play a major role in Brand New Day, his return would add sense of depth and continuity to Spidey’s world. Plus, Michael Keaton is an actor we’d watch do just about anything.
6) The Punisher
We are so excited that the Punisher is one of the few confirmed characters on this list that will be appearing in Brand New Day. Should the film indeed be going for a street-level feel, Punisher is a multi-dimensional and formidable antagonist for Peter. We have a sneaking suspicion that while Frank Castle may start as an antagonist in Brand New Day, he likely won’t stay one. He and Peter have too much trauma to bond over, which likely will make for some heart-wrenching character moments amid all the action since both Jon Bernthal and Tom holland are gifted actors in addition to action stars.
5) Spider-Slayer
Leaked concept art had fans theorizing that Alistair Smythe, aka Spider-Slayer, may be one of Brand New Day’s antagonists. Smythe’s scientist father died while creating robots called Spider-Slayers in an attempt to kill Spider-Man, therefore he adopts the moniker and vows to avenge his father’s death. However, Alistair’s efforts to defeat Spidey left him paralyzed from the waist down and institutionalized. Undaunted, Alistair escaped and built himself a carapace that not only gave him the ability to walk again, but also endowed him with enhanced strength, blade-like weapons, and his own web-shooters, along with his Spider-Slayer robots.
The possibility of Spider-Slayer as a villain has us excited for two reasons. One, who doesn’t love a family vengeance story? And two, the Smythes’ connection to J. Jonah Jameson; the Daily Bugle editor funded the creation of the Spider-Slayer robots, a connection they could update in Brand New Day, which means a bigger role for the incomparable J.K. Simmons.
4) Black Cat
What makes us so excited about the prospect of Black Cat joining Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery in Brand New Day is the fact she’s not only his adversary, but also one of Spidey’s most well-known love interests. Having the skilled, often superhuman cat burglar in Brand New Day presents an entirely new dynamic for Peter to contend with, especially if Cretton and the team do indeed make her a romantic figure, because while Black Cat adores Spider-Man, she wants nothing to do with Peter Parker.
3) Tombstone
Tombstone has consistently been mentioned throughout the Brand New Day rumors, and given that we’re hearing the story is aiming to have Spidey fighting more street-level villains, crime boss Lonnie Lincoln/Tombstone feels like a perfect fit. An albino crime boss with filed teeth definitely makes for an imposing villain, and is fresher to the screen than Kingpin. Like Wilson Fisk though, Tombstone is an enemy of both Spidey and Daredevil, so his inclusion could very well facilitate the Punisher’s role in the upcoming film. He’s also crossed paths with other potential villains on this list, like Scorpion and Black Cat. Therefore, we’d say we’re pretty excited at the prospect of Tombstone in Brand New Day, perhaps even as a “heavy” that Peter has to track and take down.
2) Scorpion
Scorpion, or Mac Gargan, has also been a name that many sources have brought up when discussing Brand New Day’s rogues’ gallery. It’s one of the rumors we really hope are true, given that Gargan’s tragic backstory about how he became the villain makes for rich drama and makes him a great foil to Peter’s Spider-Man. In the comics, Gargan was a private investigator that J. Jonah Jameson hired to find out how Peter Parker was able to photograph Spider-Man, who then is merged and driven mad by a barely tested scientific procedure that transformed him into a scorpion in both mind and body.
Not only are we excited for Mac’s possible return to the MCU, and the implications it has about a larger role for J. Jonah Jameson in Brand New Day, there’s so much potential for a 21st century update in how Mac’s profession and how he gets his powers that could make for really compelling storytelling. Also, Mac eventually becomes a host of Venom symbiote, meaning that his character could have real staying power in the MCU.
1) Tarantula
Now, there are quite a few versions of Tarantula in the Spider-Man comics, but our educated guess is that Brand New Day is most likely using the original Tarantula, Anton Miguel Rodriguez, given the Amazing Spider-Man storyline where Spidey and the Punisher stop him from holding a Hudson River ferry ransom. Rodriguez is a former South America revolutionary that gets turned into a massive spider-like creature in an attempt to make the martial artist more of a match for Spider-Man. Eventually, Rodriguez is so disgusted by the monster he’s become that he begs for his own demise at the hands of the NYPD after another battle with Spider-Man.
Beyond it being fun for Spidey to have another spidery antagonist to face off against, Rodriguez’s mutation gone wrong and his tragic end provides Cretton with plenty of opportunities to weave elements of body horror and tragedy into Tarantula’s character. We’re slightly more excited for the prospect of him as a villain rather than Scorpion since Tarantula has a more compelling character arc to us, but who’s to say the pair don’t bond over their status as “experiments gone wrong to kill Spider-Man” and work together?
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