Spider-Man: No Way Home Concept Art Reveals Scrapped Plans for Michael Keaton’s Vulture

Even though Spider-Man: No Way Home was already a who’s who of Spidey villains, another iconic baddie was nearly added to the mix. At one point or another, Michael Keaton’s Vulture was set to help Peter Parker (Tom Holland) wrangle the likes of Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), and Electro (Jamie Foxx) before they wreaked havoc across New York City. Vulture’s big reveal came courtesy of concept artist Phil Saunders, who shared a glimpse of a scene between Parker and Vulture.

“On any project of this complexity, the script will go through numerous changes as story direction adapts to the greater MCU plan and challenges such as actor availability,” Saunders wrote in an ArtStation post (via The Direct). “An early version of Spiderman: Far From Home [sic] had Peter enlisting the aid of a former foe in rehabilitating the captured multiverse villains. Much fun would have been had watching him frog-march the multiversal miscreants across town with the help of Doc Ock’s hacked tentacles. It was a great joy to try to capture the diverse attitudes of these incredible actors.”

At one point, the role of Vulture was actually supposed to go to John Leguizamo before Keaton staked claim.

“I was supposed to be the Vulture,” Leguizamo told us earlier this year. “We had negotiated and I was about to play him, and they said that Michael Keaton wanted it back and they asked me if I would give it up. I said, ‘Well, okay I guess.’ They said, ‘No, we’ll work with you again, we’re gonna…’ That’s what happened there.”

After Spider-Man: Far From Home, which ended with Peter Parker (Holland) unmasked by The Daily Bugle’s J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) and framed for murdering Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), Spider-Man asks Avenger ally Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to make the world forget his secret identity. But when the spell backfires, unwittingly unleashing sinister supervillains from other universes into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, three generations of Spider-Men must unite to thwart Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Electro, Sandman, and the Lizard (Rhys Ifans). 

Spider-Man: No Way Home is now streaming on STARZ.

Where do you want the MCU’s Spider-Man story to head next? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or bit hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!