Spider-Man: No Way Home Villain Revealed: Who’s Left in the Web?
The Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer dropped this week and it looks like it’s going to be a wild romp through the skeletons of the Spider-Man cinematic universe’s past. Fans have appearances from Toby Macguire and Andrew Garfield in addition to Tom Holland. But what’s the use of three Spidermen without large enough threats to their combined powers? Pitting them against just one villain would make for a quick fight scene in which they are pounded into the pavement, and the rest of the runtime is taken up by our three heroes swinging around a very safe city. In my day-to-day life, I am as peaceful as they come, but a movie as boring as that would make me want to jump through the screen to commit an act dangerous enough to give those web slingers a run for their money.
But don’t worry! This film is set to give us six villains that the Spider-Men are going to have to take down before New York City is completely leveled. We know the first five from the trailer: there was a cloud of sand for Sandman, a lightning storm for Electro, a flash of Lizard attacking Peter, one of the Green Goblin’s bombs, and Doctor Octopus’s line “Hello, Peter.” So who is the sixth? Here’s who I’m hoping we see.
Scorpion
Logic would tell us that Scorpion (set to be played by Michael Mando, a Canadian actor of Mexican descent) will be making an appearance in the film after the events of Spider-Man: Homecoming since his human alter ego, Mac Gargan, was a character that tried to find out Spider-Man’s secret identity. At the end of the film, we see him plotting with Vulture to take down the hero. As is known from the comics, he’s just one botched medical enhancement away from his Scorpion armor being permanently melded to his body to officially take up the name. Will that happen in this film?
The Rhino
Another villain we’ve already seen a glimpse of is The Rhino at the end of Amazing Spider-Man 2. Andrew Garfield fully stepping into the role of the hero after nearly 2 movies of exposition (that was already given in the original trilogy)… Paul Giamatti standing up for a fight in his Rhino armor… throngs of observers on the sidewalk waiting to see who would win… and then the credits rolled and they never actually fought. It would be nice to get some closure on this, but a large man in a rhino suit running headfirst into walls really isn’t a danger to anyone but himself.
Kingpin
Kingpin is a tough villain that Spider-Man goes up against often. He casts a large shadow on his city because he effectively serves as the mafia don to all of the smaller criminals that our hero puts away if he has the time to make his rounds. But while he is important, the takedown of a citywide crime syndicate seems a little large for a movie with so much happening already. But who knows? There’s a chance he could be the brain behind the many limbs that are the resurrected supervillains.
Black Cat
Who doesn’t love a female villain? LOL! I’m partial to Black Cat being a part of this film because of a few simple reasons: I love glamour, I love drama, and I love opulence. A woman jewel thief is my favorite character archetype to see onscreen. She would bring nuance and depth to a film that seems like it would be relatively straightforward hero vs. villain fights. Leveraging her on-off romance with Spider-Man, maybe even helping take down a villain or two, would make her inevitable betrayal at the end all the more shocking. Imagine: after all of the effort of fighting to take down the villains of Spider-Man’s past, after the other heroes return to where they came from, Peter Parker turns to Black Cat, ready to form a partnership to protect their city. Maybe now he’ll finally be able to finish his math homework! And she’s gone. A news bulletin flashes across his TV screen: the art museum has been robbed. And then she gets her own solo film!
All of the different iterations of the Green Goblin
I know that technically, the spot can only be filled with one person or human-adjacent organic life form, but in my heart of hearts I want to see Spider-Man take on all of the different iterations of the Green Goblin, just because there are so many of them! There’s Green Goblin, the main villain that we’re expecting from the trailer. Then there’s Hobgoblin, he’s an actual goblin. Then there’s Grey Goblin, the son of the original Green Goblin. And then there’s Kindred, the Green Goblin, resurrected as a demon after making a deal with Mephistopheles the Biblical demon. Not to be confused with Demogoblin, who is just a normal demon-goblin (do you get it?) sent to the realm of the living to take down Spider-Man. And they all dress and fight the exact same way: they fly around on a glider and throw Halloween-themed explosives. It would be a repetitive film called “unnecessary” by critics, and to that I say, hasn’t Spider-Man already fought all of these other people anyways?
Who’s your pick? Which villain would you like to see Spider-Man take on next?
