Spider-Man has no shortage of enemies. After more than two decades of big-screen adventures, though, finding someone Peter Parker hasn’t already faced is becoming a challenge of its own.
For Spider-Man: Brand New Day, director Destin Daniel Cretton and his team went deep into the web-slinger’s rogues’ gallery, bringing back familiar faces while introducing a handful of villains who have never had their live-action moment before.
“We’ve been through quite a journey of villains,” executive producer David Cain says in a new behind-the-scenes look at the film, shared exclusively with Rolling Stone AU/NZ.
Producer Rachel O’Connor adds, “There’s been so many Spider-Man movies, so many villains have been done really well. In this movie, who’s the right person to be the foil for what Peter’s going through?”
The answer, it turns out, wasn’t just one. Brand New Day throws a constant stream of adversaries at Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, offering a glimpse at the villains Peter has been taking down during the four years leading into the film. Alongside Scorpion and Tombstone are Ramrod, Tarantula, Boomerang and The Hand – a collection that reaches into some very different corners of Spider-Man and Marvel history.
“We wanted to get a snapshot of all the villains that Peter Parker was taking down during these four years,” Cretton explains.
“It’s just like a constant barrage,” the film’s star, Tom Holland, jokingly adds.
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Among the most significant is the return of Michael Mando as Mac Gargan, almost a decade after the character first appeared in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. This time around, audiences finally get to see him fully embrace his comic-book alter ego, Scorpion.
“He’s this formidable, iconic supervillain that we come to know as Scorpion,” Mando says.
Returning to the character meant going back to the comics, with Mando digging into Scorpion’s long history while also developing a distinctive physicality for this incarnation. “In a beautiful universe like Marvel, you read all the comic books you can, and there’s so much written,” he says. “Characters can go in so many different directions.”
Mando also worked extensively on how Scorpion moves, incorporating lateral movements inspired by the animal itself and finding inventive ways to turn the villain’s most recognisable weapon – his tail – against Spider-Man. “It was a lot of fun,” Mando continues. “It’s like being a child again, you know. It’s just the best.”
Then there’s Tombstone. The formidable Spider-Man adversary makes his live-action debut in Brand New Day, played by Marvin Jones III – an especially fitting piece of casting given Jones previously voiced Lonnie Lincoln in 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
“This is the first time that the world is seeing Tombstone realised in live action,” Jones says. “I was overwhelmingly blessed to voice Tombstone in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Here I am, now playing a live-action version of Tombstone.”
Jones had already spent years with the character before stepping onto the Brand New Day set, but embodying him physically required a different level of preparation. “Definitely doing my homework on him for years now,” he says. “Understanding the world that he comes from and really make sure that all the different, particular humanity and the particular villainous ways of Lonnie Lincoln, that I present that in the best way possible.”
Together, the villains speak to the broader direction Cretton and his team took with Brand New Day. Rather than simply chasing bigger super-powered threats, the film brings Spider-Man closer to the streets of New York – and adjusts his enemies accordingly.
“We pay homage to lots of villains,” Cain says.
Co-producer Emily Fong adds, “We want a more grounded Spider-Man in our film. We also want more grounded villains.”
Holland says that changing the people Spider-Man fights – and the places he fights them – became part of finding something new after so many trips through Peter Parker’s world. “Spider-Man, in dedicating his life to cleaning up the streets of New York, changing who he’s fighting, where he’s fighting, is how we’ve made this movie unique.”
Check out the full behind-the-scenes video below.
