The end of Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: Far From Home delivers one hell of a surprise for fans of the titular wall-crawler. Though the main movie has what is really a very happy conclusion, the mid-credits sequence introduces all kinds of new and intense drama as a video of J.K. Simmons’ J. Jonah Jameson is broadcast in the middle of New York City and reveals that Spider-Man’s secret identity is Peter Parker. It’s not only an awesome cliffhanger setting up the Tom Holland-starring and still untitled Spider-Man 3, but gets our brains racing imagining the villain or villains that may populate the blockbuster.
As of right now we know very little about the next Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man movie, but given expectations of fallout from the Spider-Man: Far From Home mid-credits scene, and the hero’s long history battling a variety of villains in the pages of Marvel Comics, we can conjure many potential ideas that the film could explore. Here is a list of seven excellent antagonists we’d love to see Tom Holland face off against in his next MCU adventure.
Kraven The Hunter
At the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, not only is Spider-Man’s real identity revealed, but he is also made Public Enemy #1. Thanks to some manipulated recordings created and edited by Quentin Beck a.k.a. Mysterio, Spidey finds himself labeled as a terrorist responsible for the drone attack in London. This likely means that the authorities are going to spare no expense trying to capture web head, and that could mean hiring some outside help. Enter Kraven The Hunter.
Kraven The Hunter a.k.a. Sergei Kravinoff has been around pretty much since the beginning of Spider-Man's existence, having been introduced in August 1964's The Amazing Spider-Man #15. He is known for being the greatest big game hunter in the world and always looking for a new challenge – and he winds up setting his sights on Spider-Man because he believes that taking the superhero down will cement his legacy. For Spider-Man 3 they might have to update the character a little bit to be more 21st century, but the original motives of the villain would suit the blockbuster’s setup perfectly. It’s not entirely clear if he will be available to use in the Marvel Cinematic Universe because other stuff Sony is cooking up, but he is definitely a top choice.
J. Jonah Jameson
There are obviously many reasons why the Spider-Man: Far From Home mid-credits scene is exciting, but ranking high on that list is the fact that it features the return of J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson. The actor’s incarnation of the character in Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy is universally beloved, and so it’s rather amazing that instead of trying to recast the part the Marvel Cinematic Universe simply brought Simmons back. It’s amazing all by itself, but one could argue that the next best step they could make would be to have J. Jonah Jameson be the central villain of the untitled Spider-Man 3.
We’ve seen movies with J. Jonah Jameson as a minor antagonist who basically exists as a thorn in Spider-Man’s side, but the Spider-Man: Far From Home sequel could easily take things up a notch by making him the primary villain. Right now he’s broadcasting information that is extremely dangerous for the hero, but the film could find him taking his hatred of Spider-Man to a whole new level and actually funding projects in pursuit of capturing/killing the masked vigilante. There is definitely precedent of this in the comics, and that brings us to our next potential big bad:
Scorpion
In December 1964's The Amazing Spider-Man #19, J. Jonah Jameson hires a private investigator named Mac Gargan to trail Peter Parker and find out how he gets such great photos of Spider-Man – and when that effort fails, he funds an experiment that is meant to endow Gargan with the abilities of one of the spider’s most lethal natural predators. This is the origin story for Scorpion, one of Spidey’s most deadly foes, and it would be amazing to see it incorporated into the next MCU Spider-Man movie.
One of the benefits of this approach is that it involves using puzzle pieces that are already in play. Not only has J.K. Simmons’ J. Jonah Jameson already been established, but we already met the MCU version of Mac Gargan in Spider-Man: Homecoming, played by Michael Mando. Given that both characters already hate the friendly neighborhood superhero, their pairing could serve as the villain plot in Spider-Man 3. And even if the movie doesn’t wind up wanting to use Jameson in such a major way, Mac Gargan could still go through his transformation in other ways in the blockbuster and still be the movie’s central antagonist.
Spider Slayers/The Ultimate Spider-Slayer
Alistair Smythe almost got his time to shine in the Amazing Spider-Man movies, as he was portrayed by B.J. Novak in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to presumably set up a larger role in the future… but that future never came to pass. As a result, the character and his army of Spider Slayer robots have not yet had their chance to hunt Spider-Man on the big screen… but perhaps that’s something that could change with the developing Spider-Man 3.
This is actually another character with ties to J. Jonah Jameson, as in the comics it was the media magnate who originally hired Alistair's father, Spencer Smythe, to build the Spider Slayers – but he wound up dying from radiation poisoning from materials in his work. Alistair then picked up where his dad left off, fueled by his own hatred of Spider-Man, and he not only successfully advanced the robots, but took the pursuit further by building a bio-organic suit and becoming the Ultimate Spider-Slayer. In Spider-Man 3, Alistair could attempt similar pursuits thinking that he is working in the best interest of the public by trying to kill Tom Holland’s protagonist, but we as an audience know that he is being misled.
Doppelganger
At the start of Spider-Man 3, Spider-Man will presumably be a global fugitive as a result of the terrorism accusations, but you know what would make matters even worse? If there was some kind of monster roaming around that happened to look almost exactly like Spider-Man, but behaved like a feral animal. Not only would Spidey have to try and prove his own innocence in light of the Mysterio video, but also try and capture his Doppelganger so that he can’t be framed for even more incidents of violence.
The comic book history of Doppelganger isn't super applicable, as he was created in 1992 as part of the event series Infinity War, which found the super villain Magus using monstrous versions of Earth's superheroes to obtain the Infinity Gauntlet – and that’s definitely not going to play out in any way in Spider-Man 3. That being said, not only would including Doppelganger in the film create the conflict mentioned above, but Spidey would also need to uncover the mystery of who created the creature and why.
Chameleon
From Green Goblin, to Doctor Octopus, to Vulture, Spider-Man has had the opportunity to face off with the majority of his classic enemies on the big screen over the years, but what’s kind of funny is that he has yet to actually encounter the villain from The Amazing Spider-Man #1: Chameleon. Despite being the first supervillain that the web-slinger ever faced, and possessing some awesome and cinematic abilities, the character has never been brought to life in live-action before. So why not do it in Spider-Man 3?
One of the joys of Chameleon as an antagonist is the fact that that he can be slotted into pretty much any plot, and his mere introduction immediately generates a special tension. As his name indicates, the character is a master of disguise and a brilliant impressionist, meaning that he can transform himself into anybody as a means of getting closer to a target. This would be particularly thrilling to utilize in Spider-Man 3, as the hero is going to be in a position where he has no idea who he can trust – and that’s a situation made much worse by not even knowing if a person he trusts is actually who they say they are.
What do you think of these ideas for villains in Spider-Man 3? Who do you think would work well given the characters who we’ve already seen on the big screen, and who would fit well into the established setup? Hit the comments section with your thoughts, and stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for all of the latest news and updates about the developing Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster.
