Matthew Shepherd looks ahead with a selection of potential villains for Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in Spider-Man 5…
Spider-Man: Brand New Day has fundamentally reset Peter Parker’s world. Operating without the safety net of Tony Stark’s technology, without his identity, and without the people who once anchored him, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is in the most interesting position he has ever been in. The question for Spider-Man 5 is simple: who do you put in front of a Peter Parker who has nothing left to lose? Here are ten villains who would make that question worth answering…
Kingpin (Wilson Fisk)
First appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man #50 (1967), Wilson Fisk has become the MCU’s most credible street-level threat across Daredevil and Echo. A lonely, neighbourhood-bound Peter Parker crossing paths with a man who owns half of New York and can’t be touched legally is a more interesting collision than any multiversal showdown. Peter can’t punch his way out of this one. That’s the point.
The Black Cat (Felicia Hardy)
Created by Marv Wolfman and Keith Pollard in The Amazing Spider-Man #194 (1979), Felicia Hardy is the most overdue introduction in the MCU’s Spider-Man corner. With MJ out of Peter’s life, Black Cat offers something different — a character who operates in moral grey areas Peter doesn’t allow himself to visit. She doesn’t want to destroy the world. She just wants to rob it, and she’d like company. That tension between her code and his would carry an entire film on its own.
Hobgoblin (Roderick Kingsley)
Going back to an Osborn after No Way Home would be a mistake. Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin is one of the best villain performances in superhero film history and retreading that ground serves nobody. Roderick Kingsley, who first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #238 (1983), is the smarter play — a cold, calculating fashion mogul who finds Osborn’s old gear and monetises it without any of the madness. Same hardware, completely different threat. The corporate angle gives Spider-Man 5 a distinctly modern edge.
Mister Negative (Martin Li)
Martin Li originated in The Amazing Spider-Man #546 (2008) but most audiences now know him from Insomniac’s PlayStation games, which makes him more accessible than he would have been a decade ago. The dramatic hook writes itself: Aunt May spent her final years working at F.E.A.S.T., the shelter Li runs as his public face, while running a criminal empire as Mister Negative. Watching Peter try to bring down a man who genuinely honoured his aunt’s work is the kind of conflict the MCU rarely attempts. It should.
Venom (The MCU Symbiote)
Tom Hardy’s Sony run is finished, but No Way Home left a fragment of the symbiote in the main MCU timeline. The black suit saga — which began in The Secret Wars #8 (1984) — is one of the few major Spider-Man stories Holland’s version hasn’t touched. The right approach isn’t to rush Eddie Brock into the picture. Let the symbiote work on Peter directly, feeding on the isolation and grief that now defines him. Holland has not yet had the chance to play a genuinely dark version of this character. The symbiote is the vehicle for that.
Chameleon (Dmitri Smerdyakov)
Spider-Man’s very first comic book villain, from The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (1963), has never received a proper film adaptation. That is a strange oversight. Dmitri Smerdyakov can become anyone — appearance, voice, mannerisms — and in a story where Peter’s secret identity is the only thing protecting what little he has left, a villain who can dismantle that from the inside is genuinely frightening. A Chameleon-led film is a paranoia thriller disguised as a superhero movie. That’s a more interesting genre shift than most MCU sequels attempt.
Morlun
Created by J. Michael Straczynski in The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2 #30 (2001), Morlun is an immortal multidimensional predator who hunts individuals with animalistic totem powers. He is not a villain with a plan or an ideology — he is a force of nature that views Spider-Man as prey. A film built around Morlun would strip away the procedural elements entirely and become something closer to a survival horror film. Peter would not outwit him. He would have to outlast him. That’s a premise the franchise hasn’t tried.
Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Kravinoff)
Sony’s standalone Kraven film didn’t do the character justice, which means the MCU has room to do it properly. The source material — specifically Kraven’s Last Hunt (1987) — is one of the best Spider-Man stories ever written, and the core concept is simple enough to translate directly. Kraven views Spider-Man as the ultimate trophy. Setting that pursuit loose across New York strips away the multiverse machinery entirely and delivers something grounded, brutal, and personal. The franchise needs that occasionally.
Hammerhead
If Spider-Man 5 commits to a post-Kingpin gang war for control of Manhattan, Hammerhead is essential. Debuting in The Amazing Spider-Man #113 (1972), this old-school mobster has a surgically implanted vibranium-alloy skull and a Prohibition-era aesthetic that would sit interestingly against the modern New York the MCU has built. He’s not the main villain. He’s the complication that makes the main villain’s story harder to resolve. Used correctly, he’s one of the best supporting antagonists the franchise could deploy.
Prowler (Aaron Davis)
Donald Glover appeared briefly as Aaron Davis in Spider-Man: Homecoming, name-dropping his nephew Miles Morales and then disappearing entirely. Bringing Davis back as the fully realised Prowler closes that loop while opening a much larger one. Peter chasing down the Prowler — a high-tech thief operating in the same streets — and realising a new generation is rising around him is the most narratively efficient way to begin a Miles Morales transition without rushing it. It earns the handover rather than announcing it.
The strongest single choice for Spider-Man 5 is Kingpin. He’s already established in the MCU, he’s a threat Peter cannot resolve through force alone, and a street-level power struggle is precisely the register this version of the character needs right now. The symbiote arc is the obvious follow-up for a sixth film. Everything else on this list fills the space in between.
Which villain do you think fits best for Spider-Man 5? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Matthew Shepherd
