All Spider-Man Villains In The No Way Home Trailer Explained

Spider-Man: No Way Home will feature the return of classic Spider-Man villains from previous film franchises and the No Way Home trailer revealed even more. When Peter Parker and Doctor Strange attempt to restore the secret of Spider-Man’s civilian identity, they inadvertently unleash the multiverse, bringing Spider-Man adversaries from other realities into the MCU. No Way Home is expected to be not only the culmination of Tom Holland’s MCU Spider-Man film series but also that of the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb film franchises as well, making all three worlds collide in what may be the MCU Spider-Man’s greatest battle yet. Each of the returning villains features a fascinating backstory and grudge with Spider-Man. In some cases, the villains appear different from their previous appearance, raising fascinating questions about their upcoming appearances.

Spider-Man quickly became Marvel comics’ flagship character following his 1962 debut, winning over readers with his seamless juxtaposition of the ordinary and the fantastic. There’s little separating Peter Parker from his readers, outside of his superpowers and the high-concept situations he finds himself in as a result of them. The Sam Raimi and Marc Webb Spider-Man movies are each inspired by different eras of Spider-Man’s decades of comic books. Sam Raimi’s movies were most heavily inspired by the Stan Lee and Steve Ditko era of the 1960s Silver Age, while Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man movies more closely resembled the Brian Michael Bendis Ultimate Spider-Man comics of the early 2000s. In addition to capturing the essence of Peter Parker himself, both film franchises also took full advantage of Spider-Man’s iconic villains.

Spider-Man has plenty of villains, with one of the most famous rogues’ galleries in the superhero comic genre, and deservedly so. Like Peter Parker, Spider-Man’s villains are usually characterized with comparable levels of naturalism to Spider-Man himself. Peter Parker received his outlandish powers by accident and ended up using them to help others. Villains like Max Dillon and Flint Marko stumbled upon their abilities by accident as well, but became criminals instead, and often for reasons that aren’t morally black-and-white. The Sam Raimi and Marc Webb Spider-Man films retained the complexity (and oftentimes tragedy) of Spider-Man’s adversaries, reimagining them to a degree in some cases, but retaining the core of their comic counterparts. For longtime Spider-Man fans, the return of these classic cinematic villains will provide exciting new content for the previous Spider-Man film eras. Here are all the villains in the new Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer explained.

Doctor Octopus

Dr. Otto Octavius, aka Doctor Octopus, was Spider-Man 2’s antagonist and the villain featured most prominently in No Way Home’s marketing. Played by Alfred Molina, Doctor Octopus turned to villainy after a lab accident fused four deadly robotic tentacles to his body, and his mind became altered by their advanced artificial intelligence. Once a kind and altruistic scientist, Octavius became a callous and murderous criminal who cared only for resuming his scientific research at all costs. In No Way Home, Doc Ock seems to be a potential ally to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, speaking to him without any antagonism in several moments and appearing to absorb the Iron Spider suit’s nanotech into his tentacles. Octavius may have overcome the malicious influence of the tentacles’ AI (like he did at the end of Spider-Man 2), and he might end up helping Spider-Man repair the damage he did to the multiverse with his incredible intellect.

Green Goblin

Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin (a.k.a. Norman Osborn) was Peter Parker’s arch-nemesis in 2002’s Spider-Man, capturing the essence of one of Marvel comics’ most dangerous supervillains. A crazed sadist with superhuman abilities and a vast arsenal of advanced weaponry, Norman Osborn is obsessed with Spider-Man and endeavored to dismantle the webslinger’s life piece by piece after discovering his secret identity–made even more difficult that he was the father of Harry Osborn, Peter’s best friend in that universe. Dafoe returns in No Way Home, wearing his iconic Raimi Trilogy armor and wielding his deadly pumpkin bombs and razor bats once more. Given his dialogue in the second No Way Home trailer, Osborn will likely try to break Spider-Man’s spirit once again, playing twisted head games with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker and perhaps attacking his loved ones as he did to Tobey Maguire’s iteration.

Electro

As shown in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Max Dillon, the eventual Electro, was not a malicious person before he accidentally received his electrical powers. As an underappreciated and often-overlooked Oscorp employee, Dillon obsessively idolized Spider-Man after the superhero saved his life, but eventually turned on his idol and adopted the Electro moniker. Electro’s fate was ambiguous at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but he’s nevertheless shown fighting Tom Holland’s Spider-Man alongside other villains. Electro looks noticeably different in his MCU appearance, no longer a luminescent blue, but instead a normal human in a green electrician’s uniform, referencing his classic 1960s costume. Electro’s iconic mask is absent, but his electricity surges around his face in the trailer, forming a similar shape to the mask as an additional comic book reference.

Sandman

Flint Marko, the Sandman, played by Thomas Haden Church, was one of Spider-Man 3’s three antagonists. In a controversial retcon, Marko was the real killer of Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben in the Raimi trilogy, though circumstances still rendered Peter Parker responsible for the tragic events, preserving his origin story’s key character development. Marko normally takes the form of a human, turning his hands into various deadly forms with his shapeshifting abilities, but he became a sentient cloud of sand and a gigantic, monstrous, version of himself at various points in Spider-Man 3. In the No Way Home trailer, he’s only shown in the latter two forms, and given his redemption at the end of Raimi’s trilogy, it’s not yet clear why he’s apparently returned to villainy.

The Lizard

The antagonist of 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man, Dr. Curt Connors, a.k.a. the Lizard returns in No Way Home. Like Doctor Octopus, Connors was a kind-hearted scientist whose mind was altered for the worse by one of his experiments. In Connors’ case, it was a serum meant to imbue regenerative abilities. Unlike Octavius, however, Connors survived his battles with Spider-Man, returning to human form and being committed to a mental institution (which makes Doctor Strange’s comments curious). Conners will transform into the Lizard once more in No Way Home, making his return to villainy unsurprising, and he’ll retain his appearance from the 2012 movie as well.

J. Jonah Jameson

Considered by some to be one of Spider-Man’s first villains, The Daily Bugle‘s J. Jonah Jameson constantly attempts to besmirch Spider-Man, unknowingly employing the web-slinger via Peter Parker’s freelance photographer position. The Sam Raimi version of Jameson was played with perfect comic accuracy by J.K. Simmons throughout the trilogy, capturing Jameson’s comedic antics and hidden altruism. Simmons played an alternate universe version of Jameson in Spider-Man: Far From Home, with the Bugle now being reimagined as a sensationalist, conspiracy theory-peddling website in the vein of Alex Jones. The MCU iteration of Jameson will return in Spider-Man: No Way Home, with Simmons’ iconic character exposing Spider-Man’s secret identity to the world and setting the film’s plot in motion.

About The Author

David Miller
(625 Articles Published)

David Miller is a staff writer for Screen Rant, indie comic writer, and life-long lover of all things Star Wars, Marvel, and DC. He was born and raised in New York and has a degree in English from Rider University. He relates to Peter Parker maybe a little too much.

More From David Miller