Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Villain Is an MCU First After 18 Years

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The upcoming movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, will significantly change things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A key difference is that, after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home which opened up the multiverse, nobody knows who Peter Parker is anymore. This means Spider-Man will be starting fresh, dealing with new challenges and enemies like the Punisher, the Hulk, Scorpion, the Department of Damage Control, and a mysterious character played by Sadie Sink, all while trying to balance his life as a loner.

Compared to No Way Home, the new Brand New Day storyline will focus on more personal, local issues for Spider-Man. He’s no longer working with the Avengers, and Doctor Strange has closed the door on multiverse adventures. Many Spider-Man fans have wanted this return to a smaller scale, and Brand New Day is giving them exactly that. Interestingly, despite this focus, the new story still ties into one of Spider-Man’s most famous multiverse adventures.

Brand New Day Is The First Time An Animated Cast Member Has Continued Their Performance In The MCU

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is introducing a ton of new Marvel villains to the MCU, but one of the most notable is Tombstone. The superhumanly strong street-level villain is one of the most powerful criminals in New York City, with him often running in the same circles as characters like Kingpin and Hammerhead. Tombstone is one of the most significant Spider-Man villains who hasn’t yet been adapted to a live-action movie. However, he has been getting a lot more love from the franchise lately. Tombstone appeared in Prime Video’s Spider-Noir series, but even that isn’t his most notable appearance in recent years.

Tombstone’s first theatrically released feature film appearance was in the critically acclaimed 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Tombstone wasn’t a major villain in the film, but he was a supporting antagonist, working with characters like Scorpion in service of Kingpin’s multiversal plan. In the film, Tombstone was voiced by Marvin Jones III, also known as Krondon. Like Tombstone, the actor also has albinism, making him a fantastic choice for the beloved villain.

Interestingly, Into the Spider-Verse won’t be Jones’ last time portraying Tombstone. The actor will make his live-action debut as the character in Brand New Day, meaning that the MCU is carrying him over from the animated film. This is the first time that the MCU has brought back a voice actor to portray their animated character in live action. Jones’ albinism makes him an ideal choice for bringing Tombstone to life in live action, and many fans of Into the Spider-Verse are excited to see him return in the upcoming film.

Although Jones is playing both iterations of Tombstone, these versions are different characters. Miles Morales’ universe in Into the Spider-Verse is entirely different from the mainline MCU. However, the same actor portraying variants of the same character has occurred before in the MCU, such as with Jonathan Majors’ portrayals of the various Kangs.

Tombstone’s MCU Casting Brings The Franchise One Step Closer To Acknowledging The Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse firmly connected itself to other Spider-Man movies and projects. The film confirms that it exists in the same multiverse as projects like Venom, The Amazing Spider-Man, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man, PlayStation’s Spider-Man games, and the MCU’s Spider-Man. In fact, Donald Glover even reprises his role as Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s Aaron Davis in Across the Spider-Verse, with him being trapped in the Spider-Society’s multiversal prison.

So, while the Spider-Verse films have acknowledged the MCU, the reverse hasn’t happened. No MCU movie has connected itself to the Spider-Verse films, even though many of the stories in recent years focus on the multiverse. While it may be hard to make an animated Spider-Verse character appear in Avengers: Doomsday, it wouldn’t be hard for a multiversal character to reference the Spider-Society, glitching, Spot, or any of the series’ other elements.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t fully explored the idea of actors playing different versions of the same character, but casting an actor from Spider-Verse in Brand New Day is the closest they’ve come. This casting choice might be hinting at a future connection between the two franchises, and could even reference the actor’s previous work. While it doesn’t confirm a crossover, it suggests the MCU is drawing inspiration from the Spider-Verse films.

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2026-06-11 17:10