Who are Spider-Man's Brand New Day villains? We solved the mystery.

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Published Mar 18, 2026, 11:17 AM EDT

The first Spider-Man 4 trailer confirms a few villains and hints at more

The last Spider-Man movie involved three versions of Peter Parker uniting to fight villains from across different film series. The resolution of the multiversal threat wiped everyone’s memories of Spider-Man’s secret identity, providing the hero with the chance for a fresh start in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. But the first trailer shows that he’ll be facing just as many bad guys, mixing returning threats with mysterious hidden foes. Let’s break down everyone Tom Holland’s webslinger might be battling in the new film.

Scorpion

Image: Sony Pictures

The most obvious villain in the trailer is Mac Gargan/Scorpion (Michael Mando). Mac bought Chitauri technology from Adrian Toomes/Vulture (Michael Keaton) in Spider-Man: Homecoming and was captured by Spider-Man on the Staten Island Ferry and sent to jail. At the end of the film, Scorpion tries to get Vulture’s help killing Spider-Man, but Vulture declines. The trailer for Brand New Day reveals that Scorpion is no longer in prison, but he also doesn’t seem to still be plotting revenge. Instead, he encourages Spider-Man to stay out of his way.

The Hand or the Ten Rings?

In the trailer, Spider-Man faces a group of ninja wearing red costumes and wielding a wide variety of weaponry. The fight takes place in a prison, which could be when Scorpion escapes. This is likely the Hand, the criminal organization that were a recurring threat in the Marvel Cinematic Universe shows on Netflix given that the Spider-Man movies have been crossing over with this continuity. Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) makes an appearance in No Way Home and Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) clashes with Spider-Man in the Brand New Day trailer.

But the trailer could also be revealing a different organization of martial artists. Brand New Day is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, who also directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The 2021 movie ended with Shang-Chi’s sister, Xialing (Meng'er Zhang) taking over the Ten Rings and making it gender inclusive. That scene still hasn’t been paid off, so this could be Cretton’s chance to connect his MCU films. It’s also possible we’ll see both the Ten Rings and the Hand locked in some sort of power struggle.

Tombstone

Reddit rumors suggest that the ninja prison break might have been coordinatedt by the super strong and nearly invulnerable crime boss Lonnie Lincoln/Tombstone. Krondon voiced Tombstone in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and is confirmed to play the character in live action in Brand New Day. Using a minor villain to cause chaos and distract Peter would certainly make a lot of sense for Tombstone as he tries to exert control over New York.

An Unseen Threat

Image: Sony Pictures

The trailer references “a danger that we can’t control, one we can’t even see” and shows what seems to be some sort of psychic entity jumping between bodies. Stranger Things star Sadie Sink’s casting in an unspecified role has led to plenty of speculation that she’s playing Marvel’s most famous redhead, the psychic mutant Jean Gray. Another possibility is Mister Negative, a gangster with mind control powers who appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man 2008 storyline “Brand New Day.” Not just the name is familiar: that arc also involves Spider-Man getting back to basics after the events of the One More Day story arc, where Mephisto made it so that everyone would forget Spider-Man’s identity.

Other villains

Brand New Day will also include the minor Spider-Man villains Boomerang and Tarantula, though it seems likely their role will be relegated to a montage showing what Peter’s been up to since Far From Home. Otherwise this movie is going to be very crowded.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into movie theaters on July 31.

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