Ever since Jamie Foxx was first revealed to be returning as The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s Electro in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, almost everyone to have been involved in a web-slinging blockbuster over the last two decades have found themselves linked with a cameo appearance. One of the notable absentees that was rarely if ever named among the potential candidates, though, was Paul Giamatti’s Aleksei Systevich, better known by his supervillain alias Rhino.
Marc Webb’s sequel refitted the character as a guy in a suit of high-powered armor as opposed to the ridiculously jacked dude in a literal rhino costume he’d been in the comic books, and in a seriously misleading bit of marketing, the majority of the trailers for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 closed by teasing a battle between the hero and villain, even though it was actually the very last scene of the movie.
Rhino was clearly being positioned for bigger and better things in the third and fourth installments that had already been given release dates before The Amazing Spider-Man 2 premiered, not to mention the planned Sinister Six spinoff, but unfortunately we never saw more of him. That may soon change, however, as a new rumor claims that Giamatti will be back in No Way Home, presumably hailing from the same timeline as Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker and the aforementioned Electro.
The actor’s scenery-devouring performance proved to be divisive, and while another cameo might not fix that, there are no guarantees he’ll even show up in Spider-Man: No Way Home. After all, even if you exclude Garfield and Tobey Maguire from the conversation, then two Green Goblins, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, Mysterio, Vulture, Venom, Morbius, Scarlet Witch, Daredevil, Deadpool and Tony Stark have all been previously been rumored for an appearance. We’d be shocked if everyone on that exhaustive list ends up stopping by this December, but at least a couple of them will.
