And the villains just keep on coming.
Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 – not its actual title – is set to feature a number of antagonists for Tom Holland’s wall-crawler to face. According to reports, Jake Gyllenhaal’s in talks to play Mysterio, while Michael Keaton is reprising his role as Adrian Toomes AKA Vulture. If a new rumor that’s been shared on Reddit is to be believed, though, we might now know of a third villain who’ll play a part in the movie.
The difference is that this one will be much closer to Peter Parker’s age. According to the Reddit post, Flash Thompson will be replaced as the biggest thorn in the titular hero’s side by Alistair Smythe, a “manipulative technology prodigy” who joins Midtown School for Science of Technology and sets about turning everyone against Spidey.
“Peter develops a rivalry with a new student, Alistair Smythe, a technology prodigy who is determined to upstage him. Smythe is “manipulative” and tries to turn Peter’s friends against him. His father, Spencer Smythe, works for Stark Industries.”
Both Alistair and Spencer Smythe are names that will jump out to Marvel comic book readers, as they’re the evil scientists who created the Spider-Slayer robots that were intended to kill Spider-Man. Alistair is the more prominent of the two as he later augments himself into the Ultimate Spider-Slayer, and fans might remember him from the 1990s Spider-Man: The Animated Series in which he was a stooge of the Kingpin.
Obviously, it’s best not to put too much stock in this story right now, but we have to say, it does sound pretty plausible. The filmmakers have said how they’re keen to bring fresh villains to the screen and, as the description above suggests, the Smythes could be easily written into Peter’s life. Maybe Spencer could even factor into a version of the Sinister Six?
Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 is set to swing into cinemas on July 5th, 2019.