7 Characters We Hope Will Appear In ‘Spider-Man 4’
There’s nothing quite like the agony of waiting for a new movie to arrive – most especially when said film is as highly anticipated as Marvel’s fourth Spider-Man.
Following in the footsteps of its immediate predecessor No Way Home, the MCU’s latest Spider-Man film promises to be as action-packed and all-around entertaining as its previous chapter, marking yet another exciting outing for Tom Holland’s fun-loving webslinger.
While details about the upcoming film have remained incredibly scarce thus far, there are a few characters audiences are enthusiastically hoping might appear in the newest Spider-Man epic. From longtime Marvel foes to quippy allies from the Multiverse, here are seven characters we’d absolutely love to see in Spider-Man 4.
Scorpion
A dependably entertaining enemy from Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery of villains, Mac Gargan actually appears in a small role in the MCU’s first Spidey-centric outing, Spider-Man: Homecoming. Played by the wholly underrated Michael Mando, this iteration of Gargan is established as a dangerous gangster receiving regular illegal weapons shipments from Michael Keaton’s arms dealer, Adrian Toomes. Having received a relatively meager amount of screentime in Homecoming, we’re holding out hope that Scorpion receives a much more meaty role in a future Spider-Man film, even if that means seeing him as a supporting villain in the fourth MCU-backed Spider-Man movie.
Daredevil
Having made his official entrance into the larger MCU with Spider-Man: No Way Home, fans might be wondering whether they can expect to see Charlie Fox’s attorney-by-day, crimefighter-by-night Daredevil in the fourth Spider-Man film. With Cox reprising his role in She-Hulk, Echo, and Daredevil: Born Again, a full-fledged team-up between Spider-Man and Daredevil would indeed be a dream come true for most Marvel fans. Heck, at the very least, we’ll take another cameo appearance from Matt Murdock similar to his outing in No Way Home.
Kingpin
Like Charlie Cox’s aforementioned superhero, Daredevil’s foremost archenemy, Kingpin, has since stepped foot into the mainline MCU with his recent appearances in Hawkeye and Echo. A recurring villain to both Daredevil and Spider-Man in Marvel’s original comics, if the MCU ever needed a reason to thrust the two NY-based heroes together, look no further than the larger-than-life silhouette of Vincent D’Onofrio’s hulking Wilson Fisk. A ruthless gangster who’s never afraid to get his two elephant-sized hands dirty, Kingpin could make for a fascinating main or supporting antagonist in a fourth Spider-Man film, similar to his adversarial role in Into the Spider-Verse previously.
Doctor Strange
As with Tony Stark in Homecoming and Nick Fury in Far From Home, Benedict Cumberbatch’s dry-witted Doctor Strange took on a central role in Spider-Man: No Way Home. While Marvel has scarcely repeated themselves when it comes to returning appearances within a Spider-Man film, Doctor Strange could feasibly figure into the plot of Spider-Man 4 in some capacity. After all, it was Strange’s spell that erased Spider-Man’s existence from everyone’s memory. Wouldn’t it be fair to assume Strange’s magic could help restore certain people’s memories of Spider-Man, even if those people were limited to M.J. and Ned alone?
Deadpool
Who doesn’t love the Merc with the Mouth? The resident bad boy of the otherwise family-friendly MCU, Ryan Reynolds’ foul-mouthed anti-hero officially joined the cinematic universe with 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine. With audiences wondering about the endless possibilities regarding Deadpool’s interactions with mainstay Marvel characters like Thor or Hulk, there’s a very real possibility viewers will one day see an encounter between Holland’s Spider-Man and the immoral Wade Wilson. Personally speaking, we just hope that encounter comes sooner rather than later.
Gwen Stacy
Peter may have promised to return to M.J.’s life at the end of No Way Home, but it’s also worth wondering whether he could potentially meet someone new in a fourth Spider-Man film. Someone, for example, like Peter’s first recurring love interest from the original comics: the platinum-haired Gwen Stacy. A fan-favorite character previously played by Bryce Dallas Howard in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy and Emma Stone in The Amazing Spider-Man, viewers have long held out hope of one day seeing Gwen Stacy make her canonical debut in the MCU. As Peter continues to grieve the death of Aunt May and the effective loss of M.J., Spidey’s next film seems like a golden opportunity to introduce Peter’s iconic girlfriend to the big screen.
The Symbiote
As the post-credit scene in Spider-Man: No Way Home makes clear, interdimensional threats beyond Peter’s understanding are still very much present in his world. Having been successfully pulled into his own reality, Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock nevertheless leaves behind a small strand of the Symbiote on Earth-616 in the closing moments of No Way Home. While this might hint at a future version of Venom within the MCU, it also seems likely fans are closer than ever to witnessing a black-suited version of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in the immediate future. With Holland’s Peter Parker pushed to the mental breaking point by the Green Goblin in No Way Home, it’ll be certainly interesting to see what effects the Symbiote might have on Peter’s personality, especially given his fragile emotional state at the very end of the previous film.
