Author: Charles Murphy

Filming is underway on Spider-Man: Brand New Day and after years of rumors and reports about the film’s plot, it’s become clear that Marvel and Sony are setting the fourth installment in the Spidey franchise on the streets. Don’t be fooled though; despite stepping back from the Multiverse, the film is jam-packed with Marvel heroes and villains.

Tom Holland will be sharing the screen with Mark Ruffalo‘s Hulk and Jon Bernthal‘s Punisher. Nearly a decade after his last appearance in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Michael Mando will return as Mac Gargan and will likely be looking to settle a score with the Web-Slinger but he’s not the only baddie set to face off with Spider-Man as Tombstone, Boomerang and Tarantula are among the other street-level tough guys reported to be in the film. That’s a loaded roster and that’s not everyone as Sadie Sink‘s role remains a mystery and there are a few more rumored roles yet to be confirmed, leaving fans to wonder just what kind of crazy story Destin Daniel Cretton is planning to tell…but as is almost always the case with Marvel Studios’ films, it’s probably a relatively straightforward plot.

Though Marvel Studios is attempting to make it’s shared cinematic universe feel a little less connected, it’s likely that Spider-Man: Brand New Day will share at least a little DNA with a pair of 2026 Marvel Television projects: Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again and The Punisher Special Presentation. For those worried about “homework”, there’s probably not much concern and the connectivity can probably be addressed in a line or two of dialogue. Wilson Fisk’s tyrannical rule has ended, the criminal underworld is open for business and Frank Castle is out to punish the scum of New York City. This opens the door for Tombstone, Tarantula, Boomerang and a host of other D-listers to pop up in the film. It even provides an opportunity for Cretton to do one of the coolest things in any Marvel Studios film to date by including The Bar With No Name: a secret supervillain venue where the baddies can bond over booze. However, as fun as Spidey quipping while beating up bad guys is, it is not two hours worth of fun and it totally disregards one of the absolute best rumors about the film: the Savage Hulk.

After news broke of Ruffalo‘s “substantial role” in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, rumors began to swirl that Hulk was set to be the “villain” of the film. Chris Higashi, an entertainment journalist who claimed that Boomerang, Scorpion and Tombstone were revealed as part of Spider-Man: Brand New Day at the recent Disney Blockbuster Consumer Products presentation, added that “the main villain” of Brand New Day would be “the Savage Hulk.” From there, speculation ran wild as people pieces together bits of various rumors and the internet became convinced that Martin Li, the villain known as Mister Negative, would be responsible for Banner’s transformation from Smart Hulk to Savage Hulk. But, there’s just one problem…

Even as photos from the Glasgow set seemingly teased the presence of the Inner Demons, Li’s Tong of masked goons, in the film, there’s never been any solid report the Mister Negative is in the film and recent rumblings have leaned toward the character not making an appearance. So how does the Hulk become Savage? I’d like to propose a far more tantalizing option: a Venomized Hulk.

It doesn’t truly require a Hulk-sized leap to get to a Banner who has become a host for Venom, especially when a fragment of the symbiote already resides on Earth-616 and Spider-Man: Brand New Day features one of Marvel Comics’ most brutal hosts of the Klyntar in Gargan.

With the symbiote fragment residing in Mexico and Banner’s Gamma Lab also there, it would be easy enough for two to meet; however, there’s no guarantee that Venom simply bonding with Banner would drive a transformation to the Savage Hulk. But given the significant psychological impact hosts can leave on the symbiote, having Venom bond with Gargan first and absorbing his hatred of Spidey before bonding with Banner might be enough to bring the beast out.

With nothing but Michael Mando’s tease to go on, here’s one way it could possibly play out:

After being chased through New York City by The Punisher, Gargan (hopefully in full Scorpion gear) and Castle’s business is interrupted by Spidey. Whether because Spidey and Punisher throw down or some other reason, Gargan is able to escape the city. While regrouping in Mexico, Gargan heads out for a drink and finds himself at the same bar where Tom Hardy‘s Eddie Brock learned the history of the MCU from Cristo Fernández‘s bartender and ultimately encounters the fragment of the symbiote.

Embracing the power provided by bonding with the symbiote, Gargan heads back to NYC for Round 2. While he’d certainly have the upper hand, I’d expect Spidey and/or Castle to discover how heat or high-frequency sonics adversely affect Venom and separate the symbiote from Gargan. And with an angry little alien to study and no Tony Stark to study it, Peter turns to the next smartest man he knows and heads to Banner’s Gamma Lab.

While studying the symbiote, it bonds with Hulk, turning him “savage” and fueling him with Gargan ‘s hatred for the Wall-Crawler and back, perhaps, to NYC for an absolutely insane big battle goes the Venomized Hulk.

This would, of course, set Holland’s Spidey up to become Venom’s host just in time for the events of Avengers: Secret Wars, allowing the character to sport the iconic black symbiote suit in the film that shares the name of the book where it made its first appearance. Perhaps it’s all too convenient and the real plot of Spider-Man: Brand New Day will go in an entirely different and symbiote-free direction but you can’t say this wouldn’t make for a whole hell of a lot of fun at the movie theater!