As Prime Video’s Nicolas Cage-led Spider-Noir spin-off series swings its way towards its release in May, the streamer has dropped a look at the live-action versions of its four major antagonists, which include Silvermane, Sandman, Tombstone, and even a lesser-known Marvel villain, Megawatt.
Unveiled via a first-look trailer from IGN, these villains have been thematically redesigned from their original comic book look to fit the show’s grittier aesthetic, with Brendan Gleeson (28 Days Later), Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire), Abraham Popoola (From the World of John Wick: Ballerina), and Andrew Lewis Caldwell (The Matrix Resurrections), taking on the role of Silvermane, Sandman, Tombstone, and Megawatt, respectively.
Making the series’ main villain, Gleeson’s Silvermane is a crime boss who runs the Alcove Club, and is described as “psychopathic, but also a little bit smarter than your average narcissist.” In the comics, Silvermane was an Italian mobster (Gleeson’s version is Irish) who was obsessed with extending his life, even going so far as to eventually turn himself into a cyborg, a plotline which the Spider-Noir series presumably won’t follow owing to its more grounded nature.
Huston’s Sandman is portrayed here as a loyal employee of Silvermane, whose powers are slowly killing him. He is also a war veteran and a close friend of Popoola’s Tombstone, who will be a completely different live-action take on the iconic Spidey villain, compared to Marvin Jones III, who is set to play the villain in Sony’s upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Popoola’s Tombstone will not be albino, a decision described by co-showrunner Oren Uziel as necessary due to the black and white aesthetic of Spider-Noir, with the character now featuring distinct facial markings.
Finally, there’s Caldwell’s Megawatt, which many initially thought would be the show’s rendition of the admittedly more popular electric-based Marvel villain, Electro. Megawatt, aka Dirk Leydon, is an extremely obscure villain who first made his comic book appearance in 1993’s Spider-Man Unlimited #2, and was a former Australian convict turned actor turned supervillain. Spider-Noir’s version has quite a different take, with the version seen in Spider-Noir being a failed Broadway actor who is dedicated to “getting his moment at all costs”. His powers, on the other hand, seem largely the same, with Megawatt able to absorb large amounts of electricity and shoot them out in bursts, with the trailer teasing the character using a lightbulb attached to a wire as a sort of electric whip.
It would be interesting to see how Spider-Noir handles its notably different takes on Marvel villains, both iconic and obscure, with the trailer having a more grounded feel compared to the studio’s usual flashy affair. Whether this new approach would vibe well with fans remains to be seen, as the show inches closer to its Prime Video release on 27 May 2026.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
