Brand New Day Footage Gives Best Look Yet at Fan-Favorite Spider-Man Villain
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is shaping up to be one of the most crowded in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, packing a single film with more allies and adversaries than any previous solo outing for Peter Parker (Tom Holland). Marketing has understandably prioritized the biggest names first, spotlighting Peter’s evolving mutation, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) as a rampaging Hulk, and Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) returning as The Punisher, while also building anticipation for the long-teased return of Mac Gargan (Michael Mando) as Scorpion. At the same time, Sadie Sink’s still-unconfirmed role continues to dominate online speculation, and William Metzger (Tramell Tillman), head of the Department of Damage Control, has emerged as a potential threat that will shape the future of the X-Men. With so many storylines competing for screen time in the trailers, one hulking Spider-Man villain has remained conspicuously absent from the marketing.
New footage circulating online gives fans their clearest look yet at Lonnie Lincoln, better known as Tombstone (Marvin Jones III), in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The clip shows the towering villain gripping a battered Spider-Man by the neck atop an exposed girder high above the city, an image that closely recreates the cover of The Spectacular Spider-Man #142, in which Tombstone holds a defeated wall-crawler on a construction beam. Jones III appears in comic-accurate form, complete with chalk white skin, filed teeth, and an imposing muscular frame, towering over a noticeably smaller Holland in the shot.
Will Tombstone Have a Big Role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
Brand New Day is introducing an unusually large number of antagonists, and not every character will receive equal focus. The mysterious body-swapping villain teased throughout the marketing appears to be the film’s central threat, with trailer footage suggesting this figure can exert some form of control over Scorpion during his fight with Spider-Man. That means the true antagonist of Brand New Day may be using established rogues as extensions of a larger scheme. That same structure could plausibly extend to the Hulk’s rampage, given how the trailer still hasn’t explained how and why Bruce Banner transforms into the Hulk. Minor rogues like Ramrod, Tarantula, and Boomerang remain the most likely candidates for brief montage appearances, following the same pattern The Fantastic Four: First Steps used to establish the First Family’s heroic adventures — which the new Spider-Man movie must also do, considering it has a four-year jump from the last one.
Tombstone’s comic book pedigree suggests Marvel and Sony have bigger plans for the character than a passing cameo. Created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Alex Saviuk, Lonnie Lincoln first appeared in 1988’s Web of Spider-Man #36 as a hulking crime boss whose superhuman strength and near-indestructible skin made him one of Spider-Man’s most punishing adversaries. Jones III previously voiced the character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, giving his live-action debut in Brand New Day added significance for longtime fans of the animated franchise. Given that level of comic accuracy, reducing Tombstone to a single montage beat would waste both the casting and the character’s decades of history.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is scheduled to be released in theaters on July 31, 2026.
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