New Evidence Suggests SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY Will Feature A Samurai Villain - Will We See The Hand?

New Evidence Suggests SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY Will Feature A Samurai Villain - Will We See The Hand?

We've been hearing chatter about Spider-Man: Brand New Day featuring Japanese or Japanese-inspired villains for a while, and the movie's costume prop modeller appears to have confirmed that on Pinterest.

By JoshWilding - Aug 06, 2025 05:08 AM EST

Back in May, it was reported that Spider-Man: Brand New Day would feature two Japanese villains (or, at the very least, two characters wearing outfits inspired by Samurai). Mister Negative is Chinese, not Japanese, meaning fans were left puzzled. 

Later, there were reports of Silver Samurai and Viper appearing in the movie. That didn't make a ton of sense as neither are typically Spider-Man villains; instead, they're closely connected to the X-Men and, more specifically, Wolverine. 

However, if we're getting a gang war story with multiple street-level bad guys, they could appear in a small supporting role, with the stage set for them to return in future MCU projects. 

While we wait and see what happens with that, costume prop modeller Monica Avitto was discovered by fans (it's since been taken down) and includes a page titled "Spiderman" with dozens of Japanese and Samurai costumes, masks, and items. 

Plans change all the time, of course, and these characters may have been dropped from the script long ago. Venom: Let There Be Carnage villain Knull looked to be a likely choice of villain for a time, only for Marvel Studios to pivot to characters like The Punisher, The Hulk, and Scorpion instead. 

There's been speculation that Spider-Man: Brand New Day might feature Spider Queen, a villain with ties to the Spider-Island storyline. She could be reimagined as a Japanese character, but what if we see The Hand, instead? 

The original iteration of Marvel Television majorly dropped the ball on that group on Netflix, so this movie putting a fresh spin on them ahead of this group of ninjas playing a much bigger role in Daredevil: Born Again season 3 does make sense. The Punisher also has ties to The Hand, though we'll be talking more about that later today. 

Check out some of Avitto's Spider-Man: Brand New Day inspiration in the X post below. 

Spider-Man: Brand New Day shares a title with a controversial era of storytelling, which, thanks to a deal with Mephisto, saw the wall-crawler get a fresh start when his marriage to Mary Jane Watson ended and his identity became secret again. He faced many new sinister foes during that time and was surrounded by an overhauled supporting cast, including a resurrected Harry Osborn.

Mister Negative, Jackpot, Menace, and Carlie Cooper were some of the standout additions to his world, though they don't currently look set to appear in the movie. Instead, all signs point to Spidey teaming up with (and likely fighting) The Punisher to take on a Savage Hulk, with The Scorpion thrown in for good measure. 

We recently published a feature about how the "Brand New Day" comics will influence the next Spider-Man movie, along with a breakdown of every villain rumoured to appear. 

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings helmer Destin Daniel Cretton directs Spider-Man: Brand New Day from a script by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. Tom Holland leads a cast that also includes Jon Bernthal, Mark Ruffalo, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Michael Mando, and Liza Colón-Zayas.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be released in theaters on July 31, 2026.

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Urubrodi
Urubrodi - 8/6/2025, 5:18 AM
Full on Samurai attire only brings Silver Samurai to mind, but it wouldn't make sense in a Spider-Man movie, he has no shortage of villains.

Mr Negative does use a sword often though: User Comment Image

As for The Hand unless Daredevil and Kingpin are also involved it would be weird having them in the movie. Plus, they are ninjas not samurai.
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 8/6/2025, 7:08 AM
@Urubrodi - There is other samurai characters than the silver one and includes an American one from DD comics so if considering more obscure characters with small rolls that Punisher and/or Spider-man fight with...

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/American_Samurai_(Earth-616)

...Likely won't get him, certainly not as is with teleportation powers and any plans for introducing a samurai character may have been bounced around and dropped prior to finalising the script they started filming with (which would still be subject to further changes).

Netflix is canon and Colleen Wing has samurai connections and NYC based so may simply be a scene at Columbia University that features armor related to her Dad's oriental studies ultimately as a nod to her (can't recall if Prof Lee Wing was mentioned in the series, even if dead however an Easter Egg nod to him could be shown), who has gone by the alias Lady Samurai.

There's also the F4 villain Samurai destroyer, unlikely one, the Xmen character Scarlet Samurai (Mariko Yashida) who fell in love with Wolverine whilst visiting him in NYC (again unlikely, esp as she was used in a Wolverine film if memory serves) a Cpt Britain corps alt timeline Samurai, Iron Man villain Samurai Steel, a Samurai who was a member of the mutant liberation front connected to Stryfe among a few other example such as a team of seven robot Samurai built by Tony Stark on Earth 9997.

Or you know they could just happen across Hawkeye's larpers of summut as throwaway as that, lol. I would kinda put my money on a throwaway nameless goon included at some point in Asian armor for a single scene and wanted to have more comic booky feel by being costumed rather than dude in a hoodie types, lol
Urubrodi
Urubrodi - 8/6/2025, 7:29 AM
@Apophis71 - Appreciate the info, some of these I personally never head of. But then we start digging way too deep into obscurity when Spider-Man has the best rogues galery in Marvel comics and they still have a lot to explore. Most of the ones you mentioned are not even Spider-Man specific. So unless they are throwing in some samurai for some quick fighting montages, I don't see the point. Or like you said they could be part of the main villain's henchmen (if for instance they decide to turn Mr Negative Japanese).
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 8/6/2025, 8:15 AM
@Urubrodi - Yeh I figure it is most likely a throwaway inclusion for a single fight scene, there is a list of characters that the MCU drafted they have zero intention of ever adapting free for any to use in non source accurate ways. With a DD connection in NWH and Punisher there in this one using a loose take on American Samurai from the DD IP list is possible or as you say if they opt to switch Mr Negative to from Japan not China for whatever reason (which could be as simple as wanting an actor from Japan for the role or keeping anything China related for Shang-Chi).

I mean Spider-man's rogue gallery is indeed rich but then your into dealing with what Sony are willing to allow Disney to use and the best of those villains you'd tend to want as a major characters not throwaway ones.

FYI, this is the almost full list of IP's Sony owns rights to
https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fcomicbookinvest.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F10%2FSchedule-6.docx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK
Although some of those are more complex/shared such as Apocalypse and others they own such a Kingpin aren't on the list as dealt with individualy to address the complex nature and exemptions specific to those ones.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 8/6/2025, 8:17 AM
@Urubrodi - The Hand, Punisher, Daredevil and Kingpin? We are not so lucky to be so blessed.
Urubrodi
Urubrodi - 8/6/2025, 8:43 AM
@ObserverIO - Yeah... this is my dream movie right there (plus Black Cat as the romantic interest). But Sony/Disney seem to be afraid of printing money. Hope their version is still good though.
ProfessorWhy
ProfessorWhy - 8/6/2025, 5:20 AM
Would be sick if we got an opening scene with DD and Spider-man vs the hand as a way of bringing Castle into the plot
dragon316
dragon316 - 8/6/2025, 7:30 AM
@ProfessorWhy - what plot it’s goood vs bad all time goood wins bad want try kill hero or rule world goood wins it’s in every comic movie tv show except for Wanda vision
Martianhunter
Martianhunter - 8/6/2025, 6:05 AM
Prepare for Mr Negative to be Japanese

Also enough time for Marvel to introduce in some ultimate version or something. So people can reference that comic when it happens.
Martianhunter
Martianhunter - 8/6/2025, 6:42 AM
Predicted this yesterday
User Comment Image
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 8/6/2025, 7:19 AM
@Martianhunter - I seriously doubt Marvel are gonna worry too much about China one way or another after they tried to force them to edit the frack out of NWH including removing a scene as it showed the American flag. That country is increasingly limiting American releases and/or forcing their own edited version and overall isn't bringing in a lot anymore for the studio with ticket sales which they only got a tiny cut of anyway (max from China for a US studio is a 25% cut).

IOW if they make Mr Negative from Japan rather than China I'd put my money into the reason being wanting samurai swords and looks for aesthetic reasons, not for pandering ones, or as a way to connect up to a return of The Hand and loosely connect him to that group and leave all things China related for Shang-Chi.
Martianhunter
Martianhunter - 8/6/2025, 11:06 AM
@Apophis71 - Sony is distributor of these Spiderman movies and China has been largest region in terms of box-office specially if you add their Venom series. First 2 movies had 13% and 18% of box-office from China, second only to US and Canada combined. Factor in Venom series then China has been it's main market. So there is no way they won't look for China.
Also it's not like Disney is exception, they have playacted to China before. We are talking about corporation here.
User Comment Image
https://cosmicbook.news/disney-hypocrisy-makes-little-mermaid-white-for-china-poster
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 8/6/2025, 1:32 PM
@Martianhunter - Oh they certainly placated China in the past but been a string of MCU films where they have had little to nothing compared to what they used to from China thus do not think they pay much attention with regard to creative choices any more, I could be wrong but when the BO relatiionship got so bad they were demanding the removal of the US flag from movies and a number of their films completely banned....
dragon316
dragon316 - 8/6/2025, 7:31 AM
Better not be silver samurai
AllsGood
AllsGood - 8/6/2025, 7:48 AM
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xHollywoodx
xHollywoodx - 8/6/2025, 7:53 AM
This movie better be 3 hours long.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 8/6/2025, 8:22 AM
@xHollywoodx - it should be as long as the filmmakers want it to be.

I have a feeling a lot of these rumors are bogus but we’ll see…

There’s a lot of shooting shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.
FinnishDude
FinnishDude - 8/6/2025, 11:27 AM
@xHollywoodx - Why?
Repian
Repian - 8/6/2025, 8:25 AM
Is that the possible inspiration for the Scorpion costume?
User Comment Image
GenD
GenD - 8/6/2025, 8:32 AM
Mildly excited now. Was not getting jazzed about Boomerang.
skyshark03191
skyshark03191 - 8/6/2025, 3:14 PM
@GenD - not like he was a main villain.
WhatIfRickJames
WhatIfRickJames - 8/6/2025, 8:58 AM
Modified mood board…? Please don’t, I’m eating.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 8/6/2025, 9:31 AM
Honestly , I got nothing here…

Unless they are doing Mr Negative but having him be Japanese then Chinese in this version (which would be weird & unnecessary) or doing a take on Silver Samurai where he is a crime boss part of this apparent gang war plot that’s speculated about , I don’t see how this would fit in with Spider-Man tbh.

User Comment Image

User Comment Image

I’m stumped.
Matador
Matador - 8/6/2025, 9:33 AM
This movie is starting to taste like a grilled stuffed burrito.

User Comment Image
bobevanz
bobevanz - 8/6/2025, 9:44 AM
Another day, another Spider-Man rumor
Clintthahamster
Clintthahamster - 8/6/2025, 10:30 AM
Fun fact: The hand are ninja, not samurai.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 8/6/2025, 10:32 AM
@Clintthahamster - yep , it’s why I didn’t take that seriously lol
YonnyLayna
YonnyLayna - 8/6/2025, 10:47 AM
Hattori Hanzo was both ninja and samurai,
ThorArms
ThorArms - 8/6/2025, 11:05 AM
Not using Mr. Negative with Cretton directing would be such a huge missed opportunity
BlackStar25
BlackStar25 - 8/6/2025, 1:48 PM
I'm soooooo in on Mr. Negative....that if it isn't....I won't know what to do with myself.

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