Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the first Spider-Man movie without one of the web-slinger's villains front and centre. The Scorpion and The Hand appear, but Peter Parker finds himself dealing primarily with a vengeful Jean Grey.
Early on, there were rumblings that the movie might feature a shape-shifting villain, who was likely female. Now, Spider-Man: Brand New Day writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers have confirmed that they originally intended to use classic Spidey villain, The Chameleon.
The brother of Kraven the Hunter, Dmitri Smerdyakov has been causing problems for Peter since Amazing Spider-Man #1. Talking to Jeff Goldsmith, McKenna explained why they ultimately had to pivot from the twisted master of disguise.
"We came up with metamorphosis, and everyone was very excited about that idea. Then, we were trying to come up with a villain. That is very important. We had mind control, but we hadn't settled on what villain that would be. We loved the idea. In the early days, we were talking about Die Hard with a Vengeance. 'Can we just do a Spider-Man story that was set in ground-level New York, where you had a mysterious bomber?' A villain that was basically toying with Spider-Man."
"Erik and I were trying to think of a villain that would fit that bill, and we were thinking, 'God, what's a classic Spider-Man villain no one has really done yet in the films?' Well, Chameleon, but how do you do that? They've done Skrulls; they're not going to do masks. How do we do that? And then we hit upon the idea of mind control, and what if Chameleon was using mind control? But then they had already used Dmitri in Kraven, so it was like, 'Agh, you can't do Chameleon.'"
"That's what got us on the path of mind control, and then [that] eventually led to us getting the perfect character for that role, Jean Grey."
So, that's another strike against the critically panned Kraven the Hunter movie released in 2024. Based on what McKenna is saying here, their take on Dmitri would have been vastly different from the comics, with mind control instead of his ability to look like anyone he wanted.
There's something of a crossover there, but Jean's introduction ultimately made a bigger impact, particularly with Sadie Sink next set to reprise the role in Marvel Studios' X-Men reboot.
Elsewhere in the interview, the writers debunked reports that Anne Hathaway was being lined up to play the Leper Queen, but acknowledged that it's possible the villain was discussed during the early writing stages. They also confirm that scenes with Peter being stalked by spiders were left on the cutting room floor due to pacing issues.
In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it's a Brand New Day for Peter Parker. Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn’t remember him—and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him—sparks a change in Peter he may not have the power to control.
But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves - a powerful villain no one can even see. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker, but he hasn’t forgotten them.
In our review, we concluded by saying, "Spider-Man: Brand New Day is everything fans could want. Emotional, hilarious, and heartfelt, it’s an action-packed love letter to the comics and one of Spidey’s best big-screen adventures. Spider-Man has never been more amazing."
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now playing in theaters.