matt damon

According to Meet the Movie Press, Matt Damon was quietly being pursued to play the villain in the sequel to ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ but it appears that he has passed.  This is a double of whammy, as it was amazingly (no pun intended) kept completely hush-hush that the star was even in the running for this role, so the news that he has decided not to take it makes this good news and bad news balled into one.

Michael Keaton and Michael Chernus in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming)

It’s unknown which Marvel villain will menace Tom Holland‘s wall-crawler in the sequel.  Even though ‘Homecoming’ was a fresh start for the brand, Sony and Marvel Studios chose to use a fresh villain that had never appeared in one of the previous ‘Spider-Man’ series.  Michael Keaton played the menacing Adrian Toomes, the Vulture.  ‘Homecoming’ also introduced, in smaller parts, the Prowler (Donald Glover), the Shocker (Logan Marshall-Green, then Bokeem Woodbine), the Tinkerer (Michael Chernus) and the Scorpion (Michael Mando).  The Scorpion will reportedly appear in the ‘Silver & Black’ spinoff movie, but A. That remains just a rumor and B. It would certainly help both the character and ‘Silver & Black’ if the villain was set up in an earlier ‘Spidey’ movie first.  But since those four roles were already cast, obviously Damon would not have been up for one of those characters.

There are still a few bigger name Spidey foes that could be brought to the big screen for the first time, including The Chameleon (another character rumored to appear in ‘Silver & Black’), Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter.  Previous cinematic Spider-foes include Green Goblin/Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe in ‘Spider-Man’), Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina, ‘Spider-Man 2’), Hobgoblin/Harry Osborn (James Franco, ‘Spider-Man 1-3’), Sandman (Thomas Hayden Church) and Venom (Topher Grace, ‘Spider-Man 3’), The Lizard (Rhys Ifans, ‘Amazing Spider-Man’), and Electro (Jamie Foxx), The Rhino (Paul Giamatti) and Hobgoblin/Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan, ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2).

The sequel to ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ is one of only two Marvel Cinematic Universe movies that has a post-‘Avengers 4’ release date– July 5, 2019.  Jon Watts is returning to direct and so far only Holland, Jacob Battalon and Zendaya are confirmed to reprise their roles from the first movie.  The sequel doesn’t have a name yet, but the word “Homecoming” is not expected to appear in the title.

Check back for details as they emerge.