5 Characters We DON’T Want to See in ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’

Now that we’ve gotten our first look at Spider-Man: No Way Home, fans can’t help but speculate which characters will be returning from the older films. We already know that Alfred Molina is returning as Doc Ock, JK Simmons is returning as J. Jonah Jameson and Jamie Foxx is returning as Electro. While it’s fun to speculate who they could put in the movie, there are some characters who have no business reprising their roles.

For this article, we’re going to focus on the characters we don’t want to see return for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

1. Dane Deehan’s Green Goblin

What a disaster Amazing Spider-Man 2. Honestly, Jamie Foxx’s electro would be on this list if it wasn’t already confirmed that he’s returning. However, even worse than Foxx was Dane Deehan’s Green Goblin. Deehan is a solid actor but he’s just terrible in this role. He’s not menacing at all and pails in comparison to Willem Dafoe’s iconic performance. There was a tease of Green Goblin in the trailer so we can only hope it’s Dafoe returning and not Deehan.

2. Rhys Ifans’ Lizard

For as bad as Amazing Spider-Man 2 is, the first film is even worse. This reboot happened way too fast after the Sam Raimi movies and I just can’t stand them. Lizard was such a weak villain that I can barely remember him. I know he had the generic plot of wanting to release a gas that turned everybody into lizard people. So stupid. There’s absolutely no reason for him to return unless Sony is just trying to pack the film with every Spider-Man villain ever. Some fans are speculating that Lizard was teased in the trailer. We can only hope there’s no truth to that.

3. Topher Grace’s Venom

As much as I love the Raimi Spider-Man movies, they aren’t without their faults. I actually don’t hate Spider-Man 3 as much as most do. It’s pure Raimi schlock and there are a lot of fun parts. However, the worst part of the film is Topher Grace as Venom. He’s completely miscast and the role is just embarrassing. As many of you know, legend has it that Raimi cast Grace on purpose as a middle finger to the studio as he didn’t want to use Venom in the third film. It was actually supposed to be Jon Malkovich as Vulture. Alas, we’ll never see Raimi’s true vision and should not be reminded about the studio’s screw-up by bringing back Topher Grace.

4. Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy

Emma Stone is obviously a good actor but we don’t need to see her back as Gwen Stacy. She was just forgettable in the role and she died at the end of the second film. It’s possible Andrew Garfield makes a cameo. Perhaps that would open the door for Stone to pop up but it seems unnecessary. I just don’t want to relive the memories of seeing those Amazing Spider-Man films.

5. Paul Giamatti’s Rhino

Paul Giamatti’s Rhino is probably the most embarrassing villain performance in a comic book movie since Batman & Robin. It’s baffling that it made the cut in Amazing Spider-Man 2. He’s a great actor but his hammy performance and hilarious Russian accent is almost unbelievable. The Rhino is a hammy character but you don’t cast Giamatti in the role and give him a bunch of bad fake tattoos. It’s hard to imagine he’d even want to return to the role if Sony offered it to him.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is going to be filled to the brim with cameos. We can only hope that Sony picked which ones they like wisely as this movie can quickly become a mess. Basically, stick to being nostalgic for the Raimi-Maguire Spider-Man and completely ignore the Garfield Spider-Man.