Spider-Noir has revealed its first original villain, who comes with devastating fiery powers. The upcoming MGM+ and Prime Video series is a live-action spin-off of Sony's Spider-Verse films, starring Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly/Spider-Noir, the character he voices in the animated movies. While set in an alternate universe, Spider-Noir still has ties to many Marvel characters, but the series also isn't afraid to introduce a few of its own.
One such new character is a villain named James "Jimmy" Addison (played by Jack Mikesell), who has been briefly sighted in Spider-Noir's trailers and the latest villains featurette. The character is shown to be able to summon and wield flames.
For a while, many fans theorized that this character would turn out to be the Marvel villain Molten Man, who could turn his body into molten flames. Spider-Noir already has an array of villains with comic book counterparts, so linking Jimmy to Molten Man seemed to make sense. However, an interview with Spider-Noir showrunner Oren Uziel via IGN has confirmed this may not be the case.
Uziel revealed that Jimmy is the only Spider-Noir villain "that doesn't really have a direct comp" from Marvel comics and that while there's "plenty of Marvel characters we could pull from," they chose not to:
"[Jimmy] is the only one that doesn't really have a direct comp [from the comics]. There are plenty of Marvel characters that we could pull from that would satisfy that, but I wouldn't want to, for lack of a better term, burn any for future use.”
This confirms Jimmy as Spider-Noir's first true original villain. Others like Silvermane, Sandman, and Tombstone all have direct comic book counterparts, but Jimmy will be a fresh take on a villain for the upcoming Spider-Man TV series.
While the villains in Spider-Noir will mostly be familiar, they've all been reimagined as befits this 1930s noir-heavy New York, so they won't be straight one-to-one adaptations.
This mirrors the shifts in this universe's Spider-Man, aka The Spider, who is a grizzled private investigator rather than a teenager from Queens. Uziel added that even those who are noteworthy in Marvel comics "are going to be familiar but different" in Spider-Noir:
"[He's] different from the comics in the way I think all of these characters are going to be familiar but different. We're in a world now where you can take the best parts of these characters and the characterizations that have come through Marvel and make them your own."
Fans will have to tune into Spider-Noir on May 27 (or early on May 25) to find out exactly what Jimmy Addison will bring to the table. The character will appear alongside other notable villains like Brendan Gleeson as Silvermane, Jack Huston as Sandman, Abraham Popoola as Tombstone, and Li Jun Li as Cat Hardy.
Jimmy Addison Brings the Heat in Spider-Noir
The inclusion of Jimmy Addison in Spider-Noir adds an extra layer of unpredictability to the already unique Spider-Man show. Without a comic book counterpart, it's not entirely clear how Jimmy's role will play out or what exactly he's capable of.
The character also didn't receive a specific spotlight in Spider-Noir's latest villains featurette, so his true motivations and the full extent of his character are still unclear. However, one thing that does stand out in the new featurette, which may tie into Jimmy's inclusion, is the mention of Silvermane's mansion burning down.
Lamorne Morris' Daily Bugle reporter, Robbie Robertson, is seen telling Ben Reilly that "someone burned down [Silvermane's] mansion a couple of nights ago."
"Silvermane. In charge of organized crime for 30 years. Someone burned down his mansion a couple of nights ago..."
Of course, the fault could lie with any of the mobsters included in Spider-Noir's roster, but the specific action of burning down seems like a direct link to a person with inferno powers like Addison. If this is the case, Jimmy would be at the forefront of the gang war in Spider-Noir, putting himself in the crossfire of the king of crime, Silverman.
