Sony Pictures' greater Spider-Verse franchise has a third main supervillain set to take the spotlight in live-action. While the MCU is pushing forward with its own Spider-Man story, Sony remains active in the superhero movie world with multiple universes centered on web-slingers. This will continue later this year in a project that will introduce a new popular comic character to rival some of Spider-Man's major antagonists.
Sony Pictures Television, via an Esquire piece, confirmed that its first Spider-Verse episodic series, Spider-Noir, will "focus on a gangland boss known as Silvermane," a character played by Brendan Gleeson, before stating that Silvermane will act as "the big bad" of the eight-episode first season.
More recently, Sony's marketing team unveiled the first look at Gleeson's supervillain via CCXP Mexico collectible badges (which also displayed clear looks at Spider Noir's Electro, Sandman, and more). Silvermane can be seen sitting in a wheelchair, wearing a fancy three-piece suit with a serious mobster look on his face, in front of Cat Hardy aka Marvel's new Black Cat:
Becoming one of over half a dozen stars confirmed for this series, this will be Gleeson's first time appearing in a Marvel project. The Irish star previously played a supporting role in 2024's Joker: Folie à Deux for DC Studios and Warner Bros.
In the comics, Silvermane (also known as Silvio Manfredi) is a professional criminal from Sicily, Italy, who begins his career as a racketeer in the Maggia. Known for his almost fully white hairstyle, he forms his own crime family and becomes a powerful Don in the Maggia, fighting characters like Daredevil, Nick Fury, and even the Green Goblin during his run.
With his place as the primary antagonist in Spider-Noir, Silvermane now becomes the third main villain from a Spider-Verse-centric project under Sony Pictures' watch. The first of these villains was Liev Schreiber's Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, who came after Miles Morales and the rest of the Spider-Men in 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and almost ended the world with his collider.
Five years later, 2023's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse introduced fans to The Spot, also known as Dr. Jonathon Ohnn. After working at Alchemex, the collider experiment forever changed Ohnn, as his body turned into a void-like entity and he gained the ability to travel across dimensions and cause mass mayhem anywhere he wanted.
Other Major Villains in Sony's Spider-Verse Legacy
While Kingpin, The Spot, and Silvermane are the cream of the crop in terms of villains for Sony's Spider-Verse franchise, this saga is littered with some of the biggest villains in Spider-Man's history.
Alongside Kingpin, Into the Spider-Verse featured antagonists like Scorpion, the Green Goblin, Tombstone, and the Prowler (who delivered one of the film's most emotional moments with his death). Leading the way was Kathryn Hahn's Dr. Olivia Octavius, who became a massive thorn in the Spider-gang's side by coming after Miles and Peter B. Parker while working to get the collider going again.
Across the Spider-Verse added more major names to the villain list, which kicked off with the Vulture and a Peter-Parker-based Lizard before moving to Jason Schwartzman's The Spot. The Spider Society had plenty of its own antagonists behind Oscar Isaac's terrifying take on Miguel O'Hara, with Jessica Drew and the Scarlet Spider backing up his efforts to hunt down Miles Morales.
Meanwhile, Sandman and Electro will be reintroduced and reinvented for Spider-Noir alongside Gleeson's Silvermane. Rumors also noted the inclusion of Molten Man and Vulture, setting Nic Cage's hero up for plenty of action in this period piece centered on one of Spider-Man's more wild iterations.
On July 31, Spider-Man: Brand New Day will also go heavy on the villain front, led by Michael Mando's Scorpion and also including Tombstone, Savage Hulk, and even possibly The Hand from Marvel's Netflix shows. Safe to say, with so much new web-slinger content on the way, countless antagonists from his rogues' gallery are sure to be heavily featured on TV and in movies.
Spider-Noir will be Sony Pictures' newest addition to its long-standing Spider-Man legacy, which comes after the end of Sony's Spider-Man Universe in 2024. Starring Nicolas Cage, Li Jun Li, Lamorne Morris, Brendan Gleeson, and Jack Huston, this 1930s-set series will highlight private detective Ben Reilly as he fights the criminal underworld in New York City, including Gleeson's Silvermane. All episodes of Spider-Noir premiere on Amazon Prime Video on May 27.
Richard Nebens joined The Direct in March 2020, now serving as the site's Senior Writer and also working as an assistant editor and content creator. He started his journalism career as a hobby in 2019 and is passionate about sharing news and stories from the entertainment industry, especially comic book movies, comedy, and sci-fi. Richard looks to expand his knowledge about movies and TV every day, and he is eager to stay locked into the latest releases and breaking news at every opportunity.
