Spider-Man: No Way Home Concept Art Reveals An MCU Villain's Costume We Never Saw
"Spider-Man: No Way Home" brought together some of the most memorable villains from multiple generations of the hero's live-action films. However, one villain was originally supposed to appear in the third installment of the Tom Holland-starring Spider-Man trilogy but ultimately did not. The Vulture (Michael Keaton) was part of the film's criminal group early on, and now some concept art shows what the high-flying villain could have looked like.
On his Instagram, Josh Nizzi (@JoshNizzi.art), who has worked on films such as "Transformers: Age of Extinction," "Avengers: Endgame," and "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," shared his updated take on Keaton's Vulture. The iconic Marvel villain sports more weapons than he did in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" while maintaining an overall similar style to the one seen in the character's debut. "Very early exploration I did of what Vulture might look like returning in No Way Home," Izzi wrote, "with more traditional weapons integrated."
Instagram commenters were impressed with the concept art. User @andrewkimart responded, "That's flat out beautiful Josh!" Meanwhile, the design reminded @easytoreadnames about the missed opportunity in not bringing the Sinister Six to the big screen, stating, "It's kinda sad how close they got to doing the full 6 but not doing it."
Michael Keaton's Vulture did appear again - in another movie
Josh Nizzi's design never made it into "Spider-Man: No Way Home," as Michael Keaton's Vulture didn't appear in the film. Instead, a roster of villains, including Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), and Electro (Jamie Foxx), played key roles in the multiversal story. However, despite Keaton's Vulture not showing up as originally intended, it didn't spell the end for the character.
In the live-action film "Morbius," starring Jared Leto, there is a post-credit scene featuring Adrian Toomes and the titular character. In the encounter, it's revealed that Toomes has somehow been transported to Morbius' universe. In his full-on, weaponized ensemble, Toomes meets with Leto's vampiric character and tells him he's been reading about him. Vulture reveals he isn't sure how he got to the alternate universe, but he theorizes that his arrival has to do with Spider-Man before suggesting the pair start a team. Morbius responds by admitting that he's intrigued by a potential partnership, with the scene hinting at the early beginnings of a new Sinister Six.
Given the commercial and critical failure of "Morbius" and Sony's unsuccessful attempts at building a franchise around Spider-Man villains without the web-slinger (see "Madame Web"), it seems unlikely the conversation will lead to anything meaningful. However, considering Keaton's popularity, it might be a mistake to completely abandon the Vulture as a character, as there's still plenty of bandwidth to include him as a foe in future movies — and even use Nizzi's updated costume concept art at some point.