Where You've Seen Lonnie Lincoln From Spider-Noir Before

We're getting a double dose of Tombstone this year. After Lonnie Lincoln's origin story unfolded in the 1st season of animated series "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man," it was announced that he'd be one of the main villains in this summer's "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" — which follows hot on the heels of "Spider-Noir." However, this 1930s-set series offers a far different take on the classic comic book villain than we'll see elsewhere, with showrunner Oren Uziel having said that the writing team aimed to find the "humanity" within a big-bad they saw as more of a "tortured soul".

For this bold revision of Tombstone, the show cast British actor Abraham Popoola, who first burst onto the scene with an award-winning stage performance in a West End production of Shakespeare's "Othello." His Lonnie Lincoln is a similarly complex, tragic figure, with the character's backstory now more grounded and relevant for a period setting still reeling from WWI and the Great Depression. 

It's the actor's biggest showcase so far, all but set to take him to the next level in his career. However, we'd be surprised if this was your first time coming across Popoola, as he has already featured in several massive franchises and acclaimed TV series.

"Spider-Noir" is actually the third Marvel project Popoola has been a part of, first appearing in "Morbius" as Ryan, the leader of a counterfeiting operation whose arm is broken by Jared Leto's antihero faster than you can say "it's Morbin' time." A year later, he appeared more prominently as the 306-year-old S.A.B.E.R agent Dag in "The Marvels," sharing scenes with Samuel L. Jackson as he works hard managing Nick Fury's intergalactic defense system.

Staying in outer space, Popoola popped up very briefly in two episodes of "Andor" season 1. He played North-1, a member of the Empire-aligned Preox-Morlana Corporate Tactical Forces who helped lead the coordinated Ambush on Ferrix to capture Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), which wound up unsuccessful as Andor escaped with Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard) in tow. Elsewhere in the Disney universe, Popoola also cropped up as a kebab shop assistant in 2021's "Cruella."

His most recent franchise role to date was as arms dealer Frank in "Ballerina," the 2025 spin-off from the "John Wick" universe. After Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas) dispatched the assassins who tracked her down to his shop, Frank helps her locate the cult base she was searching for after getting wounded in gunfire. Similarly, he shared a scene with Jennifer Lopez in the 2024 Netflix movie "Atlas," playing a disembodied AI head she tricked into revealing the villain's location.

British readers have likely seen Popoola in Channel 4's "The Curse," where he got a rare chance to flex his comic muscles as Joey Boy. This has coincided with appearances in several other Brit hits which have a far bigger audience internationally.

The first of these is Amazon Prime Video's "The Rig," a supernatural drama about a mysterious fog that envelops a North Sea oil rig off the Scottish coast which has deadly consequences; Popoola played Easter Ayodeji, a kind-hearted crane worker. In the most recent season of "Slow Horses," the actor portrayed Tyson Bowman, the Chief of Staff to the long-suffering Mayor of London (Nick Mohammed), whose bid for re-election was facing several major blows.

Before becoming a complex villain, Popoola got to play a superhero in the cancelled two-season Hulu sitcom "Extraordinary." Set in a world where everybody gains superpowers after their 18th birthday, Popoola had a supporting role as Ade, who had the ability to walk through walls –- better than other recurring characters, who possessed powers such as having a butt that could 3D print, or a shapeshifter who got stuck as a cat lovingly named "j**z-lord."

That series was cancelled in early 2025, after the 1st season of "Spider-Noir" had almost completed filming. With showrunner Uziel already teasing possibilities for a "Spider-Noir" Season 2, the door is open for the actor to return if the show gets renewed.