I’m a huge fan of the Spider-Man franchise and have a great appreciation of Nicole Kidman’s work, so finding out she was joining the cast of Spider-Man 4: Brand New Day was exciting. The Oscar-winning actress has experience with the superhero genre, more recently as Queen Atlanna in the Aquaman movies, but it’s hard to forget her role as Dr. Chase Meridian in Batman Forever. This is a new world for her, and even better news, potentially, is that Kidman will be playing a villainous character, which, as someone who recently re-watched To Die For, I think she could nail this.
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has been through a bit in the previous three films, and his last adventure saw him facing off against foes belonging to other versions of Peter Parker. This may be a good opportunity to see a new take on a baddie that is just for him. Most people seem to be of the mind that we could see an older, less hands-on, Silver Sable, or perhaps a gender-swapped Chameleon (though my original guess was Madame Masque), but I have a few other suggestions I wouldn’t mind seeing Kidman bring to life on the big screen and square off with the Wall-Crawler.
What villain could Nicole Kidman play in Spider-Man 4: Brand New Day?
Lady Octopus
Something about seeing Alfred Molina in the last movie has me thinking Holland’s Spider-Man needs his own version of Doc Ock to work with, and bringing in a version of Carolyn Trainer might just work for Brand New Day. Sometimes she’s simply called The New Doctor Octopus, but has more recently adopted the name Lady Octopus, having shown she’s capable of standing out on her own. She was Otto’s former student and protégé in the comics, working with him, even after his supposed death.
Carolyn is quite smart in her own regard, a trait that runs in the family, so it was no surprise that she crafted herself a rig for using sleeker, tougher metal arms with more tricks built in, even utilizing force fields to protect her from Spidey’s usual web-based annoyances. What makes Trainer truly deadly is how intelligent and cunning she is, having learned from her mentor, and possibly approaching the arachnid problem with an even colder mindset.
Shathra
Explaining this character’s background can be quite difficult. Let’s just leave it at her being an insectoid goddess of Spider-Wasps; this has to do with all of the totem stuff and would probably need to be dumbed down a lot for a movie. Shathra’s end goal is to reshape the multiverse, but she’s a cosmic predator, and her more immediate concern is eating Spider-Man and feeding him to her children. She’s not a pushover either, if that whole “goddess” thing didn’t give it away.
Shathra is much stronger and more agile than Peter, has an incredibly effective healing factor, shoots stingers that paralyze her prey, and can turn into a swarm of wasps, just in case our hero needed something else to have nightmares about. Sure, she might need a background adjustment and a slight watering down for Brand New Day, but Shathra and her children could provide a very different type of threat for Spidey and his amazing friends in Spider-Man 4.
White Rabbit
This one is a little silly, probably not a main villain type, but something fun that could easily be reimagined with a more serious or even creepier approach in Brand New Day. Lorina Dodson was a bored, rich girl who decided to commit crimes for entertainment, using her favorite book, Alice in Wonderland, as a motif. Her obsession with Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece gave her a sense of style and flair, but also meant that most people didn’t take her too seriously, probably because she started off robbing book fairs. I’m guessing most of those people weren’t aware she had the older man she was forced to marry killed off and used his money to finance her supervillain startup.
She’s done a lot, dated Arcade, was a queen in the Savage Land, worked for The Hood, and even joined an all-female incarnation of the Sinister Six, known as the Sinister Syndicate, before diving deep into the New York gang wars. She has a cool look, gets around in the criminal circles, and in the right hands, could be a more high-profile character.
Stunner
This is a character that looks like someone etched the perfect woman out of stone, because she’s not real, just a projection made possible by some incredibly advanced virtual reality tech. Don’t let that fool anyone, though, she still hits like a truck, is incredibly athletic, and has heightened senses for tracking her targets. She’s a dangerous foe since her Stunner avatar can take all the damage then disappear, and the real person in control, Angelina Brancale, is safely off-site. Not sure if she has problems with lag, though.
Her motivations are usually love – for Otto Octavius in the comics – or revenge. She was an outcast. Her malleable nature and desire to be something more made her a viable candidate for the program, but this doesn’t necessarily have to be about the character’s weight or attractiveness; Spider-Man 4 could make it about her age, perhaps, or something else. I’d also be interested in seeing Angelina brought to the big screen because she’s often portrayed as a tragic character, having all this power and freedom, but unable to save her lover or execute his plans. She even ends up in a coma at one point, a victim of the technological wonder that gave her the perfect form, so there’s a ton of potential with this character.
Silvermane
Okay, this might be a wild shot, but I think Kidman would kill it as a gender-swapped Silvermane in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Instead of Silvio, she can be Silvia Manfredi, just keep the hair color. Peter is going to need some new enemies, and maybe it’s time he dealt with something that could start at street level. This mob-based boss loves his drugs and money, so our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is bound to notice these activities eventually, leading to some hired super-powered help or, more likely, a personal one-on-one throwdown.
Sure, Silvermane is just a normal guy who’s good with a gun, but he’s also an expert at making plans. He eventually acquires a tablet that allows him to become young again, with a small side effect. This character refuses to die, with their brain and organs being placed in a cybernetic husk, with other pieces being substituted until the only real part left is just their head. Everyone takes a cyborg seriously, and he’s even more lethal at that point. Since it seems Mark Ruffalo is bringing the Hulk to this one, I’d love to see him tangle with cyborg Nicole Kidman. It would also be awesome if she gets blown up at the end of Brand New Day, only to come back later with a new metal body.
