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‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ — Michael Keaton Cast As Vulture, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin Rumored To Join?

By Stephen Jordan
Published on: 03:39 PST, May 23, 2016

Spider-Man: Homecoming’s casting news has been very interesting for the last several weeks, with new additions like Zendaya, Tony Revolori, and Laura Harrier. Although the Batman actor was previously in talks in joining the film before stepping away, Michael Keaton is back in final negotiations to join Spider-Man: Homecoming, reportedly as the Vulture, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Michael Keaton in Spider-Man: Homecoming is quite a big deal for Marvel Studios/Sony, since Keaton is fresh off of two highly critically successful independent films, Birdman and Spotlight, both having earned Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and with the latter winning the award. It’s also interesting that the actor is reportedly set to return to a superhero franchise after being famous for playing Bruce Wayne/Batman in Tim Burton’s classic 1989 film.

THR tells us that Marvel and Sony made an offer the first time, and apparently it just wasn’t good enough. The two parted ways, and the studio began looking at other actors for the role and apparently came up short. They then circled back to Michael Keaton, this time with a much better offer, and it is still being suggested that Keaton will play the film’s villain, the Vulture.

Michael Keaton as the Vulture sounds like a very accurate casting choice if this is indeed the villain he is in final negotiations to play. Sam Raimi was keen on introducing this same villain back when Spider-Man 4 was still a possibility with Sony, but that project fell through. The Vulture was one of Spider-Man’s very first villains in the original comic’s, making his appearance in the second issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. Homecoming director Jon Watts has already seemingly confirmed Keaton’s participation, or at least is just having fun with his followers, on Twitter recently.

But is Vulture the only villain in Spider-Man: Homecoming? There are rumors floating around that suggest the film is going to include more than one. Like, for example, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk/Kingpin from the Netflix Daredevil series. According to Screen Geek, a source close to production has said the following.

“Marvel Studios is considering having Vincent D’Onofrio reprise his Wilson Fisk role from Daredevil in Spider-Man: Homecoming.”

If this is true, it would certainly make tons of Marvel fans elated with joy by finally introducing such a beloved character on television into their movie universe. However, because of the relationship between the Marvel movies and Marvel television shows, it’s not at all likely that Kingpin will be showing up in Spider-Man: Homecoming. For one, the character is such an incredibly dark villain who was getting away with some pretty violent and horrific things in Season 1 of Daredevil. To take that character out of that world and place him in the world of Spider-Man, with a young motormouth teenager with some very colorful superpowers, would definitely seem tonally uneven, to say the least.

Vincent D’Onofrio himself already took to Twitter and said that he hasn’t heard anything about possibly taking Wilson Fisk to the big screen. However, the actor still made it clear that if this is true, he would certainly be up for it.

The Tinkerer, another classic Spider-Man villain, is also rumored to be appearing in the film, as the man responsible for building Vulture/Adrian Toomes’ suit. The Tinkerer, whose real name is Phineas Mason, is definitely a lesser-known villain to general audiences, but it is not out of character for Marvel to pluck one of the more obscure Marvel characters/villains from the comics and put them in one of their films.

In any event, Robert Downey Jr. was recently confirmed to be appearing in the film as Iron Man/Tony Stark.

Spider-Man: Homecoming is currently set to be released on July 17, 2017.

[Image via Marvel]

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