Donald Glover will star in a new Spider-Man film about a villain you've never heard of

Spider-Man attacks the Hypno-Hustler
(Image credit: Marvel)

Donald Glover is finally joining a Spider-Man movie by way of a new film about the Hypno-Hustler.

Glover is set to produce and star in a new film set in Sony Pictures' Spider-Man universe, as Deadline reports. There are no details on the story or format of the film, but it's easy to imagine something similar to previous features like Venom and Morbius. Myles Murphy, the son of comedian Eddie Murphy, is set to handle the screenplay.

Hypno-Hustler might just be the weirdest Spider-Man villain to get his own movie. I'm no comic historian, but I spent a lot of my teens reading Spider-Man mags, and I absolutely could not have identified Hypno-Hustler before today.

Hypno-Hustler first appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man #24 back in 1978, a creation of Bill Mantlo and Frank Springer. He was the lead singer of a disco group called the Mercy Killers, and used hypnosis-powered musical equipment to commit crime. He didn't make many more appearances as a proper villain in the years since, though he's become infamous enough to occasionally show up for cameos and Easter eggs even in modern comics.

According to Deadline's sources, Glover was attracted to the film because of "the musical aspect of the character and the fact that he has less Marvel cannon baggage, freeing him to greater interpretations".

If you were fan casting Donald Glover as Miles Morales, please understand the havoc that the monkey's paw you've invoked is now wreaking on the timeline.

Check out our full guide to upcoming Marvel movies and shows - you never know when the Hypno-Hustler might cross into the MCU.

Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.