A Spider-Man: Brand New Day designer has debunked one of its biggest villain rumors
Twitter user @WilliamD1123 – who appears to be assistant prop modeller William Osborne – responded to a fan enquiring about the devil symbols seen on tanks during filming of one action sequence.
At the time, it sparked intense debate over whether villain Mister Negative, perhaps best known to fans of Insomniac's Spider-Man Games, would rock up to face the webhead in New York.
Unfortunately for those hoping for at least a slight tease of what's to come down the line, its origins were surprisingly low-key and circumstantial.
"I can explain! The production designer requested some symbols to go on the tank, including a ‘devil’," the designer wrote on Twitter. "My colleague added the devil symbol to the tank, as well as a panther (I think)."
They cryptically added: "But that’s not the only time you see that devil symbol in the film…"
That's the only nod to Spider-Man's rogues' gallery hiding off-screen in a prop or two. As @WilliamD1123 pointed out elsewhere on Twitter, there are Easter eggs in the Empire State University lecture room, with one student plastering cartoonish stickers of Vulture, Green Goblin, and Mysterio on their laptop. The Spot – who has recently caused carnage in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – is also represented.
For Bruce Banner’s lecture, I had to create some stickers for some of the student’s laptops. Not sure if you can see any in the film, but I made stickers of some Spider-Man villains and a sticker of the Ultimate Spider-Man comic logo. Even if they’re not seen, I had fun pic.twitter.com/JT6QbWg5j9August 2, 2026
We did end up getting Jean Grey, so that's a fair trade. That's despite Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige being transparent about the fact that another, more obscure villain was considered before settling on Sadie Sink's mutant.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in cinemas. For more on-screen secrets, zip on over to our essential guide on Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs.
