Hey guys, Quint here. We've been getting email after email demanding why we're not covering this huge revelation recently regarding SPIDER-MAN 3 and the villains old webhead will have to deal with. Well, there are a couple reasons...
Originally, about 4 weeks ago, the rumor was started saying the main villain in SPIDER-MAN 3 will be Chameleon (Thomas Hayden Church). We also received this letter from, I'm guessing, the same source (it was word for word the same as what was printed later that day by DV-H.com) as Development-Hell, who broke the story, but we didn't run it. We've reported our own rumors on SPIDER-MAN 3 and what our sources were telling us just doesn't jive with this information.
There are also other rumors that have been floating around since Topher Grace was announced as a villain claiming we were going to see him slip into a certain alien symbiotic costume. Even we here at AICN ran a rumor about this, but I'm really skeptical about this one.
Does anybody look at Topher Grace and see Venom? I know I sure don't. Sure, it could be possible that Sam Raimi would approach the character differently from the books, make him more of a mirror of Spider-Man, a kind of Bizarro Spider-Man. That would be true if Raimi hadn't done dozens of interviews stating that he doesn't like the character of Venom, preferring the old cache of villains. Could this have been a multi-year in the making slight of hand trick? I suppose so, but it just doesn't feel right.
I think there may be a possibility of Spidey appearing in the Black Suit in the film... and that could possibly be the source of all these Venom rumors, but even that I'm dubious of. I only give it any credit because there have been so many reports of Venom and various other "black material" being sighted around Sony's wardrobe department.
The more recent rumors come from Rich Johnson, who looked into the DV-H.com rumors of the Chameleon and found something that would be a big spoiler if it pans out. I'm betting it won't pan out and I'll tell you why.
The rumor says that BOTH Thomas Hayden Church and Topher Grace will be playing The Chameleon. The twist is that the shapeshifter has been this character warming up to Mary Jane on the sly as the affable Topher Grace. On the surface this sounds not only good, but pretty damn cool. However, wouldn't that make The Chameleon the main villain for Spider-Man 3? Isn't that a kind of weak follow-up to Doc Ock? And isn't The Chameleon a bad choice considering X-MEN's Mystique has been on screens doing the shapeshifting thing for almost 5 years now?
What doesn't make sense to me is that according to Rich Johnson's rumor this is supposed to be a big secret, yet when the casting of Grace was announced it was known he was going to play a villain. If this was supposed to be a big twist in the movie, why would they announce Topher Grace as a villain? Even Avi Arad confirmed his villain status at Comic-Con this year... when asked who the villains were going to be in Spidey 3 Arad answered, "Thomas Hayden Church and Topher Grace" to many "Awwwww"s from the audience. Doesn't make any sense to me.
This also doesn't jive with what I've been hearing from many people close to the production. From the most trusted sources I'm hearing that the villains will be Sandman and Electro. Sandman I'm pretty sure of. I trust in the source who said the second villain was Electro, too, although I've had many different sources who tell me Sandman is in and not so many on Electro.
It's also quite possible we'll be seeing an appearance from Green Goblin 2, but I'd doubt he'd pop up in a big way if there's already 2 confirmed villains, even with these rumors of a changed up Gobby costume and "surf-board-like glider" are to be believed. I'd hope Raimi would slowly build Harry as a character so we really enjoy seeing him on that glider in the 4th film. And for God's sakes change his mask!
Who knows where we'll fall? I bet Raimi and Arad are having a great time laughing at all the rumors flying about. Anybody who has listened to the commentaries on one of the 135,209 different editions of any of the EVIL DEAD movies knows that Raimi can be a bit of a sadist. Instead of him whipping the shit out of Bruce Campbell, he's watching the fan community squirm.
Am I right about the villains? Or am I dead wrong? Could Sony be going forward with Chameleon as the main villain? I honestly don't know for sure and I won't know until they make the official announcement. I like Sandman a lot and the recent appearance of Church on Jay Leno where he revealed he's bulking up for his role makes me think more and more of him wearing that tight black-striped green shirt. Not in a funny way, just sayin'...
Ultimately, we won't know jack until that pre-filming press conference at the end of the year where they plan on announcing the villains. If I hear anything solid in the mean time I'll be sure to pass it along to you good folks. All I know is there's something fishy about a lot of these rumors. What do you guys think of all this? Let me know in the talkbacks below.
-Quint
