Newly revealed concept art from Marvel Studios‘ Spider-Man: No Way Home reveals a deleted cameo appearance by Michael Keaton as The Vulture.
Phil Saunders, the concept artist for the Wall-Crawler’s third Marvel Cinematic Universe installment, posted several pieces of concept art on Artstation that feature scenes based on an early screenplay draft not used in the final cut. The most surprising of these art pieces is titled “Peter’s Prisoners,” where Peter Parker (Tom Holland) arrives at the doorstep of Adrian Toomes/The Vulture (Keaton) with Dr. Octopus, Electro, and the Green Goblin all webbed together in captivity. The idea for the scene was to surprise the audience by revealing how Parker would enlist the help of his former foe from 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming to assist in ‘curing’ the multiverse supervillains.
“On any project of this complexity, the script will go through numerous changes as story direction adapts to the greater MCU plan and challenges such as actor availability,” Saunders explained. “An early version of Spiderman: No Way Home had Peter enlisting the aid of a former foe in rehabilitating the captured multiverse villains. Much fun would have been had watching him frog-march the multiversal miscreants across town with the help of Doc Ock’s hacked tentacles. It was a great joy to try to capture the diverse attitudes of these incredible actors.”
Keaton’s potential reprisal as the Vulture was revealed in an Instagram post by concept artist Phil Langone last January. The supervillain was featured in a storyboard sequence where he hid in an undisclosed garage location with Doc Ock and the Sandman as the police arrive. The reason as to why Keaton’s Vulture was cut from the threequel was never explained.
The Vulture’s last appearances
The Vulture’s last encounter with Spider-Man took place in the finale of Homecoming when the Wall-Crawler stopped the supervillain from his attempt to heist weapons from Stark Tower. During the MCU movie’s mid-credits, an incarcerated Toomes gets confronted by Mac Gargan about Spider-Man’s secret identity which he denies. The character would not be seen again until the 2022 Sony Spider-Man Universe spin-off Morbius, where it is revealed that Doctor Strange’s spell at the end of No Way Home resulted in Toomes getting displaced into the same universe as the living vampire.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is currently streaming on the Starz network and is available on all digital platforms.
