Donald Glover Will Portray The Most Bizarre Spider-Man Villain
Donald Glover has been cast as obscure Spider-Man villain, Hypno-Hustler in his own headlining movie from Sony.
For over a decade, fans have been calling for Donald Glover to be given a prominent role in the Spider-Man universe, and now they are getting their wish—though it may not be in the way they expected. When Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) was looking for its lead, many fans on Twitter called for Donald Glover to be given the part. While the Community actor didn’t end up being cast as Peter Parker (the role went to Andrew Garfield instead), Glover is now getting his lead role in a Marvel film—only he won’t be playing Spider-Man, he’ll be playing Spider-Man villain Hypno-Hustler, according to Comicbook.com.
Donald Glover’s name has already been well-connected to the Spider-Man universe for the better part of the last decade. After his fan-casting on Twitter, the Community season 2 premiere in 2010 added an Easter egg referencing the viral Twitter thread by putting Glover’s character, Troy, in Spidey pajamas. Then, Glover voiced Miles Morales in the animated Ultimate Spider-Man series and later played Miles’ uncle Aaron Davis in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). Now, it seems the actor/comedian will be suiting up to join the Marvel universe once again, but this time as the extremely obscure villain, Hypno-Hustler.
Hypno-Hustler first appeared in Marvel Comics in 1978 and was created by Bill Mantlo and Frank Springer. The character’s real name is Antoine Delsoin, and by day, he is the lead singer/guitarist for the band Mercy Killers, which he uses as cover and bait for his crimes of hypnotizing his audience members with his guitar and then robbing them. Now, with the help of Donald Glover’s movie, the character will likely be pushed out of the realm of obscure Spidey villains and become a well-known pop culture character.
In addition to starring in the film, Donald Glover will also be producing the Hypno-Hustler movie. The film is still in the early stages of production without a full cast list or even an attached director. However, Myles Murphy, son of the legendary comedian Eddie Murphy, is set to write the film.
The currently untitled Hypno-Hustler project is the most recently announced in a series of both Spider-Man hero and villain-related films greenlit by Sony, which owns the film rights to all Spider-Man characters. Donald Glover was initially attracted to the musical aspect of the character, and the fact that he is a lesser-known character gives him more creative freedom. So far, no details of the plot of the movie have been released.
Before the announcement of Donald Glover’s Hypno-Hustler project, Sony has spent years working hard at creating an entire catalog of Spider-Man movies. Having already completed Venom (2018) and Morbius (2022), the studio is next set to release Kraven the Hunter in 2023 and has both Madame Webb and Spider-Woman deep in development.
It’s exciting to see major Hollywood stars like Donald Glover bringing lesser-known characters like Hypno-Hustler onto the silver screen. In a world as vast as Marvel’s comic books, Hollywood will never run out of superhero and villain content to produce.
