Exclusive: Paul Giamatti Will Return As Rhino In Spider-Man’s No Way Home
Paul Giamatti will get another shot at the Rhino.
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Paul Giamatti was undeniably memorable as Aleksei Sytsevich a.k.a. Rhino in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Exactly why he was so unforgettable is certainly up for discussion, but there is definitely an argument to be made that he was one of the more ludicrously entertaining elements of that film. He was engineered to be little more than an extended cameo that bookended the film, but it is pretty clear that the actor was having a ball playing the supervillain. No one would ever expect this version of the character to ever pop back up in another movie, but Giant Freakin Robot has managed to obtain some information that says we will get to see exactly that.
According to one of our trusted and proven inside sources, Paul Giamatti will be reprising his role as Rhino in Spider-Man: No Way Home. While we could not confirm just how sizable his role will be, we are assuming this will also coincide with the return of Jamie Foxx’s Electro and will help to give some amount of closure to the Andrew Garfield version of the web-slinging superhero. No one really knows just what level of commitment all of these villain appearances will amount to – we have heard that Doctor Octopus and the Green Goblin will also be showing up – but it sounds like Spider-Man: No Way Home is really going for broke with all these returning baddies.
As far as Paul Giamatti is concerned, we really hope he gets a significant sequence to shine. His off-the-wall performance in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 really is one of the absolute highlights of that widely disliked movie. Could we see Rhino and other villains from that iteration of the wall-crawler’s universe teaming up in a big battle scene that reintroduces Andrew Garfield’s take on Spider-Man? Sony was really trying to develop a Sinister Six movie that would have seen the supervillains getting all the focus. They seem to be headed towards that once again with Morbius and Kraven the Hunter being in the works (or completely made in the case of Morbius). Could showing a multiverse team-up of so many Spidey villains help sell audiences on that very idea?
We have to imagine that Paul Giamatti would be up for such an endeavor. He famously said he wanted to play the role of Rhino before the character was ever a part of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. He pretty much willed the part into existence and seems to have had a blast playing Aleksei Sytsevich. He was even lined up to play a bigger role in The Amazing Spider-Man 3, but that obviously fell apart once that franchise was put on ice. This seems like a fitting way to give his version of the supervillain a proper sendoff.
We would love nothing more than to see Paul Giamatti step into his gigantic robotic Rhino suit for one last time. Hearing that will happen in Spider-Man: No Way Home only makes us more excited for this seemingly game-changing entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’ll be great to see Rhino on the big screen again when Spider-Man: No Way Home hits theaters on December 17 this year.
