The Scorpion stings but once. When Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters next July, it will have been nine years since Michael Mando‘s Mac Gargan was busted in an FBI sting in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. After Mando’s scorpion neck-tattooed career criminal was maimed during a scuffle aboard the Staten Island Ferry — where the friendly neighborhood web-slinger (Tom Holland) foiled Gargan’s illegal weapons deal with Adrian Toomes/the Vulture (Michael Keaton), leading to his arrest — the mangled Gargan threatened to get revenge on his “little spider friend” in the film’s prison-set post-credits scene.
But it seems Gargan’s lengthy prison sentence is at an end. Mando has confirmed reports that he’s suiting up as the Scorpion in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which has Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings helmer Destin Daniel Cretton in the director’s chair.
“St!ng,” the Better Call Saul star wrote on Instagram alongside a selfie showing Gargan’s scorpion tattoo. Mando then shared a series of images hinting at the Scorpion suit, which has undergone several permutations since the mutated Gargan debuted his battlesuit with a mechanical tail in 1964’s Amazing Spider-Man #20.
More specifically, Mando shared artist Leinil Francis Yu’s variant cover for a 2019 issue of Absolute Carnage: Miles Morales showing Gargan in both his supervillain identities — the Scorpion and Venom, from a time Gargan was the host of the Spidey-hating symbiote — and a Hasbro’s Marvel Legends action figure based on Scorpion’s appearance in 1994’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
Interestingly enough, Mando’s post seems to suggest Gargan could potentially become the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Venom. (Remember, Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s post-credits scene revealed a piece of Eddie Brock’s alien symbiote now resides in the MCU.) Gargan became the new Venom in 2005’s Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #10 and went on to join Norman Osborn’s Thunderbolts team before posing as the black-suited Spider-Man in Dark Avengers.
It’s also worth noting that a Venomized Scorpion fought the original Venom — Eddie Brock, at the time Anti-Venom — during the Brand New Day era of Spider-Man comics, which took place after Peter Parker’s secret identity was erased from public knowledge.
Mando reprises his role as Mac Gargan/Scorpion as part of a stacked cast that includes Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/the Punisher and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/the Hulk. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings helmer Destin Daniel Cretton directs Spider-Man: Brand New Day, taking over from Home trilogy filmmaker Jon Watts, from a script by franchise scribes Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. Amy Pascal of Pascal Pictures and Kevin Feige of Marvel Studios are the producers.
Sony Pictures has slated Spider-Man: Brand New Day to release on July 31, 2026.
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