Scorpion Could Still Happen After Spider-Man: No Way Home

One aspect lost in the discussion of Spider-Man: No Way Home is that it made it even more possible for the MCU to pay off the Scorpion tease from Spider-Man: Homecoming. In the first movie, audiences were introduced to Mac Gargan - a character trying to get his hands on illegal technology, courtesy of Michael Keaton's Adrian Toomes, aka The Vulture. He was later seen approaching Toomes in prison to establish the possibility of them working together to bring down the webhead. Comic book fans knew Gargan better by his longtime alias, Scorpion. However, the character has never appeared again in the MCU or in one of Sony's movies. Spider-Man: No Way Home, however, made the character's costumed debut even more possible with the inclusion of the MCU's own J. Jonah Jameson and the brief cameo of another longtime Spidey adversary.

MacDonald Gargan first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #19 (1964), where he was a private investigator hired by Jameson to look into how Peter Parker got his Spider-Man pictures. When that didn't work out, Jameson instead contributed to an experiment to grant Gargan abilities similar to Spider-Man's. The procedure ultimately drove Gargan insane and made him homicidally violent, creating the criminal nuisance known as The Scorpion. From that point on, the character had been defined by his hatred of not only Spider-Man, but also of J. Jonah Jameson, the man who made him a monster. The MCU may have given Gargan a different start, but it could still all lead to him donning the Scorpion tail in a future film, or a different suit.

Gargan was already given plenty of motivation in Spider-Man: Homecoming. He's always had a history of blaming others for his problems and he blames Spider-Man for landing him in prison. The events of Spider-Man: No Way Home changed nothing for him. He didn't know Spider-Man's identity when he got himself thrown in prison, and he'd be right back where he started after Dr. Strange's spell. Right back where he started, though, would likely mean he'll hold onto his grudge, which could be taken advantage of by a certain Spider-hating journalist at The Daily Bugle.

The MCU wouldn't have to stop there, however. In a post-credits scene of Spider-Man: No Way Home, moviegoers were treated to a brief but comedic scene of Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock, brought over to this universe by the spell that Dr. Strange originally botched. At the end of that scene, a piece of the alien symbiote was left behind. While that could result in a newer, better iteration of the black suit saga than Spider-Man 3, it also brought up another possibility. For a time in the comics, Mac Gargan was the host of the symbiote, rather than Eddie Brock. With Eddie not yet introduced in the MCU, and the possibility of them wanting to do something different, as well as possibly hinting at the Dark Avengers, Mac Gargan's time as Venom could also be on the horizon.

Rumors of more Spider-Man movies have been swirling since Spider-Man: No Way Home's release. Whether Gargan makes his debut as the Scorpion or skips that step entirely to become Venom, the MCU seemed to go out of its way to set the stage for him with Jameson and the symbiote. He could even manage to do both in the span of a movie or two, given the low likelihood that Scorpion would be the sole villain of any Spider-Man movie. If he does appear, it'd be one less loose end in the MCU.

Next: No Way Home Theory: MJ Still Remembers Peter Parker