2026 is set to feature two Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, and they both have the potential to be the biggest that Marvel Studios' Multiverse Saga has to offer. Those films are, of course, Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday. That's why there's a strange irony about the fact that both films suffered from major trailer leaks throughout this past week.
On one hand, the Avengers leaks were somewhat anticipated. Marvel chose to release them in theaters first so online footage was inevitable at some point. But the Spider-Man leaks came completely from left-field as Sony Pictures was overseeing that and had no immediate plans to release any trailers just yet.
But, in the wake of the Spider-Man trailer's reveal, the MCU film has suffered from another apparent spoiler - one that could carry major ramifications if it turns out to be the potential crossover that fans are thinking it might be.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day may feature the Chameleon (but which one?)
According to industry insider Daniel Richtman, the Chameleon could potentially appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Although there has been no official confirmation about the character being involved in the movie, the scooper reports that concept art for the character was seen on the film's set. And with that, speculation has been ramping up about the potential of a crossover with the Sony Pictures Universe of Spider-Man Characters. Hear us out!
As of this point, we have had just one complete portrayal of the infamous Spider-Man villain on the big screen and that came in Sony's Kraven the Hunter last year, in which he was portrayed by Fred Hechinger
. Although the studio has discontinued that franchise due to both its poor reception and box office performances, the fact that the studio owns the movie rights to the Spider-Man character (and is willingly collaborating with Marvel Studios to ensure he remains in the MCU) suggests that a crossover is possible. After all, it wouldn't be the first time.
By far the most successful element of the Sony Spider-Verse films was Venom. Tom Hardy's symbiote headlined his own movie trilogy (which was extremely successful in spite of negative reviews from critics) between 2018 and 2024, and he also cameoed in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home. Similarly, Venom: Let There Be Carnage featured a picture of Tom Holland's MCU hero, officially tying the two franchises together.
That being said, Kraven wasn't remotely successful as it became one of the lowest-grossing superhero movies ever made. It was also critically-reviled and is considered the final straw in Sony's decision to end the live-action Spider-Verse franchise. So, with that in mind, would Marvel Studios really want a cameo from a character who technically exists in a dead universe now? Sony could probably still make it happen (and explain it away as Brand New Day is technically part of the Multiverse Saga) but in all likelihood this would be a bad idea.
So, where does that leave this potential Chameleon role? Well, in the Marvel Comics, the villain's real name is Dmitri Smerdyakov. In Spider-Man: Far From Home, there was a character on Nick Fury and Mysterio's crew known as Dmitri (played by Numan Acar). Fans had predicted that he might actually be the Chameleon in disguise, but that didn't actually happen in the 2019 movie. However, who's to say that it can't in the future?
Taking all of that into account, we're going to say that - if there is a Chameleon in Spider-Man: Brand New Day - the far more likely of the two would be the latter. Not only would incorporating Kraven's Chameleon into the MCU risk associating the franchise with a franchise that no longer exists, it would burn through a potential future villain, who could serve as an antagonist in one of the two planned sequels. So, we could see Far From Home's Dmitri return as an alternate iteration of the villain, or perhaps Marvel and Sony has already cast a different actor to play the villain instead (we still know very little about the film's villains at this point).
It's important to take all rumors with a grain of salt, but neither Marvel or Sony needed more potential spoilers leaking out after the film's first trailer randomly made its away around the internet earlier this week.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be released on July 31, 2026.