Credit: MarvelMulti-hyphenate talent Donald Glover has long been associated with Marvel and Spider-Man, which made his recent cameo in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) that much more endearing. While the movie was absurdly stuffed with appearances from Spider-characters both famous and obscure, seeing a live-action Glover briefly appear was one of its more amusing highlights.
A very vocal contingent of Donald Glover Spider-Man fans famously campaigned for the actor/director/writer/Childish Gambino to play Peter Parker in Sony Pictures’ Amazing Spider-Man reboot (a role which eventually went to Andrew Garfield), he eventually ended up playing an entirely different character: the villainous Aaron Davis AKA the Prowler.
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Donald Glover’s appearance as the Prowler in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2019) had the character just beginning his journey as a somewhat conflicted criminal figure, but it appears that by Across the Spider-Verse, he has fully graduated to costumed supervillain. Now, a Twitter post from Universo Marvel Brasil has fully revealed Donald Glover’s look as the Prowler, in what appears to be a behind-the-scenes photo.
Parem de falar que o símbolo do traje parece o Thanos de costas pulando pelado, estamos ficando envergonhados. pic.twitter.com/uOEZDLiVW5
— Universo Marvel Brasil (@MarvelBRNews) June 22, 2023
Amusingly, the caption to the Twitter post (translated from Portuguese) reads “Stop saying the costume symbol looks like Thanos from the back jumping naked, we’re getting embarrassed.” Clearly, the Prowler would not love someone pointing out that the purple symbol across Donald Glover’s chest does indeed look like Josh Brolin’s genocidal cosmic villain, sans golden outfit and, uh, hopping backward while crouched. Not the most flattering of comparisons, to be sure.
Will Donald Glover Return as the Prowler?
Donald Glover only appeared as Aaron Davis in Across the Spider-Verse for a brief moment, in which he appears to be the prisoner of Miguel O’Hara‘s (Oscar Isaac) interdimensional Spider-Society, but it does seem a little odd that the filmmakers would go so far as to design and outfit the star so elaborately for essentially an Easter Egg.
SPOILERS FOR SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE TO FOLLOW
That raises the possibility that Donald Glover could return in the upcoming Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (currently expected to be released shockingly quickly) in some capacity. Across the Spider-Verse ended on a cliffhanger in which Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) found himself in the reality of Earth-42, in which no Spider-Man ever existed, and that universe’s version of himself had become the Prowler, rather than his Uncle Aaron.
Considering that the upcoming sequel will presumably deal heavily with the relationship between Miles Morales and Aaron Davis, it would seem very likely that Donald Glover, the person who helped inspire the appearance of Morales and who now portrays a version of the Prowler, would pop up again in some form.
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It is also entirely possible that Donald Glover’s variant of Aaron Davis could show up again in the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper, given that he was originally introduced while encountering the Tom Holland version of Spider-Man. Reportedly, Glover will soon be playing an entirely different Spider-Man villain in another project. This time around, he will portray the Hypno-Hustler, an even more obscure Marvel villain who leads a group called the Mercy Killers; the project is being written by Myles Murphy, son of legendary comedian Eddie Murphy.