10 Movie Villains Secretly Introduced Way Earlier Than You Realise

3. Eddie Brock Gets Referenced - Spider-Man

J Jonah Jameson Robbie Robertson Spider-Man Eddie Brock
Columbia Pictures

Despite talks of having the character involved in the picture, Eddie Brock doesn't make an appearance in Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man picture.

However, Brock does get mentioned during that first outing for Tobey Maguire's Wall-crawler.

About an hour or so into the movie, J.K. Simmons' J. Jonah Jameson berates his staff for the lack of Spider-Man photos coming across his desk. It's there that Jameson's second-in-command, Robbie Robertson (Bill Nunn), says how, "Eddie's been on it for weeks, but he can barely get a glimpse of him!"

That Eddie would of course be Eddie Brock, who is better known as long-time Spider-Man foe - and occasional partner - Venom. Eddie and his nefarious alter-ego would appear two movies down the line, with Topher Grace played Brock in the third and final leg of Raimi's Spidey offerings, 2007's Spider-Man 3.

In that third Raimi picture, it's fleetingly mentioned how Eddie has just started working at The Daily Bugle. By that rationale, maybe the future Venom was interning at the Bugle back during the day of 2002's Spider-Man.

Plans were at one point afoot for a Spider-Man 4 and possibly a fifth film, but the so-so response to that third picture meant those plans were axed in favour of Sony rebooting the Web-head property with Andrew Garfield in the saddle for The Amazing Spider-Man.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer and Presenter, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund and Eli Roth to Kevin Smith and the Russo Brothers, to Kevin Conroy and Frank Miller, to Bret Hart and Sting, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, and Brian Flynn, to many, many more. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is a long-standing season ticket holder and an FSA Award-winner for his time co-hosting the Fearless in Devotion podcast.