Marvin Jones III’s Tombstone Transformation In ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Marks A 37-Year Wait Finally Over
Marvel villains have a strange habit of skipping live-action entirely, thriving instead in animation, games, and comics while their theatrical debut gets pushed back year after year. It’s a pattern that’s frustrated fans for decades, especially when a character feels tailor-made for the big screen.
Tombstone has been one of the more obvious examples of that gap, a hulking crime boss who’s haunted Spider-Man’s rogues gallery since first appearing in Web of Spider-Man #36 back in March 1988. Despite decades of comic book relevance and a memorable animated turn, the character had never once made the jump to live-action cinema, until now.
New behind-the-scenes photos have surfaced showing Marvin Jones III fully transformed into Tombstone on the set of ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day,’ shared via Instagram user joshwestonfx and circulating widely across fan accounts. The images offer the clearest look yet at the character’s near-indestructible, hulking crime boss persona brought fully to life through prosthetics and makeup.
Jones III’s casting comes with a built-in sense of continuity that makes the role feel especially fitting. He previously voiced Tombstone in Sony’s Oscar-winning ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,’ where the character served as one of Kingpin’s personal bodyguards, and he’s set to reprise the role again in the upcoming ‘Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.’
His casting for the live-action film was first reported by Deadline in September 2025, breaking during a notably chaotic stretch of production. The news arrived while filming in Glasgow, Scotland had been paused for over a week after star Tom Holland suffered a minor concussion on set following a botched stunt.
The character himself, also known as Lonnie Lincoln, brings a distinct visual identity to the screen that’s rooted directly in his comic book origins. Created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Alex Saviuk, Tombstone is depicted as a hulking, albino crime boss with filed teeth and skin nearly impervious to damage, a look the new set photos appear to lean into heavily through practical makeup work.
Fan reaction to the casting has remained largely enthusiastic since it first broke, with online communities praising the choice as fitting given Jones III’s prior history with the character. Some early debate has centered on specific stylistic choices in the makeup and prosthetics, with a handful of fans wishing for a more pronounced grey skin tone or more squared-off facial features to match the comics more closely.
Jones III himself isn’t a stranger to genre work beyond Spider-Man, having also appeared in The CW’s ‘Black Lightning.’ Beyond his acting career, he’s also known within hip-hop circles under the name Krondon, having founded the group Strong Arm Steady in 2003 and released four studio albums with the outfit between 2007 and 2012.
With Tombstone now confirmed as part of the film’s rogues gallery alongside other reported villains circulating around the production, his live-action debut adds one more piece to a rogues gallery that’s clearly aiming to expand Spider-Man’s world well beyond its usual suspects. After 37 years of existing only on the page and in animation, Lonnie Lincoln finally has his shot on the big screen.
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