Jamie Foxx to Appear in Upcoming 3rd MCU Spider-Man Movie
By Zach Roozendaal
With the film industry being a mess amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing back highly anticipated movies, this has led to more time for fan theories on popular franchises to run wild, especially with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with multiverse theories and crossovers from past installments of different films franchises being possibly set up.
However, it’s been very recently confirmed that the new Spider-Man 3 will see the return of a shocking antagonist, one not seen since the 2nd Amazing Spider-Man installment. That villain is of course Electro. In the 2014 film, Jamie Foxx turned blue and adopted an electrifying blue look to face off against Andrew Garfield’s iteration of the web slinger.
Ultimately Electro met his end, being shorted out and killed by Spider-Man, but that was also the end for Garfield’s Spidey, as he was later fired following a dispute with Sony executives and failing to turn up at an event in Rio. The Sony hack attack in December 2014 didn’t help either, with North Korean hackers leaking sensitive info about upcoming projects for Sony including with Spider-Man, following the studio’s participation with the Seth Rogen and James Franco lead controversial comedy, The Interview.
Among the details that were leaked, it was confirmed that the head of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige and Sony executives had been talking back and forth about the possible idea of incorporating Spider-Man into the MCU, and introducing him in one of their upcoming films, Captain America: Civil War. Eventually Sony agreed after their main star was gone and their sequel plans leaked to the world. So, the past 2 Spider-Man movies have taken place in the MCU and have had nothing to do with the trilogy from Sam Raimi or the Amazing Spider-Man duology from Marc Webb. Instead, the Tom Holland iteration already had gained his powers and lost Uncle Ben by the time we met him in Captain America: Civil War. It was clear Marvel Studios and Sony wanted to try and avoid recycling certain characters if possible, especially antagonists. So that’s why Spider-Man: Homecoming brought us Michael Keaton as Vulture and Spider-Man: Far From Home had Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio, as both had been teased in some of the previously mentioned iterations, with Raimi even going as far as to reveal that his friend and Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell was supposed to play Mysterio, and that he had popped up several times doing cameos in the trilogy, and they were meant to set up Mysterio, but the 4th film was instead canceled and rebooted with Andrew Garfield. Sandman was referenced in Far From Home during the cold opening of the film, in which Nick Fury and Maria Hill encounter a large sand and rock-based creature, later revealed to have been an elemental which was subsequently defeated by Mysterio. Sandman originally turned up in Raimi’s Spider-Man 3.
At the end of Far From Home last year however, audiences were in for a shock. During the post credits scene, JK Simmons made a cameo, reprising a role he hadn’t had on screen since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 in 2007. That character was a journalist and Daily Bugle chief editor J. Jonah Jameson. This time, he was portrayed as a conspiracy theorist, and he and the Daily Bugle were meant to parody the real-life conspiracy video series Info Wars, hosted by the controversial and infamous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jameson outed Peter Parker via edited footage from Mysterio made to look as though Spider-Man participated in a terrorist attack in London and murdered Mysterio.
Electro was featured as the primary antagonist of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, with Jamie Foxx’s portrayal being somewhat panned by critics. Foxx is an incredibly talented actor, and if you don’t believe me just watch the Ray Charles biopic he did, where he even had special prosthetic eyelids to help make his blindness authentic. That’s dedication, and though Foxx gave it his all, the appearance of Jamie Foxx being coloured blue and given a hoodie as his electro costume was just too ridiculous for some people. I remember seeing previews of the movie on my TV when it was in theaters, and this was long before I even remotely cared about superhero films, but even I though that the trailer amazing and that the way electro looked was cool.
But to each their own, as the saying goes. Foxx announced via his official Instagram that he’d be returning to play the character in the upcoming 3rd film, and stated that this iteration wouldn’t see him as just a glowing blue guy who gained his powers through falling into a tank of electric eels. The majority of the character’s screen time was done through CGI to achieve the blue skin and sparks and glow. Foxx’s Electro will now be third Marvel character to appear in a separate franchise with their actor reprising the role in the MCU, the others being of course JK Simmons as J Jonah, and Stan Lee as himself.
The popular theory was that following Peter being labeled as a terrorist in the post credits scene of Far From Home, Kraven The Hunter would appear as a sort of bounty hunter attempting to track down Spider-Man as part of his ultimate hunting trophies. In the comics, Sergei Kravenoff is a big game hunter from Russia, known across the world for going after the most dangerous game and taking down each target with his brute strength and cunning resourcefulness. He adopts the alias of Kraven The Hunter, and wants to kill Spider-Man, believing him to be the ultimate game.
This could still be the case, as one of the filming locations was in Iceland, which could be used to depict Kraven’s Russian life, and like J Jonah in Far From Home, Foxx’s Electro may only be a post credits cameo, although it’s likely Electro will have a larger role to play in the film unlike Simmons in Far From Home, who wasn’t announced in the official cast list before the premiere of Far From Home, with his cameo meant to be a surprise.
In any case, the currently untitled 3rd MCU Spider-Man movie is set for release in theaters next December, being pushed back by almost 6 months like every other MCU film due to the pandemic.
Until then, I’m Zach Roozendaal, your friendly neighbourhood journalist. Stay safe out there and take care of each other, and remember with great power comes great responsibility.