The MCU’s take on Spider-Man has deliberately side-stepped characters we’ve seen on the big screen before. Mostly that’s been well-received by fans – let Uncle Ben and Harry Osborn rest a while – but one iconic part of Spidey lore we all want to see again is J. Jonah Jameson.
J.K. Simmons’ portrayal of The Daily Bugle editor was pitch-perfect in Sam Raimi’s trilogy, but it’s high time we got a new version. Could it happen in Spider-Man: Far From Home, though? Well, yes, it could.
ComicBook.com visited the set of the upcoming sequel in London and asked producer Eric Carroll about how Jameson and The Daily Bugle could be re-interpreted for the MCU. Carroll revealed that this has been something the production team were thinking about during the making of Far From Home, teasing that Jameson might be on his way.
“Yes, we’ve absolutely talked and thought about those characters a lot, specifically in reference to this film. What we just want to make sure we’re [presenting] them in a way that doesn’t make you feel instantly like you’ve seen them before. So we have a couple of ideas, some of which I can’t really go into detail because they’re spoilery, but it’s absolutely – if we had an ‘in for the Daily Bugle that wasn’t just your traditional newspaper and [with] Peter Parker, there’s this cool, weird thing happening where being a photographer isn’t necessarily a mark of distinction anymore. We all have better cameras in our pockets than most people even owned ten years ago. So how do we get Peter or somebody into that world without it feeling like, do kids really aspire to go be photographers for The New York Times anymore? Or do they aspire to have their tweet reposted, and so on.”
Carroll went on to sum up their approach to adapting any classic Spider-Man character into the franchise, saying:
“So we’re trying to pay as much homage to the source material as possible, and we do think there are a couple of fun ideas like that in here, most of which I don’t want to spell out for you, but absolutely. We want to take as much of the mythology that people love and present it in a way that’s totally faithful to what people love about it, but in a [different] way.”
It sounds like the producer is pretty heavily suggesting that Jameson and his Spidey-slandering newspaper could show up in FFH, right? If you’re still not convinced, CB writes that someone else followed up Carroll’s comments by asking him if it would be fair to say Jameson didn’t appear in the film. His response was a simple “No.”
Bearing in mind what Carroll says about a different take on Jameson, we’re reminded of the rumors from last summer that pointed to J.B. Smoove being linked to the role, as he’s said to be playing an important part in the movie’s ensemble cast. Maybe the truth will be revealed in the next trailer, otherwise we’ll have to wait until Spider-Man: Far From Home arrives in cinemas on July 2nd.
