Some big casting announcements have been made for the as yet untitled Spider-Man 3 (although it’ll most likely have ‘Home’ somewhere in its subtitle), and amidst the list of familiar names as returning characters is another one that’s also recognizable, but for a slightly different reason, as Jamie Foxx will be playing Electro.
Of course, Foxx previously turned up as the electrical supervillain in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Andrew Garfield’s second and final outing as the wall-crawler. This version of Max Dillon cast him as a low-level engineer working at Oscorp who gains his powers after falling into a tank of genetically engineered electric eels, his subsequent mental instability resulting in a maniacal desire for infamy, while his idolization of Spider-Man becomes twisted into dangerous obsession. He’s often forgotten about, though, as the movie is widely regarded as the weakest of any of the live action Spider-Man films and least frequently discussed, its box office underperformance resulting in the cancellation of planned sequels and the debut of the Sinister Six.
It was not stated, most likely to generate precisely this kind of speculation, whether or not Spider-Man 3’s Electro is intended to be exactly the same character or merely a different iteration of him, but what many people missed in THR’s report was the confirmation that several cast members from Homecoming and Far From Home will return.
“Most of the supporting cast from the previous movies — including Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon and Tony Revolori — are expected to be on the call sheet when cameras roll in Atlanta this fall,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter.
Circling back to Electro, though, and while it’s strongly suspected that WandaVision will introduce the multiverse into the MCU, and Loki and What If…? will deal with alternate realities, none of the main MCU movies set to come out between now and Spider-Man 3’s release are likely to address multiple universes. As such, this could create a bit of confusion if the villain is indeed the same version as the one from The Amazing Spider-Man 2, as we’re hearing he is.
