If you haven’t seen ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ and do not want to be spoiled you should not read this post.
Sometimes, casting is just too perfect and it’s impossible to imagine anyone else playing a specific role. And that’s so much the case with J.K. Simmons’ J. Jonah Jameson from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies that the subsequent The Amazing Spider-Man films didn’t even cast J. Jonah Jameson even though his character was in the movie. (Peter would receive angry emails.)
When Spider-Man: Far From Home director Jon Watts wanted to bring back J. Jonah Jameson for a mid-credit scene, there was only one actor he considered. “Yeah, there was never a question. I was like it has to be him or let’s not do it,” says Watts.
But what was Simmons’ reaction when he was first approached?
”I think he was initially just a little weirded out by the request,” says Watts. “He was like,‘Wait, what? What do you mean?’ But then I got to properly pitch it to him and it totally made sense to him. I think it must have been a little bit surreal for him to just step back into this role after such a long time. But it was incredible.”
So incredible that Watts couldn’t contain his giddiness and botched Simmons’ first take. Watts explains, “I ruined the first take because just he launched right into it and it was so amazing that I couldn’t stop laughing. It was so great.” Was Simmons annoyed? “No, I think he was glad that it was still working.”
In the scene, this J. Jonah Jameson has his own internet show and seems to be more on the salacious, conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones-y side of things, which results in a jaw-dropping cliffhanging moment where J. Jonah Jameson announces to the world that Peter is Spider-Man.
“Yeah, I think he’s definitely sort of on the fringes of the news media,” says Watts.
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