Yesterday, some positively electric news was reported: Jamie Foxx, who previously played Electro in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, will reprise the shocking villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s third Spider-Man movie, informally known for now as Spider-Man 3. While sometimes reports such as these don’t end up panning out, in this case, the news has been officially confirmed by Foxx himself.
In a now-deleted Instagram post, Jamie Foxx not only stated that he will indeed be filling Electro’s shocking shoes again, he also shared one key way his return to the role will differ from when he last played it:
Tell Spidey let’s run it back!... super excited to part of the new marvel Spider-Man new installment... can’t wait for y’all to check the new one. And I won’t be blue in this one!! But a thousand percent badass!!!
While the Electro from the main Marvel Comics universe has had a variety of looks over the years, he’s best known for the green and yellow costume he first wore in 1964’s The Amazing Spider-Man #9. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opted to model Jamie Foxx’s Electro off the character’s Ultimate Universe incarnation, and as such he was colored blue as a result of turning into pure electrical energy. This time around, apparently the blue is being ditched, although it’s unclear if this means Foxx’s latest take on Electro will wear a more traditional costume, or if he’ll still have that energy look and simply rock a different color.
More importantly, this revelation might indicate that we’re not reuniting with Jamie Foxx’s Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but rather getting a brand-new interpretation of the character in Spider-Man 3. Considering how the MCU is delving into the multiverse in a few years with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it’s understandable that a lot of people immediately started speculating that Foxx’s Electro from the Amazing Spider-Man universe somehow gets transported into the MCU, but maybe this is more like when J.K. Simmons returned as J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: Far From Home, i.e. he’s a doppelgänger of a character we’d met from a different reality.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Instagram post Jamie Foxx deleted was fan art depicting three different versions of Spider-Man who were looking up at the sky at a giant Electro storm, with the whole scene looking like it was pulled from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s possible Foxx simply wanted to share this artwork because he thought it looked cool, but you can imagine that would also fuel more multiversal fires among fans.
As for why Jamie Foxx took down the post, I suspect some higher-ups at Marvel didn’t want him revealing that information just yet, but hey, once something’s online, it might as well be written in ink, especially if it comes from a celebrity. In any case, there seems to be a lot of excitement for Foxx reprising Electro online, and some fans have used it as a springboard to call for Charlie Cox’s Daredevil appearing in Spider-Man 3 too.
Electro’s presence in Spider-Man 3 will mark the first time the MCU features a Spider-Man supervillain that appeared in one of the Web-Slinger’s prior franchises, excluding how Sandman was reimagined as an Elemental illusion in Spider-Man: Far From Home. There’s also been talk about if Kraven the Hunter could appear in Spider-Man 3, although since he’s getting his own movie from Triple Frontier director J.C. Chandor, that might not be in the cards.
Spider-Man 3 swings into theaters on December 17, 2021, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on its progress. Learn what other MCU cinematic tales are on the way with our Marvel movies guide.
