After an appearance by J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: Far From Home, it appears Sony is committing to the idea of role reprisals. Word has surfaced that Jamie Foxx is now set to join the cast of the untitled Spider-Man 3 and will be playing Electro, the part he previously played in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. But this time he won't be quite as blue as he was in that movie.
I'm optimistic that Marvel will make a few changes with Foxx's next turn as Electro, and give us a version that may garner some more acclaim than the actor's first run as the character. There are some easy ways to drastically improve this new iteration of the villain, and hopefully, create a Spider-Man 3 that is all kinds of fun.
Jamie Foxx Is Type Cast As A Cool Dude, So Use That
There are a few notable exceptions, but by and large, Jamie Foxx is cast as the cool dude in a movie. He's a veteran playing bad-asses, looking awesome even when you don't want him to, and he definitely he could kick some ass at any moment. It was what made his portrayal in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 so confusing, as he plays a version of Maxwell Dillon that is everything but that.
I get castings that defy expectations of roles one would expect from an actor but casting Jamie Foxx as a soft-spoken introvert was what one would call "a choice." We need a cooler version of Electro, and if that requires re-tooling the character to make something Foxx can work with, so be it. Really, I think you could just bring this Electro into the story without the origin considering audiences have seen one incarnation of him before, and maybe he'll just be cooler as a hardened criminal who runs afoul of some experiment than an employee of a tech lab.
Don't Bring In The Original Suit
If there was one thing that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 got right with Electro from the start, it was the decision to re-design the overall character's look. Obviously, I'm not going to sit here and defend the choice to make him blue, but I'm also not going to sit here and act like it wasn't an upgrade from the original outfit he sported in Marvel comics.
One thing I have appreciated to this point in the Tom Holland Spider-Man era is how well the films have managed to maintain the original look of the character costumes from the comics. I can't state enough how that's not necessary and that I would not be on board with a costume that pays homage to the weird lightning mask and green spandex. Honestly, I'm not even a fan of the green and yellow aesthetic, so Sony can feel free to revamp that look in whatever way they see fit.
Electro Doesn't Need to Be A Sympathetic Character
I think one of the biggest missteps of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was how they tried to make Electro sympathetic. He's a loner nerd without a lot of friends, who only gets real attention and noticed when he does something really destructive? That's not really a message that fits into any era, especially when there wasn't much likable about Jamie Foxx's version of Maxwell Dillon to begin with.
Truth be told, Spider-Man 3 should have enough going on with where Spider-Man: Far From Home left things that we don't need Electro to be an exceptionally deep character. He just needs to show up, electricute some things, and perhaps serve as a "conduit" to bringing the Sinister Six together. As long as he's a threat and a pain in the ass for Peter Parker to deal with, I think Electro will have done his job and then some in the upcoming movie.
Give Electro Another Villain To Work With
I don't put the blame of Electro completely on Jamie Foxx, because Electro never felt like a villain that could shoulder an entire movie. I personally would characterize Electro as more of a supporting villain, and think his next movie appearance would be better served if he acted as an enforcer for another villain. As far as who that might be we can only speculate, though there's no shortage of available Spidey villains who would make a good pairing with the villain.
I think putting someone like Kingpin as the main villain with Electro as a supporting villain would be fantastic, though the odds of Vincent D'Onofrio appearing in an MCU movie are relatively slim. Then again, this is now the second actor and character reprisal from another unrelated work, so can we really rule that out anymore? Really, I'm not too picky on who the villain is, but I do think there needs to be someone pulling the strings behind Electro rather than him running the show solo.
Make Electro Make A Move That Brings Us Closer To The Sinister Six
The Sinister Six has been the pipe dream of Spider-Man movies for quite a while, and there's still hope that the villain team may one day make their way to the big screen. It was a large reason why there was some disappointment behind Spider-Man being rebooted again as opposed to a potential sequel in The Amazing Spider-Man 3. For those that don't remember, the end credits scene of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 very clearly teased a future appearance by the villain group.
It's been teased that The Sinister Six could be featured in the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, so ideally, it would be awesome if Jamie Foxx's reprisal as Electro led to some major bread crumb that the Sinister Six is coming. It feels like all these movies are leading to some awesome conclusion, and with so much uncertainty in how much longer Marvel Studios and Sony will play nice with Spidey, I'd love to see them make an appearance shortly after Spider-Man 3 if not during.
Do you have any ways Jamie Foxx's Electro can improve for Spider-Man 3? List all suggestions down in the comments below, and be sure to stick with CinemaBlend to stay on top of all the latest news happening in movies and television.
