Among the ways the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man film series has distinguished itself from its predecessors is by emphasizing Peter Parker’s status as a high schooler, which has included getting to know his fellow students and teachers. In the latter category, Spider-Man: Far From Home introduced J.B. Smoove’s Julius Dell, who accompanied Martin Starr’s Roger Harrington as a chaperone on the sequel’s field trip. Well, folks who liked Mr. Dell can take comfort knowing he hasn’t left the Midtown School of Science and Technology after the events of Far From Home, as Smoove has confirmed he’s back for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
During his recent visit to The Daily Zeitgeist, J.B. Smoove talked about a funny video he’d watched of guys dressed like Batman and Robin fighting a guy dressed like Spider-Man, with the latter “beating the fuck” out of the former duo. With the topic of Marvel and DC now on the table, Smoove used that opportunity to highlight his comic book bonafides by saying this:
I don't know how many people have done it, but I’m in both universes, the Marvel Universe and the DC Universe. The Marvel Universe with Spider-Man: Far From Home, and I just did the new Spider-Man. And I'm Frank the Plant in the Harley Quinn animated series.
J.B. Smoove is far from the only actor who’s performed in both Marvel and DC projects, although I’m not sure just how many of them have done both live-action and animation with these geek properties (Mark Hamill comes to mind). More importantly, Smoove casually mentioning he participated in the new Spider-Man movie adds another familiar face we’ll reunite with in Spider-Man: No Way Home. While Smoove didn’t say anything about what we can expect from Mr. Dell in the threequel, count on him at least delivering some comedic moments like he did in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Although that 2019 sequel marked J.B. Smoove’s MCU film debut, it wasn’t his first time working with Tom Holland on a Spider-Man project. During Spider-Man: Homecoming’s marketing campaign, Smoove appeared in an Audi commercial as Peter Parker’s driving instructor. Spider-Man: Far From Home director Jon Watts and writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers liked Smoove’s performance in that commercial so much that they created the Julius Dell role for him. You watch Holland and Smoove’s Audi shenanigans below.
Other familiar faces from Peter Parker’s personal life returning for Spider-Man: No Way Home include Zendaya’s MJ, Jacob Batalon’s Ned Leeds, Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May and Tony Revolori’s Flash Thompson. Tom Holland’s Spidey will also reunite with Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange, and the timing on that couldn’t be better. Because although no specific plot details for No Way Home have been revealed yet, the story will involve Jamie Foxx’s Electro and Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus, two villains from past Spider-Man film series, making their way into the MCU, so Peter will need all the help he can get taking them down, along with any other villains that might show up.
Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into theaters on December 17, and Tom Holland will also reprise the Web-Slinger in another, yet-to-be-revealed Marvel Studios movie. Find out what else the MCU has coming up in our upcoming Marvel movies guide.
