The following story may contain significant spoilers for Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
The sequel to the surprise hit Venom won't be coming out exactly when we thought it would be, but while the movie has been delayed, that's not the only thing fans are talking about right now. Since the movie was only about a month away from release before being delayed yet again, we were seeing more details about the movie in the media. This includes a rough plot synopsis and a more detailed cast list. However, one listing that landed online includes a yet unannounced name as appearing in the movie, J.K. Simmons, and you know what that means.
The last time we saw J.K. Simmons in a Marvel associated superhero movie it was in the post-credits scene of Spider-Man: Far From Home, and he was playing J. Jonah Jameson, the same role he'd played to perfection in the three Spider-Man films directed by Sam Raimi. According to one online listing, Simmons is in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. And since there are already indications, and a lot of rumors, that the Sony Spider-Verse might connect to the MCU in some way, people are thinking that might be happening here.
There's certainly a lot of potential directions we could take this information and a lot of different things it could mean. First and foremost, there's the possibility that this piece of information is simply an error. It's a single UK theater chain that has apparently posted that J.K. Simmons is appearing in the Venom sequel and it may have just been a miscommunication. It wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened.
If it's not a glitch in the matrix, then what does that mean? Most importantly, even this cast list does not claim that J.K. Simmons is playing J. Jonah Jameson, so it's just as possible that he is in the movie but playing somebody else. He could be playing a role completely unrelated to anything within the Spider-Verse. It would certainly be funny to see Simmons in a Spider-Man adjacent film not playing JJ, but perhaps that's an intentional move, as easter egg of sorts.
Part of the problem, of course, is that we simply don't know how Sony's Spider-Verse and the MCU will ultimately come together, or even if they actually will. We've seen Michael Keaton, another member of the MCU Spider-Man universe, appearing in the trailer for Morbius, which got a lot of fans talking, but we're still not entirely clear on what role he is playing. He could be reprising his role from Spider-Man: Homecoming or he could be playing something entirely different.
And even if J.K. Simmons is in Let There be Carnage, and even if he's playing J. Jonah Jameson, we don't know which one he's playing. While Simmons appeared at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, in the same role he played almost 20 years ago, our understanding is that he's not playing literally the same character, just the MCU version of that character. So could Simmons be playing the MCU Jameson here, or the Raimi Jameson, or an entirely separate third version?
The fact that this information could still simply be an error can't be entirely discounted, but if it is true, that doesn't really reveal any great answers, it just raises more questions, questions we'll now need to wait an extra month to answer.
