In the first of two bonus scenes during the credits, a webcast from DailyBugle.net plays a doctored video made by Mysterio before his death that implicates Spider-Man as not only the fiend behind the drone attacks on London, but as the murderer of the seemingly noble superhero Mysterio. The coup de grace is that the video reveals Peter’s true identity — putting him and his loved ones in immediate danger.
The clip is blasted out to the world loudly and belligerently by DailyBugle.net editor/Alex Jones wannabe J. Jonah Jameson — played by Oscar-winning actor J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), who played essentially the same character in the trilogy of Spider-Man movies starring Tobey Maguire and directed by Sam Raimi.
Watts continues, “And we just immediately came back to, ‘Well, it should be the Daily Bugle.’ But if it’s the Daily Bugle it’s got to be J. Jonah Jameson, and you can’t really have anyone else play J. Jonah Jameson. So we thought, why not get J.K Simmons, if he’ll do it. He just gave such an iconic performance. It just didn’t feel right to have that be anyone else.”
The idea of introducing Jameson and the Bugle back into Spider-Man’s life even predates the current films co-produced by Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures, but the right story opportunity didn’t come along until now. Recent comments by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige indicate that this version of Jameson is not exactly the same scandal-hungry boor we met in the Raimi movies — but it’s undoubtedly a trip for fans to see a connection between the two nonetheless.
As for the aftermath of Jameson’s revelations, and the frame job done on Spidey by Mysterio…we’re going to have to wait for the wallcrawler’s next adventure to see what happens next.
Don Kaye is a Los Angeles-based entertainment journalist and associate editor of Den of Geek. Other current and past outlets include Syfy, United Stations Radio Networks, Fandango, MSN, RollingStone.com and many more. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @donkaye
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