JK Simmons once won an Academy Award for his role in Whiplash, where he played Terence Fletcher — a psychotic jazz instructoror at the fictional Shaffer Conservatory. Even with one Oscar under his belt, the actor considers his time as one J. Jonah Jameson one of the highlights of his career. In fact, Simmons recently told Den of Geek that his time on Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy has spawned a life-long appreciation of the filmmaker.
“Those movies with Sam will always be big highlights of my career and life,” the Spider-Man star told the website. “Sam is one of my favorite directors and human beings.”
Simmons ended up playing Jameson, the editor of the fictional Daily Bugle, in all three films in Raimi’s trilogy. Fast forward to 2019 and the actor return to the role in Spider-Man: Far From Home, playing an updated version of the classic comics character.
“To have the opportunity to kind of do a reboot of the character, I was eager to hang on to the things I really loved about it and totally open to letting go of some of that, and realizing we are in a more updated version of that universe,” the actor added. “Hopefully, we found the sweet spot there.”
It’s expected Simmons will return this December for at least one more go-around in Spider-Man: No Way Home, reportedly starring alongside other Raimi-verse actors like Alfred Molina (Doctor Octopus) and Willem Dafoe (Green Goblin).
“For a lot of characters, that evolution is a really important aspect,” Simmons concluded. “I like the lack of evolution of that character. There are ways that he’s evolved, but he’s the same blowhard… and that’s what I enjoy doing.”
Starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, Jamie Foxx, Alfred Molina, and Benedict Cumberbatch, Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into theaters on December 17th.
What other Spidey-family characters do you think could end up appearing in No Way Home? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!