J.K. Simmons is one of the most well-respected and prolific character actors in the business, but for a long time it looked as though his days of dabbling in the superhero genre were over. His three-film contract to board the DCEU yielded seconds of screentime in the theatrical edition of Justice League, and Spider-Man had been rebooted twice since we last saw him as Daily Bugle magnate J. Jonah Jameson.
However, that’s all poised to change in a major way, and not just because the Academy Award winner is in talks to return as Gotham City’s police commissioner in HBO Max’s Batgirl. After making a surprise cameo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s No Way Home, Simmons was teased as part of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and from what we’ve been hearing the symbiotic sequel is poised to bridge the gap between the MCU and Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.
We’re now hearing from our sources – the same ones who told us Trevor Slattery was returning in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings long before it was confirmed – that Kevin Feige reportedly wants Simmons to recur throughout the entire MCU, and not just the Spider-Man franchise.
Should the veteran badass also show up in Morbius as has been rumored in the past, then he could end up providing the connective tissue between the two parallel superhero mythologies, even when Venom isn’t around. It’s an interesting concept, and one that fans would be more than happy with based on the enthusiasm to have greeted Simmons’ Jameson, dating back almost 20 years to Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man.
