This story contains MASSIVE spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home, so seriously, STOP reading now if you haven’t yet seen the movie. We’re about to discuss one of the movie’s biggest surprises.
The first mid-credits sequence in Spider-Man: Far From Home is a jaw-dropper. It is, without exaggeration, the best mid-credits scene in the history of the MCU (which is saying a lot), and for Spider-Man fans, it’s a moment we have been waiting for ever since Andrew Garfield stepped into his own Spider-Man movies, and ESPECIALLY since Tom Holland carried Peter Parker over to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
J. Jonah Jameson and the Daily Bugle are officially part of the MCU.
And even better than that, JK Simmons is still playing the iconic role, as last seen in the Sam Raimi trilogy from 2002 to 2007.
The cameo is a thing of beauty. Spider-Man (Tom Holland) has just dropped MJ (Zendaya) off on a New York City street, and is about to swing away when a news broadcast on a large screen catches his attention. Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) has one more trick up his sleeve. He has manipulated footage to accuse Spidey of the drone attack in London, and at the end of the clip, he reveals Peter Parker’s identity to the world.
Shocking! But even better is that the news is delivered by the publisher of TheDailyBugle.net, and it’s none other than JK Simmons back in the role of the perpetually disgruntled J. Jonah Jameson.
We were lucky enough to speak with Spider-Man: Far From Home director Jon Watts on an episode of the ReelBlend podcast, and when we reached spoiler territory, our very first question had to be about the return of JK Simmons, and the introduction of J. Jonah Jameson into the MCU. He told us:
We knew we were going to reveal Spider-Man's identity at the end of the movie, and it had to be through the media somehow. And then you start talking about, what is the main media in Spider-Man comics, and it has always been The Daily Bugle. And then so you start talking about what The Daily Bugle might be now. And then we started talking about J. Jonah Jameson, and it's like... it's gotta be him. Like, there was never any discussion about it being someone else. Like, it's gotta be JK Simmons. The question was just, would he do it? …It was an amazing meeting. We saved that until the very, very, very end because we wanted to keep it a secret and we didn't want it somehow [get out]. We shot it in like a conference room at Marvel with like a green screen set up. It was funny because it was the exact same setup that we shot, essentially, the kid's news from the beginning [of the movie]. … It was just him and a desk and a green screen. He just launched into it, and it was amazing, because I was just watching the movie. I asked him, I said, ‘Is this weird?’ And he's like, ‘It's a little weird.’ But he just stepped right back into the role. And it was, it was, I had goosebumps.
Jon Watts was not the only one with goosebumps. I screamed out loud when Simmons returned to the screen as J. Jonah Jameson – not just because he’s perfect for the part, and basically the only person who can play Jameson, but because I want him in the MCU making life miserable for Peter.
By the end of Far From Home, Peter Parker has evolved beyond Queens. He has stepped out of Tony Stark’s shadow, and he’s ready to be his own hero. And he needs his classic antagonist. We are SO ready to see where this crazy twist goes in what we expect will be a third Spider-Man movie in the MCU.
What did you think? What was your reaction to JK Simmons returning to the role of J. Jonah Jameson? How did your theater react? Head to the comments and share what happened when this jaw-dropping scene played out.
