Spider-Man 3 Theory: How Doctor Octopus & Electro Return (After Their Deaths)

Alfred Molina and Jamie Foxx are reprising the roles of Doctor Octopus and Electro in Spider-Man 3 - and here's how their characters could have survived their deaths. The Multiverse was subtly set up in the Thor films, shifted to the foreground in Avengers: Endgame when the Avengers unwittingly created alternate timelines, and promises to be central to the MCU's entire Phase 4 slate. Disney+ shows include the likes of Loki and What If..?, Scarlet Witch looks set to get reality-warping powers in WandaVision, and Doctor Strange 2 will explore a so-called "Multiverse of Madness."

And then there is Spider-Man 3, the eagerly-anticipated Spider-Man threequel that has recently begun filming in Atlanta. There have been repeated rumors this will be a "Spider-Verse" style movie, inspired by the classic 2014 comic book event and perhaps even influenced by the animated hit Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. There have been constant rumors and reports Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are reprising their roles as other iterations of Spider-Man, meaning Tom Holland could well wind up teaming up with his predecessors.

One thing seems to be certain, though; whether Maguire and Garfield are returning or not, Tom Holland's Spider-Man will soon wind up facing off against their enemies. Although the actors themselves are refusing to confirm anything, there have been consistent reports Jamie Foxx and Alfred Molina are returning to Spider-Man 3 as Electro and Doctor Octopus, respectively.

Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus & Jamie Foxx's Electro Are Expected To Return In Spider-Man 3

Doc Ock on top of a building in Spider-Man 2

Alfred Molina was cast as Doctor Octopus in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2, which is still regarded as one of the best superhero films of all time. He played Otto Octavius as a twisted, tortured figure whose four tentacles were almost like demons, twisting him and tempting him towards evil. This version of Doctor Octopus was obsessed with creating the world's first fusion reactor, and his experiments threatened to consume the planet itself; in the end, his humanity won out, though, and he apparently sacrificed his life to save the world. Like all the best Spider-Man villains, this Doc Ock had a personal tie to Peter Parker, and it took Spider-Man's unmasking to ultimately redeem him. And now it seems Molina is returning as Doctor Octopus, with reports confirming he'll be fully outfitted with Doc Octopus' metal tentacles.

Jamie Foxx's Electro wasn't exactly a highlight in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but to be fair that wasn't exactly a highlight of the Spider-Man franchise to date. Marc Webb's movie was overstuffed with characters and concepts, and Electro was pretty poorly handled, with a rushed origin story that felt frankly stereotypical. In early October news broke that Spider-Man 3 is bringing back Foxx's Electro, although it's not clear whether he'll have blue skin again. Foxx himself is still toying with journalists, refusing to admit he's playing his old supervillain role, but it feels like a done deal.

It's true Marvel hasn't explicitly confirmed the Multiverse in Spider-Man 3 just yet; thus it's possible Molina and Foxx are playing MCU equivalents of their famous characters, in much the same way J.K. Simmons returned as a new incarnation of J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: Far From Home. But, realistically, all the signs are that they'll actually be reprising the same versions. Marvel and Sony are both allowing anticipation for the Multiverse to build, and by this point anything else would be viewed as a disappointment. So how could these two particular villains have survived?

Doctor Octopus' Spider-Man 2 Survival Would Make Sense

Doc Ock and his fusion power device in Spider-Man 2

Surprisingly, it's not hard to imagine a scenario where Doctor Octopus survived Spider-Man 2 - only to be blasted into the Multiverse. Spider-Man 2's Otto Octavius was an expert in nuclear fusion, attempting to create the world's first fusion reactor, but his experiments went badly wrong and instead he created what seemed to be a miniature black hole. In the real world, many scientists have theorized black holes are actually spacetime events that would allow for the creation of wormholes through time and space; in fact, that theory has been championed by figures as esteemed as Stephen Hawking. "Black holes are not the eternal prisons they were once thought," Hawking said in a speech in 2015. "If you feel you are trapped in a black hole, don’t give up. There is a way out." If Hawking is correct, anything that falls into a black hole will inevitably escape, but somewhere else in the Multiverse, perhaps even in an alternate universe. "The hole would need to be large and if it was rotating it might have a passage to another universe," he speculated. "But you couldn’t come back to our universe."

According to this theory, then, Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus didn't necessarily die in Spider-Man 2; rather, he could have been consumed by the singularity just before his death. He would then have been transported to some other location in the Multiverse - perhaps even to the MCU timeline. Marvel could choose to have him emerge in the present-day, using their famous de-aging technology on Molina to make that work. Alternatively, he could have entered the MCU years ago, and have been watching from the shadows. Peter Parker's being outed as Spider-Man could have driven him out into the open.

Electro's Amazing Spider-Man 2 Survival Is Also Possible

Doctor Octopus' survival would make a measure of scientific sense, but Electro's is a little more problematic. There was no redemption for Electro, who caused a citywide blackout and reveled in the chaos; Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man and Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy worked together to overload him with a massive surge of electricity to stop him. But - by luck rather than planning - the actual portrayal of Electro's death in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 actually opens up the possibility he didn't die. The excess of power seemed to cause Electro's body to break apart at an atomic level, and he died in a flare of energy.

This apparent death may in reality have been a metamorphosis. In the comics, Electro has the ability to transform himself into a being of pure energy; this has even been used against him on occasion, with Thor channeling Electro as a lightning bolt in an embarrassing defeat. Instead of being killed by the overload, Electro could instead have been converted into another form. This could well have unlocked the ability to jump between alternate universes, a power Electro demonstrated in Mike Costa and Robbie Thompson's Web Warriors series, where one Electro identified the electromagnetic signatures associated with traveling between dimensions. The comics themselves, therefore, establish the precedent for The Amazing Spider-Man 2's Electro to make his way into the MCU.

It's interesting to note that, so far, only two of the villains associated with the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb Spider-Man films are returning. There have been no reports of Willem Defoe coming back as Green Goblin, or of Thomas Haden Church reprising the role of Sandman; Rhys Ifans hasn't been mentioned as the Lizard, nor has there been any indication Dane DeHaan is coming back as Harry Osborn. All of those are characters who met a definitive end in their respective films, and who couldn't be brought back quite so easily as Doctor Octopus and Electro. This, in itself, appears to support the theory Spider-Man 3 is actually a Multiversal movie of some sort - and it can't be long before we hit the Spider-Verse.

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