Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures' Spider-Man 3 is bringing back Jamie Foxx's villain Electro. Foxx initially played Max Dillon aka Electro in 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opposite Andrew Garfield, who reprised the role of Peter Parker from The Amazing Spider-Man. However, when Amazing Spider-Man 2 underperformed with critics and at the box office, it stalled out Sony's Marvel franchise. As a result, Foxx's villain was sidelined along with all the other Marvel characters introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man films.

Since then, Sony Pictures teamed up with Marvel Studios to reboot the wall-crawling superhero, and Tom Holland debuted as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Spider-Man in 2016's Captain America: Civil War. He's since reprised the role in two Avengers movies as well as two solo Spidey films, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home. After a dispute last summer between Sony and Marvel/Disney over the future of the Spider-Man character, Holland is next set to appear in the as-yet-untitled Spider-Man 3, as well as a future team-up film. Currently, Spider-Man 3 is slated for a late 2021 release.

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Now, THR is reporting that Foxx is in final talks to appear in Sony and Marvel Studios' Spider-Man 3 as the villain Electro. Marvel declined to comment on the story. According to THR, Spider-Man 3 story details are under wraps and it's unclear how he'll fit into the MCU movie.

Tom Holland as Peter Parker in Spider-Man Far From Home

This, of course, isn't the first time the MCU Spider-Man films have brought back an actor from a previous Spidey franchise to reprise their role. In a Spider-Man: From Home post-credits scene, J.K. Simmons reprised the role of J. Jonah Jameson, albeit a different version of the character. As established in the film, Jameson's Daily Bugle website is more of a conspiracy theory hub, but then he gains notoriety for reporting Spider-Man killed Mysterio and outing Peter Parker as the web-slinging superhero. As such, it's unclear how much Foxx's Electro in Spider-Man 3 will be different to the character he played in Amazing Spider-Man 2, though based on the MCU's handling of Jameson it does seem a reboot of Max Dillon is likely.

That said, with WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness expected to fully introduce the concept of the multiverse to the MCU, it's possible Electro in Spider-Man 3 could be explained in that way. If that were the case, it would establish The Amazing Spider-Man movies as existing in another part of the multiverse, which is a concept also explored extensively in Sony's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The 2018 animated film established that Venom was set in another universe, so the framework is already there, the MCU would just need to take advantage of it. But, it's not yet known whether that's how Spider-Man 3 will introduce Electro to the MCU. For now, more details will need to be revealed about the Spider-Man 3 story before it's clear how Electro fits in.

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Source: THR

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