Eric Hauserman Carroll, Spider-Man: Far From Home executive producer, confirms that J. Jonah Jameson will make his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe this July.
Slashfilm sat down with the executive producer during a Q&A while on the Spider-Man: Far From Home set in London.
While Carroll admitted that J. Jonah Jameson would join the MCU, he declined to comment on how audiences would come to see the beloved character. When asked directly about the Daily Bugle and Jameson joining the MCU, Carroll had this to say, “Yes, we’ve absolutely talked and thought about those characters a lot, specifically in reference to this film.” He continued, “What we just want to make sure we’re [presenting] them in a way that doesn’t make you feel instantly like you’ve seen them before. So, we have a couple of ideas…”
Carroll continues to talk about how times have changed since the original Sam Raimi trilogy, “There’s this cool, weird thing happening where being a photographer isn’t necessarily a mark of distinction anymore. We all have better cameras in our pockets than most people even owned ten years ago. So how do we get Peter or somebody into that world without it feeling like, do kids really aspire to go be photographers for The New York Times anymore? Or do they aspire to have their tweet reposted, and so on.”
“So we’re trying to pay as much homage to the source material as possible, and we do think there are a couple of fun ideas like that in here, most of which I don’t want to spell out for you, but absolutely. We want to take as much of the mythology that people love and present it in a way that’s totally faithful to what people love about it, but in a [different] way.”
The original trilogy had J.K. Simmons playing Parker’s Spider-Man hating, cigar puffing boss who fans came to love in what some call, the “perfect casting.”
While there were no confirmations made by Carroll, audiences could be seeing Jameson radically differently. If the goal is to modernize the Daily Bugle to fit in with the rest of the new Spider-Man movies, viewers could end up seeing Jameson being played as a new age social media influencer à la Kylie Jenner or PewDiePie.
An influencer or Millennial blogger would be the perfect way for Jameson to reach Parker. For years, the Daily Bugle reminded Parker’s character that there will always be critics and contempt, no matter how “friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man” you are. An Instagramer with legions of followers hounding Spider-Man modernizes, yet doesn’t diminish the influence the Daily Bugle had over Spider-Man’s life.
J. Jonah Jameson was recently modernized in Marvel’s Spider-Man for the PlayStation 4. as a podcaster. The updated Bugle was called “Just The Facts with J. Jonah Jameson,” a conspiracy theorist talk show.
Spider-Man: Far From Home comes out July 2, 2019.