Last week, it was confirmed that Jamie Foxx would reprise his role as Electro in the upcoming third Spider-Man movie with Tom Holland. And while this version of Electro will make his first-time debut in the MCU, we can’t help but wonder whether or not this is a whole new Electro or if this one is coming from another universe. Let me explain the line of thinking here…
Earlier today, we covered the news that Doctor Strange would have a big role in Spider-Man 3 as Peter’s Mentor, with Cumberbatch joining Tom Holland in the wall-crawler’s next big-screen flick, which is scheduled to release in December of next year. Just a few months after that, we know that the sequel to Doctor Strange’s solo movie, In the Multiverse of Madness, releases in March, which means that these two films will very likely be connected to one another. Stay with me here…
We know, if rumors are to be believed, that the Multiverse has endless possibilities and that one of those possibilities is the consideration of introducing the X-Men into the MCU by having them be from another universe (although, it’s also possible that humans may start developing powers through the powers of the Infinity Stones, but only Kevin Fiege knows for sure). If that be the case, it is possible that other universes could be opened up to spill over into the primary MCU, and there are other rumors that Sony desperately wants to bring back Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield into a future live-action Spider-Verse film (allegedly those two, along with Tom Holland, had a deleted/scrapped scene which included the 3 live-action Spideys in the animated Into the Spider-Verse film somehow). See where I am going with this?
Okay, the biggest bit that unravels this whole thing is that J.K. Simmons came back to reprise his role as J. Jonah Jameson to be what is clearly a different (but similar) version to the J.J we know from Raimi’s trilogy. The MCU Jameson is entirely different than the one from the films with Maguire. This is likely to be the case with this version of Electro as well. But with a Multi-Verse opening up, it is possible that a handful of things could happen in the upcoming Spider-Man 3. Let’s consider a few:
- The MCU Peter might end up dealing with Multi-Verse stuff with Doctor Strange at some point in the movie, opening up a future Maguire, Garfield, and Holland team-up. If this were to happen, it could be how the Sinister 6 is dealt with (six villains vs 3 Spider-Men).
- If the Multi-Verse does in fact come into play during Spidey 3, it could be how a handful of otherwise unknown villains appear in the MCU that has not yet been identified or included. This could include Electro, among others.
- As the MCU Spider-Man, Tom Holland may end up transported to the Amazing Spider-Man film universe with Garfield where they face the Sinister 6, including Electro, with the help of Maguire’s Spider-Man.
- After Far From Home, Peter could end up in an entirely different but identical universe where he wasn’t outted as Mysterio (extremely unlikely, but a theory nonetheless). Or, another theory related to this is that Doctor Strange could wipe the memories of everyone who saw the broadcast where Mysterio outted Peter (again, unlikely as this will probably be resolved with the help of Fury and Talos a la the Skrulls shapeshifting ability).
- Perhaps the whole plot to Spider-Man 3 is seeing a Multi-Verse of Spider-Men, where Peter must fight his way out. The film could then end with Doctor Strange looking into the possibilities of the Multi-Verse and taking it upon himself to explore it in his own movie (along with Scarlet Witch), which releases just a few months later.
These theories are just a small handful of ones we have seen flying around the web, but it is interesting to note that Kevin Feige actually consulted and gave notes on Electro, the version seen in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Turns out, during the great Sony email hack of 2014, Amy Pascal and Feige exchanged notes via email where Feige provided his thoughts on the character.
“Really love Electro – feels like you may not need the scene in his apartment, which makes him seems completely crazy and hard to relate too [sic].”
This means that while Feige was doing his thing with Disney|Marvel, Sony was asking for help before agreeing to share the character of Spider-Man in the MCU. Furthermore, this suggests that the version of Electro we got in TASM2 was actually a better version than we otherwise would have gotten without Feige’suggestions. Even more so, this means we will really see a more fine-tuned version of Electro in the upcoming third Spidey flick, we just don’t know if he is a natural-born MCU character or if he will come from another universe, though the former is far more reasonably likely.
At the time of this writing, Spider-Man 3 is set to release in December of 2021 with In the Universe of Madness following just a few months after in March of 2022.
