Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy (at least the first two-thirds of it) is the quintessential Spidey movie-going experience. The suit, the comicbook campiness, the origin, the Parker-luck, New York City, Harry Osborn, Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Aunt May, MJ, and of course… J. Jonah Jameson. The movies just feel like a 1960s-era Stan Lee/Steve Ditko/John Romita comicbook come to life. Say what you will about all the other casting choices, but no one has embodied a comicbook character more perfectly than J.K. Simmons as newspaperman and professional Spidey-hater, J. Jonah Jameson.
J.K. Simmons’ stint as ole’ flat-top in Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3 is the stuff of legend. So much so that Jameson hadn’t shown up in a movie about the wallcrawler since 2007. No one could imagine another actor succeeding in that role the way Simmons did – which brings us to 2019 and Spider-Man: Far From Home’s debut in theaters mere months ago. In a shocking mid-credit scene, Simmons reappeared as a reimagined version of J. J. and blew the audience away.
Now he’s back in a Daily Bugle promo video for Spider-Man: Far From Home’s Blu-ray release. Just like his appearance at the end of the movie, Simmons arrives via YouTube as a new InfoWars-inspired interpretation of the always angry Jameson. Per-usual, Jameson rails against Spider-Man and hails Mysterio as the real hero.
Not only is there a video, but an entire Daily Bugle website is live with “news” stories from within the MCU, including interviews with survivors of the Blip, an expose on the Night Monkey, and even a piece about storming Area 51.
It seems Spider-Man is a menace once more. Below Jameson’s video of fury, it reads: “The war on fake news has a hero: J JONAH JAMESON and THE DAILY BUGLE.NET! Where the tides of real news crash the shore of dangerous truth, the Daily Bugle will be there! Read the stories that the super-powers-that-be don’t want you to know! Stay informed! Be a real hero! Listen… to the BUGLE!”
Although this iteration of J.J. seems a bit more extreme than in the Sam Raimi flicks, it’s kind of comforting to know that whatever changes come along for Spider-Man, we can always count on J. Jonah Jameson to be there to make it worse for the web head. Now, bring me pictures of SPIDER-MAN! Wait… does he even want those anymore? Also, is his trusted barber out of work now? Excelsior…?