Spider-Man: Far From Home Post-Credits Scene Contains the MCU’s Greatest Cameo

Now that Spider-Man: Far From Home has been released in theaters, fans are flooding social media with their spoiler-filled thoughts and reactions. One thing that just about every single person seeing the movie is freaking out about? A jaw-dropping cameo in Far From Home‘s first post-credits scene. At the press screening I attended last week, this singular moment had me and just about every other person in the room standing up and shouting at the screen out of pure joy. Not only is the moment in question a fantastic addition to Spider-Man’s current story, but it is truly the greatest cameo in the decade-plus history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For a franchise known for its clever cameos, that’s saying an awful lot.

WARNING: This article contains major spoilers from Spider-Man: Far From Home! Continue reading at your own risk…

If you’re still reading at this point you’ve either A) seen Spider-Man: Far From Home or B) you just like reading about spoilers. In either case, you probably know which cameo I’m referring to. In the first post-credits scene for the MCU’s latest, J.K. Simmons appears on a large television screen in downtown New York City, reprising his role as the boisterous J. Jonah Jameson from Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy.

I cannot overstate how wonderful it feels to write that sentence. It’s any Spider-Man fan’s dream come true. J.K. Simmons plays J. Jonah Jameson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Go ahead, soak it in.

Many Marvel fans, myself included, still feel like Simmons’ casting as The Daily Bugle editor in Raimi’s Spider-Man remains the most comic-accurate casting decision in all of superhero film history. He looked like a spot-on replica of the comics iteration of the character, and had the uncanny ability to bring Jameson’s obnoxious and unnecessary anger to the screen without ever seeming like a tyrant. He sucked, but in a way that allowed you to still want good things for him at the end of the day. It was a perfect marriage of character and actor, and it felt like we would never see it again. But as it turns out, Marvel and Sony love us. They really, truly love us.

When it was announced that Spider-Man would be joining the MCU, there were three major casting decisions that instantly crossed the minds of every fan: Peter Parker, Aunt May, and J. Jonah Jameson. Obviously Spider-Man is first, and Aunt May is incredibly important to his story. J. Jonah Jameson isn’t, as we’ve seen in the last few Spider-Man films. He isn’t necessary to Peter’s development, so why does everyone care so much about who’s playing him?

We care about J. Jonah Jameson because J.K. Simmons made us. He turned a good supporting character into a big screen comic book legend, and we’ve never forgotten. It’s for this reason that we’ve been so nervous to see who would eventually play Jameson in the MCU. No mater who landed the role, they would be compared to Simmons and they’d more than likely fall short. That’s why this cameo is so brilliant on the part of Sony and Marvel Studios.

Instead of trying to compete with what came before, and set their own tone with the character, the two studios actually listened to what the fans wanted. They knew how much we all adored Simmons in the Jameson role, and knew that no one else could compare. So they simply did the unthinkable and went out and got him. I never in a million years thought the MCU would allow a character from a previous Marvel franchise to resurface in continuity, but here we are, and I couldn’t be happier.

There is no cameo in the MCU that compares to this one. Honestly, its not even close. No disrespect to Stan Lee, Lou Ferrigno, or Nathan Fillion, but Simmons’ appearance is in a class all its own. Simmons as Jameson has been something fans have wanted more of for over a decade, and something we truly believed we’d never see again. To put it not only in the MCU, but in the post-credits scene of one of its most anticipated films during Spider-Man’s most crucial on-screen moment is a stroke of absolute genius. It could not have been more shocking for audiences and therefore couldn’t have been more effective than it was in that scene.

What comes next for J. Jonah Jameson and “the controversial news website TheDailyBugle.net” in the MCU is uncertain, but that’s okay. We know the future of the character is in good hands, because those hands belong to J.K. Simmons, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.