Marvel

Spider-Man’s J.K. Simmons “Argued Against” J. Jonah Jameson Losing Iconic Haircut for MCU (Exclusive)

We talked to J.K. Simmons about Invincible and Spider-Man.
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Invincible‘s second season returned to Prime this week after the midseason finale dropped on Amazon’s streaming service back in November. “This Must Come as a Shock” saw the return of many fan-favorite characters, including Nolan Grayson/Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). In honor of the animated show’s return, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Simmons about the series. During the interview, Simmons’ time playing J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man franchise came up. He originally played the Daily Bugle’seditor-in-chief in Sam Raimi’s trilogy and then made a surprise return as the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the character was a bit different in Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home. In the MCU, Simmons wasn’t rocking the character’s signature haircut. 

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“That was not mine,” Simmons said of the hair idea. “And in fact, I argued against it. I think honestly, it was a question of by the time they got around to, they were deep into post-production on the movie, and we shot that one day of whatever, two, three, four scenes I had in the first movie. We shot it in one day in somebody’s office on the Sony lot or one of the studio lots in LA. They just cleared out their pictures of their wives and kids and it was shot so quickly that I suspect part of the reason for them arguing against it was, I mean, the logical argument against it is it’s many years…”

“The Sam Raimi trilogy was very much kind of a throwback vibe, and particularly my character,” he continued. “I mean, I was kind of channeling the Preston Sturgis-era of movie making… We finally sort of compromised by me saying, I really want to keep the mustache. I really want to keep everything about the guy. And then the debate that we’re inspiring I guess is ‘Did he go bald in the meantime or was he wearing a toupee his entire life as the head of The Daily Bugle?’ But I think at the end of the day, it’s an appropriate way to bring that character into the 21st century as the kind of media mogul that he is as opposed to the kind of dinosaur that he was.”

What Is Invincible About?

Invincible is an adult animated superhero series that revolves around 17-year-old Mark Grayson, who’s just like every other guy his age — except his father is the most powerful superhero on the planet, Omni-Man. But as Mark develops powers of his own, he discovers his father’s legacy may not be as heroic as it seems.”  

Invincible stars Steven Yeun as Mark Grayson, J.K. Simmons as Omni-Man, Sandra’s Oh as Debbie Grayson, Zazie Beetz as Amber Bennett, Grey Griffin as Shrinking Rae and Monster Girl, Kevin Michael Richardson as the Mauler Twins, Walton Goggin as Cecil Stedman, Gillian Jacobs as Atom Eve, Zachary Quinto as Robot, Jason Mantzoukas as Rex Sloan/Rex Splode and Seth Rogen as Allen the Alien. New additions to the cast will include Chloe Bennet, Rob Delaney, Paul F. Tompkins, Peter Cullen, Tim Robinson, Tatiana Maslany, Sterling K. Brown, Phil Lamarr, Lea Thompson, Jay Pharoah, Calista Flockhart, and almost too many others to mention. 

Invincible‘s next episode drops on Prime on March 21st.