Spider-Man 3: Is Jamie Foxx's Electro Confirmation of a Live-Action Spider-Verse?

Jamie Foxx is set to play Electro in Marvel's Spider-Man 3 - the Oscar-winning actor's second time taking on the role. Foxx already starred as Max Dillon/Electro in Sony's Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), a film that was largely panned and ended Sony's rebooted Spider-Man franchise before it could launch the large Spider-Man Universe that Sony had planned for the 2010s. Naturally, Jamie Foxx's Electro the Marvel Cinematic Universe Spide-Man (Tom Holland) is raising all sorts of burning questions in fans' minds. First and foremost is the question that we're discussing here: Is Jamie Foxx's Spider-Man 3 casting our first confirmation that a live-action Spider-Verse is taking shape?

What is The Spider-Verse?

The "Spider-Verse" is now a name generally used to refer to the Spider-Man's experiences in the Marvel multiverse, in which the Web-Slinger either travels to alternate dimensions with their own versions of Spider-Man and/or when multiple Spider-Men from alternate realities have had to band together and fight evil elements of the Spider-Verse. It's a concept that really got explored at the end of the '90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series cartoon ("Spider-War"), before Marvel, made it a comic book event in the 2014 "Spider-Verse" storyline. That 2010s Spider-Verse story helped to make both new and old alternate versions of Spider-Man (Spider-Gwen, Silk, Spider-Man 2099...) regular players in the Spider-Man comic line, helping the Web-Slinger flesh out a corner of Marvel that's all his own.

Spider-Man: Into The $Pider-Verse

"Spider-Verse" was the sort of event that may appeal to comic book fans, but Sony tested the concept out on the mainstream media stage, with the release of the Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse animated movie of 2018. The movie was a modest box office hit at first ($375 million worldwide), but would go on to be a major cult-hit on home video, as well as winning the 2019 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Into The Spider-Verse has since spawned a highly-anticipated sequel (due in 2022), as well as an entire franchise line of potential animated spinoff films and series. It also got audiences across the world primed and ready for a new kind of adventure: a live-action Spider-Verse movie!

Live-Action Spider-Verse

All three Spider-Man movie actors (Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland) are generally loved by fans, and the desire to bring them together in a live-action Spider-Verse movie has never died. That kind of event film has grown to include Tom Hardy's Venom, and possibly Woody Harrelson's Carnage, as well. Moreover, rumblings at Sony over the last year have pointed to several other projects that could fit into a live-action Spider-Verse movie - including Olivia Wilde's upcoming Marvel film, which is expected to be Spider-Woman.

Sony has already been mulling the question of a live-action Spider-Verse, telling Into The Spider-Verse producer Chris Miller that it was "too soon" at the time of the animated film's production - too soon, but not "never."

Spider-Man actor Tom Holland has also endorsed the idea, saying an interview:

"Of course I would love to make a movie with those guys, it would be so cool!" Holland said. "It would be amazing, it would be really, really cool. And it's something that the fans really want. So whether Marvel and Sony decided to do that, it's up to them. It's not up to me, I can't walk in like 'Kevin [Feige], this is what we're doing on the next one.' But it would be really awesome."

Devil In The Details

At the time of writing this, we don't know the circumstances of how Jamie Foxx's Electro would fit into Spider-Man 3 - or if it will be the same Electro we met in Amazing Spider-Man 2. That film ended with Max Dillon/Electro being overloaded and seemingly killed; since he is essentially an energy being, Electro would be one character that could conceivably phase into some other dimension. lt would be interesting if Tom Holland's Peter Parker/Spider-Man actually had to deal with an elemental-style being from another universe, after Mysterio's fake-outs in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

The other big detail here is how Spider-Man 3 could connect to other MCU Phase 4 projects like WandaVision or Doctor Strange: In Multiverse of Madness. We knew those two projects were connected by their story of Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) using her powers to mess with the boundaries of reality, but we never figured Spider-Man 3 could be related... until now. By releasing in December 2021, Spider-Man 3 will be released months before Doctor Strange 2 (March 2022), so whatever is broken with reality (starting in WandaVision) that Doctor Strange needs to fix, it could end up affecting Spider-Man's world too. It's hard to speculate without seeing more of Phase 4.

Do you want to see a live-action Spider-Verse happen? Let us know in the comments!