Warning: This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Spider-Man: No Way Home brings back three of the Spider-Man franchise’s biggest foes in a major way, as well as two more to a lesser extent. Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus, and Jamie Foxx’s Electro serve as the main antagonists, with Thomas Haden Church’s Sandman and Rhys Ifans’ Lizard also in the mix. For Foxx, it’s the first time he’s been in the Marvel universe since 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Since then, much has changed in the Spidey franchise, and Electro has changed with it. While speaking to Marvel.com ahead of the film’s release, Foxx opened up about how different Max Dillon is this time around. In contrast to his all-blue look in TASM 2, Dillon appears much closer to his comic book design in No Way Home. Foxx explained that he pushed for Max to have “a little hipness” to him this time around.
The [biggest] thing that changed is that he acknowledged the way he looked,” Foxx said. “He acknowledged, ‘Oh, I like this, I dig this.’ By doing that, it answers any questions like why or what’s this thing? Being able to do that, and just bringing a little of the way I wanted to talk and how I wanted to present myself, [Electro] has a little hipness to him.”
Warning: minor spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home to follow.
Foxx then discussed the crossover moments in the threequel that gave him the biggest thrill or those he knows fans will love the best. He referenced Electro getting his mitts on one of Stark’s arc reactors as well as one moment on set, which featured certain people coming together that he thinks “transcends art.” Anyone who saw the movie will know exactly what moment the actor is talking about.
“The thing Electro gets in his chest; he gets ahold of [the arc reactor], that’s going to be crazy,” Foxx added. “And just looking to my right, and looking to my left, the people that were onset, and going, ‘Wow, It’s a moment.’ It transcends art right now. This is a moment that people- and I remember saying, ‘When you walk out sir, there will be cheers and tears.’”
With the legacy villains teaming up, Foxx worked a lot with Dafoe and Molina during production, and the actor gushed about the talent and coolness of his fellow Spidey foes. Apparently, Dafoe is even more of a jokester on set than Foxx is.
“Just the most incredible people. When people have this sheer talent, like there’s no doubt about it, they’re just cooler,” Foxx revealed. “Mr. Dafoe — as I would call him — every time I walked onto set, I would bow seven times [at him]. I said, ‘I’m going to bow seven times because I’ve been watching [your movies] for years and you’re just amazing.’ It was just so funny and when he wasn’t doing his thing, he was doing jokes and everything like that, which is usually what I do; he had me on the ground cracking up. When you’re able to come together for something that’s fun, with people that you really admire and respect, that’s just the cherry on top.”
Electro arguably wasn’t as popular with fans as Goblin and Doc Ock the first time around, but Foxx definitely holds his own against the Raimi villains in Spider-Man: No Way Home and should win the character a lot more fans.