Marc Webb Talks Jamie Foxx and Electro in 'Amazing Spider-Man 2'

Yesterday we got the big news that Jamie Foxx was in talks to take the role of Electro, one of the infamous Sinister Six, in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Marc Webb is back to direct the sequel starring Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy and Shailene Woodley has been added to the cast as Mary Jane Watson. Funnily enough, when the big Spider-Man news broke yesterday, ComingSoon had a chat with Webb, and while he wasn't allowed to confirm the casting flat out, his response to questions about Foxx's involvement was, "I think Jamie Foxx is electrifying!" That's good enough for me.

Webb went on to praise Foxx's talents and basically explains why he's a good fit for the sequel:

"I think Jamie Foxx is one of the best actors around today. He's such a great character actor and he's a really brilliant guy. I would love to work with him and you'll be hearing more on that shortly, I'm sure."

In addition, he elaborated on his use of Electro slightly, and lumped it into a brief statement about the supporting characters in the sequel, and why they're important to his reimagination of Spider-Man:

"I like Electro. I'm fascinated by Norman Osborn and the different inflections of him. And Harry. Mary Jane and Gwen are always interesting to me. What makes villains interesting to me is what they bring out in Peter," Webb explained. "What challenges they provide for him. What's great about Marvel and other comics is that often there's a pre-existing relationship… It's not just about the physical conflict he has, but the emotional ones as well."

There have been rumblings that Norman Harry Osborn would show up in this sequel as well, and Webb has definitely confirmed that fact. But this won't be just a carbon copy of the story we've already seen with the Osborn family in Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man trilogy. Webb says:

"What's exciting about moving forward is that, in the first movie, I had to still honor some of the important elements of the origin story. But I also wanted to redefine the context of it because I'm building a different universe than what we've seen before. A lot of the nuance is quite different. Now, as we're approaching the sequel, it's really exciting because I feel quite liberated. I have a universe that's my own. I don't have an obligation to the origin story. It's pretty fun and exciting and I can dig deeper into the parents."

More specifically, Webb sees Oscorp as being an integral part of Spider-Man's story. He told Collider:

“When I was thinking about the universe as a whole—and I talked about this with [screenwriter] Jamie Vanderbilt way back in the day—that all crazy stuff in this universe emerges from Oscorp. Oscorp predates Spider-Man and Peter Parker. His parents were involved in some way. And Oscorp represents… The building itself, there was something iconic about it. To me it’s like the Tower of Babel, which is this testament to man’s hubris. Peter’s relationship will evolve with it over time. That was really one of the central components, one of the pieces that tied all these stories together, this relationship with Oscorp.”

Hoepfully we get some more of that "untold" origin story that was clearly missing from The Amazing Spider-Man and made for some frustrating plotholes. Webb indicates that there's plenty to come involving Peter's parents in the rest of the films:

“[The story with the parents] is the long shadow that’s cast over the three films. I want these films to have a serialized component, and there’s a slow burn to that. I need to leave some juice for the second movie. That was one of the more exciting things about creating Spider-Man, was that I could create more than one and there was a serialized component to it.”

Webb's new take on Spider-Man the first time around wasn't different enough to be a compelling new version of the hero, but we're hoping this liberation talk isn't just smoke being blown up fans asses, and we get a solid comic book sequel covering new ground. This is an incredible cast, and hopefully they have a rich story to bring to life for fans and general audiences alike.

1 Dan1184 on Nov 2, 2012

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