The Spider-Man: No Way Home Decision That Had J.K. Simmons 'Caught Off-Guard'
In Jon Watts' 2019 film "Spider-Man: Far from Home," Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is tempted to cede control of a newly-bequeathed orbital missile network to an alleged interdimensional traveler nicknamed Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal). Mysterio mentions that he's a superhero from a parallel timeline and that Earth is only now starting to reach into other dimensions. Mysterio's story will later prove to be a lie (he was, in fact, an earthbound villain), yet the notion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe multiverse was implanted in people's minds (building off its brief mention in "Doctor Strange").
That multiverse idea was then hammered home in the film's epilogue. After the day was saved and Mysterio was defeated, Spider-Man's secret identity was brazenly revealed on international TV by none other than J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons), a character not seen since Sam Raimi's 2007 film "Spider-Man 3." Raimi's films, it should be noted, are in a separate continuity from the MCU "Spider-Man" movies.
Simmons, then, was now playing two parallel versions of Jameson across two separate timelines. Parallel universes, we learn through this casting, are kind of chummy. More importantly, a grand inter-myth crossover film is imminent. And lo, in 2021, audiences witnessed "Spider-Man: No Way Home," a blockbuster that gathered together characters from at least five previous "Spider-Man" movies and three separate continuities.
In Raimi's films, Jameson looked the same way he did in the old-school Spider-Man comics: small mustache, a flat-top haircut, and a cigar always in his teeth. For "Far from Home" and "No Way Home," Jameson was bald. That would've been easy for Simmons to accept, but it seems that the producers also wanted a Jameson to go without his trademark mustache — something the actor objected to, as he discussed in a 2021 episode of the "Happy. Sad. Confused." podcast.
What? No mustache?
Previously, the live-action Jameson was portrayed as being a gruff, perpetually angry newspaper publisher who demanded pictures of Spider-Man (an individual he hated). For "Far from Home" and "No Way Home," Jameson was reimagined as a cable TV shock jock and conspiracy theorist in the mold of real-life a-hole like Alex Jones. Despite the reimagining, though, Simmons felt that his character should, at the very least, look the same. Like Superman's "S" or Spider-Man's over-the-head pajamas, Jameson's flattop, cigar, and little mustache are indelible parts of the character, Simmons reasoned.
However, according to the actor, "all the bigwigs at Sony" wanted Jameson to be bald and clean-shaven. He continued:
"[Sony told me] 'No, we don't want you to have the flattop haircut and I was like, 'Wait, wait, wait. What?' [...] 'Yeah, we don't want the cigar and the mustache,' [...] So, it was a negotiation then at that point. [...] Obviously, the most important thing is that he's still the same blowhard and he does have the same damn mustache, close to it, and cigar at least."
It seems that Simmons lost the negotiation when it came to the hair. The MCU version of J. Jonah Jameson is bald.
The visual changes to the character might well have been made for legal reasons. To this day, Sony still owns the film rights to Spider-Man and lent them to Disney so they could include Spider-Man in the MCU. If the MCU was to use Sony-established characters, part of their contract likely dictated that the new versions be legally distinct. Hence, Simmons sported his own bald head and an altered mustache.
But then, what if Simmons is J. Jonah Jameson in every Spider-Man universe? It's possible there are millions of Jamesons, each one sporting a slightly different look.