Whatever your opinion of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, it’s safe to say that they could have done more with Jamie Foxx’s Electro. The Oscar-winning actor got some fun fight scenes, but his character was buried under an overstuffed script that also had to set up a new Green Goblin, introduce Rhino, and waste time on a lot of sequel teasing that didn’t go anywhere.
All of this meant I was very pleased when Marvel Studios confirmed that Jamie Foxx was reprising the role for Spider-Man: No Way Home. Sure, he’s part of an ensemble cast here, but from the trailers alone we can see there’s something very interesting going on with his costume and powers.
The most obvious is that he’s no longer bright blue, but look a little closer and his new harness appears to be centered on an Iron Man arc reactor. Fans have been busily debating what this might mean and have come to a number of intriguing conclusions.
First up is that the purpose of the arc reactor is to allow Electro to store and regulate his powers more efficiently. This may be why he looks more human, as the Iron Man tech can store vast amounts of energy in a stable, compact space, and he wouldn’t need to be some kind of electricity being.
But how did he get one? One theory is that he simply stole it upon his arrival in the MCU, but there’s another, darker theory that I prefer. What If…? showed that Tony Stark doesn’t have a great life expectancy across the multiverse, so perhaps this Electro killed his universe’s Stark and stole the tech.
That may also mean that this Electro isn’t the same one we saw in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but a variant from another universe.
Hopefully, Spider-Man: No Way Home devotes a little time to explain this cool bit of costuming, which seems to be in line with Doc Ock’s tentacles also getting an MCU-themed upgrade. Roll on December 17!