J.K. Simmons first played J. Jonah Jameson in 2002's Spider-Man, and later reprised the role in 2004's Spider-Man 2 and 2007's Spider-Man 3. Sam Raimi had plans for a fourth movie that ultimately never came to fruition; instead, we got a reboot in 2012 with The Amazing Spider-Man.
That set out to put a modern spin on Peter Parker, meaning he was no longer a freelance photographer for an "old-fashioned" newspaper like The Daily Bugle. In fact, that was completely absent from the short-lived Amazing Spider-Man franchise, but there were rumblings about Simmons returning for the unmade third chapter.
Talking to Josh Horowitz, the Invincible star confirmed he was never asked to reprise his role as JJJ in those movies. "The only conversations I was aware of were the ones that people would call my attention to on the internet," he stated, before reflecting on joining the MCU in 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home.
"That was a complete shock, and a very last-minute decision, which I still think is why JJJ doesn't have hair in the Tom Holland Spider-Man universe," Simmons recalled. "They literally called my agent, we had a meeting the next day, and it was a day or two later, I was shooting in some executive's office because there was no set. They were well into editing the film when they went, 'What if we stuck a little JJJ in here?'"
Talk then turned to Batgirl, the DCEU movie scrapped by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav as a tax write-off in August 2022. After playing Commissioner Jim Gordon in both versions of Justice League, Simmons was supposed to reprise the role in a Gotham City where Michael Keaton's Bruce Wayne was Batman (a result of The Flash rewriting the franchise's timeline).
Asked how he feels about the experience, the actor said Batgirl is "in a vacuum" and confirmed he never got to watch the so-called "unreleasable" movie. "Apparently, one test audience saw it, and you know, it wasn't a bad score from the test audience," Simmons revealed. "It was a, whatever, business decision obviously."
"Justice League was a very small part [and] had its own drama attached to it, but then Zack Snyder's cut came out, which the DC fans really love. It's a lot of fun. When Batgirl came along with Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, it was an exciting prospect to be part of the origin story of Batgirl. It was a good experience. We really had a good time making it and thought it was going to be a fun superhero movie."
Simmons recently confirmed that he won't return as Jonah in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and we've seen nothing to suggest that he'll be the DCU's Jim Gordon. Sadly, we never really got to see what he could do with that character, as Ben Affleck's Batman movie was also scrapped.
You can hear more from Simmons in the player below.