Director Marc Webb dishes on yesterday’s Jamie Foxx villain rumors and his general plan for Amazing Spider-Man 2

Yesterday brought the possible news that Jamie Foxx was in early talks to play a villain in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, news which has since been followed up by an officially vague statement from returning director Marc Webb while at at a promotional event for next week’s Blu-ray/DVD release:

“I think Jamie Foxx is electrifying!” Webb laughed when asked if the actor would, indeed, appear in 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.” Which is of course non-committal on every level imaginable – not that anyone should have expected anything more, really.

Going along with the Electro rumor – which is something I didn’t start, as it has been around since James Vanderbilt wrote his two-part Spidey script back when this whole reboot became a real thing – Webb had this to say when asked about what characters he particularly liked from Spider-Man’s universe: “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.“

But at the end of the day for Webb, what’s most important to him to nail for the upcoming sequel is 1) how the villain is connected with Spider-Man on a person/human level, and 2) the clean slate it gives him with which to explore the world: “What makes villains interesting to me is what they bring out in Peter.  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.  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.”

So there it is: the parents are coming back, hopefully with a greater presence so that the whole “Untold Story” element of the marketing campaign can get its due.  And, as potentially teased in the credits, Norman Osborne and Harry may be well on their way to making an appearance.  Which is… sigh.  I understand why they matter to Spidey’s story, but I still liked it better when I heard the arguments in favor of the mysterious visitor in the credit scene being Morbius the Living Vampire.  It was a long shot, but an infinitely more interesting one than retreading the same general ground as Raimi.

Look for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 to be swinging into theaters on May 2nd, 2014.