Rumor or Fact: Who’s appearing in Spider-Man: No Way Home?

Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange) is in Spider-Man: No Way Home — Confirmed

Since Marvel is going full Multiverse with Phase 4, this one was pretty much always going to be a given. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Cumberbatch’s involvement in Spider-Man: No Way Home last year, reporting that the Sorcerer Supreme will be acting as a mentor figure for Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in the upcoming film.

If there’s going to be Multiverse action, it only makes sense that Strange would be around to try and help get things back on course. And considering that the next MCU film after No Way Home is Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it seems like a pretty safe bet that this adventure with Spidey will set the stage for Strange’s next headlining flick.

Which, coincidentally enough, is being directed by veteran Spider-Man director Sam Raimi. The collaboration is through the roof on these movies, and I love it.

We’ve even gotten a reveal of the new Funko Pop of Doctor Strange from the upcoming movie, so we know that not only is he in it, but at some point he will wield…a snow shovel? You never know what to expect next with Marvel.

J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson) is in Spider-Man: No Way Home — Confirmed

We’ve known for a while now that J.K. Simmons, who played J. Jonah Jameson in the Maguire-era Spider-Man films, had made the leap to the MCU. Fans who stayed through the credits of 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home were treated to Simmons’ first appearance, where he outed Spider-Man’s true identity to the world by airing a video sent in to his online gossip site by none other than Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhal).

This was the first real hint of the Multiversal mayhem that lay ahead for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, and considering how much of a fan-favorite Simmons’ performance as the dirt-digging tabloid editor had been during the older Spidey films, we can only say that it was a brilliant choice. In the Maguire-era films, J. Jonah Jameson was the head of a newspaper called The Daily Bugle which had a reputation for publishing stories of questionable merit. In the MCU, he runs a gossip website called thedailybugle.net, which is a pretty fantastic way to adapt Jameson’s character to the times.

We’ve since gotten further confirmations that Simmons is involved in No Way Home, including a recently revealed action figure. It’s hard to get more concrete than merch.

Simmons also expanded on this role during a SiriusXM interview last year. “Well yeah, [I’ll be back as Jameson]. That’s the short answer. There is a future for J. Jonah Jameson after a several-year hiatus. He showed up very briefly for those who were wise enough to stay through the credits of Far From Home … There is one more J.J.J. appearance in the can, and from what I’m hearing there’s a plan for yet another. So hopefully J.J.J. will continue now and forever.”

So there you have it. J. Jonah Jameson is back. Let the headaches for Spider-Man commence.