This is Rapid Fire Movie News Marvel Edition, where we give small updates on some upcoming movies, plus our reactions. Today we have word from this year’s Oscar contender J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) that he may return as the fan favorite J. Jonah Jameson character in the Spider-Man films, another fan favorite from X-Men: First Class actress Rose Byrne will return for X-Men: Apocalypse, and Simon Kinberg talks X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover.

• J. Jonah Jameson – During a radio interview with Howard Stern, actor J.K. Simmons was asked about returning for another Spider-Man film. The actor might have let something slip during his response…

I just heard that we…that’s a possibility.

Just heard that we what? Are going to  (re)introduce the character in the next Spidey film? I certainly hope so, because at the moment Sony Pictures is looking like they have no clue how to move forward after The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s failure. Is bringing Simmons back as J. Jonah Jameson enough to get audiences excited again for Spider-Man? Not even close, but its a step in the right direction.

I remember when Chadwick Boseman was asked about Black Panther during a radio interview a couple months before his casting announcement. His response multiple times was “I don’t know anything about that“. I jumped the gun and said he will be Black Panther. I had nothing to confirm it, just a gut feeling in me. I have that same feeling with J.K. Simmons’s response, and believe he will be back as J. Jonah Jameson.

• X-Men: Apocalypse – Writer/Producer Simon Kinberg (X-Men: DOFP) confirms that Rose Byrne will return as Moira MacTaggert, the CIA agent and ally of the mutants in First Class…

“She’s a significant character in the movie. We ended ‘First Class’ with Charles having wiped portions of her memory of her experience with the X-Men. They are, essentially, strangers to her when she meets them… It’s certainly a rich relationship that we started to dig into in ‘First Class’, and would like to mine more in this one.”

I’ve become a fan of Rose Byrne’s work over the past couple of years, with performances in films like Insidious, Neighbors, and X-Men (all different genres). Her character is a welcome re-addition, as I thought she was great in First Class. It’ll be interesting to see how Professor X (James McAvoy) and especially Magneto (Michael Fassbender) handle her return.

• X-Men/Fantastic Four – Writer/Producer Simon Kinberg (upcoming Fantastic Four) also talks about the fan speculated X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover. He mentions it as an eventually possibility….

“The reboot of ‘FanFour’ really needed to work in and of itself. We were doing something pretty radical with the tone of the movie. If we wanted to find a way to connect them to the X-Men, we could. There’s a lot of precedent from the comics.”

Great response! Now I’m sure the people over at Fox have a crossover with their comic book properties in mind, but they want to make sure people love this modern re-telling of Fantastic Four. I’m also sure they looked at Sony’s attempt with Spider-Man last year, and aren’t trying to make those same mistakes. The X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover will happen… eventually. Until then enjoy the horde of comic book movies coming our way, starting with 8 films in 2016.

There are currently no official plans for the next solo Spider-Man film.

X-Men: Apocalypse opens in theaters on May 27th, 2016.

Fantastic Four will be in theaters August 7th, 2015.

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