10 Iconic Movie Characters Only ONE Actor Could Play

1. J. Jonah Jameson - J.K. Simmons

Spider-Man Far From Home Jonah Jameson JK Simmons
Marvel Studios

It's so easy to get J. Jonah Jameson wrong. The loudmouth newspaper editor could easily become abrasive and obnoxious to the point where he's simply a loud caricature, but he remained a highlight of Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man trilogy because J.K. Simmons plays assholes like nobody else.

He was so good, in fact, that when Sony rebooted the Spidey series they omitted the character entirely rather than try to recast him, because Simmons' take was so entrenched in the minds of fans. Even when a second reboot came around, introducing a new Jonah was put off once again, and nearly two full standalone movies went by without the character showing up.

However, in the final moments of Spider-Man: Far From Home, a news bulletin from the Daily Bugle is displayed all throughout New York, led by none other than Simmons' J.J.J.

Like with Sony and M, the studio risked shattering the clean break of this second reboot by bringing back a character and actor from a previous universe, but it worked a treat. J.K. is J.J., and fans will happily ignore a continuity-blurring appearance to have both him and the character back.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.