9 Ways The Amazing Spider-Man Almost Turned Out Awesome

2. J. Jonah Jameson

Even though it's almost two reboots since he last played the Daily Bugle editor, the one and only name that comes up when discussing the casting J. Jonah Jameson is J. K. Simmons, who stole every scene of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy he was in.

He was all but absent from The Amazing Spider-Man films, only alluded to in a typically irate email to a freelance Peter Parker glimpsed at one point. It's a major oversight on Webb/Sony's part - Jameson is a pretty integral Spidey player and to not have him, or the wider Bugle office, involved leads to something feeling decidedly less like Spider-Man. An earlier draft of the sequel's script, however, had Jameson as a flesh-and-blood character. It wasn't a massive part, but would have given a face to the name and opened to door to a bigger supporting role down the line.

One of the big perceived issues with bringing Jameson back is finding an actor willing to follow Simmons. More so than even the Joker (Heath Ledger was so off the wall that it's conceivable to see how Jared Leto can delver something unique), Jameson is all but impossible to recast, the Oscar winner's performance such an embodiment of his core that there's nothing conceivably new that can be brought to the table. So, continuity be damned, just recast him - what's the problem?