Alfred Molina To Reprise His Role As Doctor Octopus In Next ‘Spider-Man’ Movie

It would announced this week that Alfred Molina would portray the supervillain Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus in the untitled sequel to Spider-Man: Far From Home. Molina previously portrayed the character in Spider-Man 2 in 2004. His version of Doctor Octopus received universal acclaim from both critics and audiences who praised the villain’s sympathetic qualities and motivation along with Molina’s performance. It has not yet been revealed if this will be the same character from Spider-Man 2. However, it is possible that it could be the same version due to the previous announcement of Jamie Foxx being set to reprise his role as Electro in the movie as well.

Molina is reportedly not the only actor to reprise his role from a previous Spider-Man movie outside of the MCU. JK Simmons has already appeared as a different version of J. Jonah Jameson in the mid-credits scene of Spider-Man: Far From Home. Not long after Molina was reported to play Doctor Octopus again, Kirsten Dunst was announced to be portraying Spider-Man’s iconic love interest Mary Jane Watson again after appearing in the original Spider-Man trilogy directed by Sam Raimi.

Andrew Garfield will appear as his version of Peter Parker/Spider-Man from The Amazing Spider-Man films directed by Marc Webb. Garfield was originally forced to step down as Spider-Man after the character was recast and rebooted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe following the critical failure of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It remains to be seen if more notable actors from the older Spider-Man movies like Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Dane DeHaan or Thomas Haden Church will go on to play the same characters in this upcoming sequel. However, one thing that seems to clear is that the MCU is attempting to set up their own version of a multiverse following the massive success of the animated film Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.

The untitled sequel to Spider-Man: Far From Home is currently scheduled to be released on December 17, 2021. However, given the COVID-19 pandemic it is unclear if that will change.