Spider-Man 2 Spoilers: Jamie Foxx Talks "New Stuff," Drops Details on Electro's Costume

Actor provides a little back story on his villainous character in the highly anticipated sequel

By Peter Gicas Dec 19, 2012 9:29 PMTags
Jamie Foxx, Spider-Man, ElectoColumbia Pictures; Marvel; AP Photo

Here's some info that should make any Spider-Man fan feel a bit tingly.

Jamie Foxx, who is slated to play Electro, one of the webslinger's most dangerous villains in the upcoming sequel to last summer's Andrew Garfield-Emma Stone flick The Amazing Spider-Man, has graciously offered up a little backstory.

"You'll see that in his whole life, no one is talking to him. People have stolen his ideas at the big company. He's a nobody," the Oscar winner told MTV. "At a certain point, Spider-Man bumps into him and says, 'You're my guy. You're my eyes and ears on the street. And he says his name—no one has ever said [Max] Dillon's name."

Foxx went on to reveal that his character "sort of starts thinking that somehow, he's Spider-Man's partner...[then] everything goes bad with his mom. She doesn't remember his birthday. He has something tragic happen and, when it turns on, he lights up."

As Marvel Comics lore has it, Electro is the guise of Maxwell Dillon, an emotionally stunted man with an inferiority complex who's struck by lightning while  working as a linesman. Instead of being killed, the accident gives him the superhuman ability to control electricity.

However, while Electro is known for wearing a green and yellow lightning-themed costume, Foxx told BlackFilm "it will be a different color," adding: "[The producers] want something for the future. They want to have it more grounded and not as comic book-y, so it won't be green and yellow. They want to try new things, like a liquid rubber and things like that, and there are all these bolts and stuff in my arms when they are hanging me upside down and trying to figure out what happened. How did he become this way? So, it will be some new stuff."

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is scheduled to swing into theaters on May 2, 2014.