Spider-Man: Jake Johnson was the perfect pick to play Peter B. Parker

Jake Johnson’s role in New Girl highlights why he was perfect for the part of Peter B. Parker in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

You can consider this writer late to the party. He just happened to come across a clip of New Girl and decided to dive in later than everyone. Like most of New Girl’s audience, he discovered how great the show is.

A personal favorite is Nick Miller who’s played by Jake Johnson. Now, whenever he talked, this writer couldn’t help but find Nick Miller’s voice familiar. After doing a quick google, I discovered that he played Peter B. Parker in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Now, every time he speaks it’s like listening to Peter talk. The more the show continues, the more it’s evident that Jake Johnson was perfect for the role of Peter.

There are a lot of similarities between Jake Johnson’s character in New Girl and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. First, they’re both incredibly irresponsible. Peter B. Parker and Nick Miller deal with important things like children. They know the right thing to do, but shy away from it.

For example, Peter knew in his heart that he should continue to be Spider-Man, but he sunk deep into a funk and couldn’t get out of it. Throughout New Girl, Nick has to be pushed to do the right thing. A quality that frustrates all of his friends.

On the plus side, both Peter and Nick come through when they’re needed. Nick has been in situations where he’s had to sacrifice his happiness for his friends. He’s always helping Schmidt out of some sort of shenanigans, and usually things that have him step outside of his comfort zone. He may do things like this begrudgingly, but he ends being happy he helped.

Let’s look at Peter in Into the Spider-Verse. On multiple occasions, he tried to fight against it. In the end, he helped. Peter didn’t have to train Miles or give him a dose of harsh reality. A lesson that made Miles get over his fear and prepare him for what was to come. It also helped Peter gain the courage to get his own life in order.

Let’s look at their love lives. Jake Johnson has portrayed two men with very weird behaviors with women. As Nick Miller, it sometimes looked like he was sabotaging his relationship with Jess. He did things that he knew were going to get him in hot water and he did them anyway. When he’s caught, he has to accept it and apologize.

Peter B. Parker didn’t have that option. Him and Mary Jane split up over the decision to have children. However, from Peter’s behavior, we can see that it was more than that. Peter seemed very self destructive and very immature. That could also contribute to their divorce. Peter was probably given multiple chances and failed to make changes.

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One final thing they have in common is how they deal with awkward situations. They make jokes or do goofy things. With Spider-Man, it’s a strategy: He can keep his enemies off-guard and capitalize on their frustration. For Nick, however, he sometimes comes off like an idiot, having moments like this during every episode of New Girl. He once told Jess that he was a science teacher. When she asked when he responded by saying he didn’t think she’d fact check him. There’s no strategy. Just him sounding like a fool.

Jake Johnson is an expert at bringing flawed characters to life. He’s portrayed a multitude of characters throughout his career, but it’s often these types of personalities that allow him to shine. It’s because of that that he deserves to play Peter B. Parker in more Spider-Man projects in the future.

We certainly want to know how things turned out with him and MJ. Unlike the Nick and Jess saga, we don’t know how the Peter B. Parker and MJ story ends. Do they have amazing spider-babies? Will Peter go back to being a hero? Does he ever lose the pizza gut? Whatever the future holds for Peter B. Parker, Jake Johnson should be part of it.

Next. Miles Morales getting his own PS5 Spider-Man game is a big deal. dark

What do you think? Was Jake Johnson the right fit for the character? Let us know in the comments below.

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