Jon Favreau might not return to direct a Marvel Cinematic Universe installment anytime soon, but he is definitely coming back as Happy Hogan - a character he portrayed in all three Iron Man movies – in next year's Spider-Man: Homecoming. That was confirmed back in September, and even the first trailer for the movie, shown at Brazil's CCXP 2016, reportedly featured his character.
But while we were expecting just a cameo, it now looks like Happy Hogan might have a bigger role in the July 7, 2017 release. In a recent interview with Cinema Blend, Favreau was asked about his role in the Jon Watts flick. He answered, "I’m like…I’m looking after him. He needs someone to help him out."
Of course, "looking after" the titular character of a movie would require a much bigger role than a cameo. Since Tony Stark, aka Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) , is also appearing in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Happy's taking care of Tom Holland's Peter Parker makes sense. After all, we can't expect Tony to do it when he is always in need of someone to attend to him!
The last time we saw Jon Favreau play Happy Hogan was around four years ago, in Shane Black's Iron Man 3. A Mandarin blast left Happy severely injured, and he spent the rest of the movie in a hospital bed.
Favreau talked about the experience of returning as the Iron Man supporting character in Spider-Man: Homecoming:
I had a lot of fun on that movie, working with Robert [Downey, Jr.] and everything. It was a good time, and I liked the whole gang. It was really terrific.
