Back in May, it was reported that Jake Gyllenhaal was in talks for a key role in Spider-Man: Far From Home, the villain Mysterio. Today, Gyllenhaal made his Instagram debut with a post nodding to his upcoming Spidey involvement, which most definitely will not involve him playing Spider-Man — much to his own surprise. Keep up the strong ‘gramming, Jake. We will most definitely be watching.
If you’re Mysterio-curious, here is some background on the character from Vulture’s Abraham Riesman:
Mysterio has a long history in Marvel Comics lore. Or perhaps we should say the Mysterios, plural. The first iteration of the character was dreamed up by Spider-Man co-creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, debuting in 1964’s The Amazing Spider-Man No. 13. Then, his alter ego was Quentin Beck, a Hollywood special-effects artist who realized that his talents could be used to commit spectacular crimes. His big plan was to create realistic illusions to disorient any potential foe. Donning the aforementioned semi-spherical dome, he took on the wall-crawler and was briefly lauded by J. Jonah Jameson for doing so (JJJ was also enamored of him for agreeing to an interview, further proving that media types will always debase themselves for access to famous people).
He was, of course, taken down a peg, but returned many a time to torment Spidey and other Marvel heroes — perhaps most famously, he was the antagonist in a Kevin Smith–penned Daredevil story line around the turn of the millennium. There have been a few other people who took up the Mysterio mantle over the years, but Beck has remained the one that creators come back to most often, so it’d be surprising if Marvel Studios and Sony opted to go with any version other than his.
A wild-eyed Hollywood hanger-on whose obsession with fame causes him to embark on increasingly risky criminal schemes? Sounds right up Gyllenhaal’s alley.
