Despite what you might assume, based on the character of Mysterio in Marvel Comics, everyone’s favourite weirdo Jake Gyllenhaal has confirmed that he won’t be playing a villain in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Appearing on a panel at Comic-Con in Brazil with co-stars Tom Holland and Jacob Batalon, Gyllenhaal confirmed that Mysterio is actually a good guy in this one. The bad guys are big subterranean monsters in Europe called The Elementals. It all sounds suitably comic booky.
Here’s Batalon:
It’s basically just about the kids going on a European vacation. We go to London, we go to Prague, we go everywhere. It’s just a really fun thing. There’s a lot of dynamics that go on. A lot of relationship stuff. A lot of cool funny stuff. A lot of fun stunt stuff. The main focus is for him not to be Spider-Man per se, but he gets dragged into it. But you know he reluctantly saves the world again with Mysterio. Mysterio’s a good guy in this, they’re both teaming up to kill the game, to defeat these Elemental monsters
And here’s Gyllenhaal, expanding a little further:
Well there are these threats to the world, the Elemental creatures, and Mysterio is someone who knows abut them and who wants to make sure that the world is safe from them, and Nick Fury asks him to come on and help because he’s the only one who really understands them in a way. And he teams up with the Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man and unfortunately he has to make him become more than just a Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man.
Allow me to remind you of what Mysterio looks like in the comics. Very evil. Evil man. You can tell because of the fishbowl on his head.
So you’re not going to see Jake in full creepy/weird Nightcrawler mode in this movie. Here’s the full synopsis, as per Disney:
Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and his friends go on summer holidays to Europe. However, the friends will hardly be able to rest — Peter will have to agree to help Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) uncover the mystery of creatures that cause natural disasters and destruction throughout the continent.
Here’s the full video from the interview above, if you’re keen.
