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Jake Gyllenhaal’s 'Spider-Man: Far From Home' villain revealed

Actor Jake Gyllenhaal attends “Wildlife” premiere party at Chase Sapphire on Main on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision for Chase Sapphire/AP Images)
Actor Jake Gyllenhaal attends “Wildlife” premiere party at Chase Sapphire on Main on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision for Chase Sapphire/AP Images)

Jake Gyllenhaal has confirmed his long-rumoured involvement in Spider-Man: Far From Home in his first-ever Instagram post.

In the amusing video, Gyllenhaal lowers a comic in which Spidey fights Mysterio and says ‘What the fu-’ before he’s cut off (children might be watching, after all).

View this post on Instagram

I just realized I’m not playing Spider-Man.

A post shared by Jake Gyllenhaal (@jakegyllenhaal) on Dec 5, 2018 at 12:03pm PST

It’s a funny way to reveal his role – made funnier by the caption: ‘I just realised I’m not playing Spider-Man,’ which is a nice nod to the time Gyllenhaal almost replaced Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 2 (Maguire injured his back before the shoot, Gyllenhaal trained to step into the role, but Maguire recovered in time).

Of course, thanks to set leaks, we’ve known for a while that Jake was involved in the movie, and thanks to pap-shots of his costume, we had a pretty good idea as to who he’d be playing. But now it’s official, and it’s a fascinating casting choice.

Mysterio (Marvel Comics)
Mysterio (Marvel Comics)

Mysterio is more of a title than a specific character, as so many different people have worn the costume (complete with a goldfish-bowl style helmet) in the comics. The first, and most famous Mysterio alter-ego is Quentin Beck, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Beck was a special effects wizard who was so frustrated with his Hollywood career he turned to supervillainy. The same can’t be said of Gyllenhaal, unless you want to equate his previous franchise frustration with his decision to turn to Mysterio (in addition to Spider-Man 2, Jake missed out on heroic roles in Lord Of The Rings and Batman Begins).

Still, it’s a cool character and one that’ll look great on the big screen. And, with the current rumour-mill suggesting we’ll get a Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer at the weekend, we’ll bet good money we’ll get to see the character in action (why else do the Jake reveal this week?) when it lands.

Spider-Man: Far From Home will be released in the UK on July 5, 2019.


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