Jake Gyllenhaal Weighs In on Spider-Man: Far From Home’s Mid-Credits Scene (SPOILER)

Warning: Spoilers follow for Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Spider-Man: Far From Home had a mid-credits scene that changed the game for our webslinger, and co-star Jake Gyllenhaal loved it. Gyllenhaal, who played Mysterio in the film, spoke with THR and weighed in on the mid-credits scene that saw Mysterio pull a post-mortum fast one on Spidey when the footage of his death is manipulated to look like the hero killed him, then is sent to J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle. Jameson reveals the footage to the world and then outs Spider-Man as Peter Parker.

Speaking with the site, Gyllenhaal said, “Well, I just love great endings that refer back to other great endings. The first movie was great like that, too. I also love the end of Prisoners. I love those kind of cliffhanger moments. So often, we’re used to the same structure, particularly in very large movies, and it takes a lot of courage to leave on those kinds of cliffhangers. The way I look at it is twofold: Mysterio exists as someone to teach Peter Parker a lesson. In my opinion, there’s no use for just a straight-up bad guy unless there’s a lesson to be learned. And the lesson, particularly for Peter, is what is growing up for real. The truth of it is, if I go back to earlier work that I did, the thing that I love about adolescence — and was terrible about adolescence — is that as you grow up, the world becomes totally unclear.”

He added, “One of the things that I loved about doing Donnie Darko, when I was Tom’s age, was that it portrayed adolescence in a way that I had not experienced through most high school movies. The courage that the filmmakers had in Far From Home to say, ‘We’re gonna bring in a villain that’s going to turn Peter’s world upside down and force him to be who he actually is to the whole world. Nothing’s a secret anymore,’ that was amazing. As an audience member, not as the person who played Mysterio, I believe in Peter Parker, and I believe in Spider-Man, his power and how strong he is. What Mysterio reveals will end up helping Peter, somewhere. He’ll learn from it, and those are the best characters. The characters who teach our heroes a lesson don’t always have to be like Obi-Wan.”

It’s not certain exactly when we’ll see the ramifications of the scene play out, as a third Spider-Man film has yet to be officially announced. It seems to be a given though, considering Spider-Man: Far From Home has just become the first Spidey film to cross $1 billion worldwide in less than a month.