Jon Watts Explains Why Mysterio Was Chosen For Spider-Man: Far From Home

Director Jon Watts spoke with Uproxx discussing his reasons for including Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Quentin Beck, the original Mysterio from the comics, in the upcoming MCU film and Watts told the site that this was an early decision when developing the film.

“Well, we knew we wanted to do Mysterio from the very beginning,” Watts said. “He’s just of that Spider-Man rogue’s gallery, he’s the next one on the list. He’s such an iconic villain. But the trick was how do you do him in a way where he’s not just throwing smoke bombs and jumping around with the springs in his shoes, like he is in the comics? So yeah, that was a challenge. But the feeling was that if we can crack this guy, it opens up the door to some pretty amazing visual possibilities, in addition to some, hopefully, relevant semantic ideas as well about what’s real and what’s not. So yeah, it was always going to be Mysterio.”

Mysterio as presented in the trailers has been less of a villain and more of an ally to Spider-Man, coming from an alternate earth and trying to help stop the Elementals, who broke through the dimensional walls as a result of Thanos’ Decimation snap. Watts said that while Beck was the main inspiration, another iteration was considered.

“The other one is Daniel. Daniel Berkhart,” he said. “I mean, I went back to just the first appearance of Mysterio and his first appearance in the comic, he shows up as a hero who stops Spider-Man. And shows that he’s the true superhero and that Spider-Man is a menace. So I started with that and wanted to figure out a slightly different interpretation, but that original comic [with Quentin Beck] was the main inspiration.”

Spider-Man: Far From Home opens on July 2nd.