When Spider-Man was rebooted and brought to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the possibilities again opened up to see new interpretations of the web crawler's iconic rogues gallery and perhaps villains that have never gotten a cinematic outing. Spider-Man: Homecoming delivered a brilliant villain in Michael Keaton's Vulture, and now we have an idea of who the webhead will be squaring off with next. Yesterday, news came out that Jake Gyllenhaal was in talks to potentially play Mysterio, the master of illusion in the Homecoming sequel. Mysterio is one of Spider-Man's more comic-booky villains so how might Jake Gyllenhaal look in the role? Take a look below:
As always, BossLogic delivers a really cool interpretation of what an actor might look like in a certain comic book movie role. Jake Gyllenhaal looks quite ominous as the character here and I especially like the juxtaposition of being able to see who is inside the dome and his face being obscured. With the glow of the helmet this art really conveys the mystery of the master of illusion, making him seem like a dangerous and truly powerful enemy. I also like that BossLogic went with a traditional interpretation of the character, retaining his green outfit, purple cape and dome helmet. I don't know exactly how this would come off on screen, but it would be very cool to see.
I've got to say, of all of Spider-Man's most famous villains, Mysterio is the one that I never thought would make it to the big screen. So the possibility of Mysterio being the villain the still untitled Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 has me extremely curious if the character will resemble his comic book and cartoon counterpart. Some of the more outlandish characters don't always translate well to the big screen so they are modified to not come off as cheesy. Vulture was more practical in Homecoming than an old guy in a bird costume. Mysterio is arguably the most ridiculous-looking villain in Spider-Man's rogues gallery, with the wise-cracking web slinger often making fun of the fishbowl look of his helmet.
Marvel has proven that it isn't afraid of embracing comic book-y characters and costumes, but I am still wondering if Mysterio will look like Mysterio, or simply be a character with similar abilities and the same name, while adopting a more practical look. Personally I'd like to see if Marvel can pull it off and give us a recognizable Mysterio who proves to be a compelling and cool-looking threat to Peter Parker. As BossLogic notes, Jake Gyllenhaal is a talented and intense actor and if anyone can make Mysterio a frightening and cool villain, it's the guy from Nightcrawler.
We have yet to see Marvel redo any of the villains from the previous Spider-Man films, instead focusing on villains that haven't been done before (still waiting on Kraven though). This allows the studio to define the character on screen versus drawing comparisons to what came before while also delivering something different and new, and Mysterio is definitely different. Using Mysterio in Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 also indicates the possibility that Spider-Man may one day face off with the Sinister Six.
Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 will be the first movie out of the gate in the post-Avengers 4 Phase 4 when it swings into theaters on July 5, 2019, and as a sequel, it should have a built-in fanbase. Here's what we know about the movie so far.
