It’s no secret that the classic Spider-Man villain Mysterio will be turned on his head – er, fish bowl – when Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: Far From Home opens in theaters later this year. We have been told that Mysterio will be an ally to Spidey, hired by Nick Fury to respond to a new threat. And in the latest trailer for Far From Home, it was revealed that Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) will hail from an alternate Earth, opening up the doors to a Multiverse in the MCU.
So if Mysterio isn’t this film’s major villain, than who is? Well, when CinemaBlend visited the London set of Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: Far From Home last year, we first learned about the switch Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios planned to introduce with Mysterio. And we started to hear more about The Elementals, creatures inspired by the natural elements that will spring up around the globe.
We have seen traces of these creatures in the early marketing for Spider-Man: Far From Home, and the creative team confirmed to us that these threats are based on villains Spidey has faced off in his comic books over the years. More on those in a moment. For starters, Jon Watts opened up to us about introducing the Elementals, explaining:
Because Mysterio is playing a hero in this story, we needed real antagonists that could put Peter in danger. And for me, I wanted to really raise the action stakes from the last movie. With the Vulture, it's a one-on-one fight [against] a mechanized villain. But with Spider-Man, you have the ability to do so much more. We've seen him fight much larger villains and have spectacular set pieces, and I felt like the way to do that would be to bring in -- I mean, you say B-level heroes, but I've always loved Hydro-Man and Molten Man and this ability to have a giant, Elemental kind of creature for Spider-Man to fight against. Anything that makes things more difficult for him and opens up visual opportunities for me, I'll run at that.
Spider-Man definitely does seem to be out of his element (sorry, I had to do that) in this story. First, he’s out of New York City, and needing to fight in European locations he’s never seen before. The sequel will stage battles in Venice, Prague and London, with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) encountering this universe’s version of Sandman in Mexico City.
Of course, there’s a theory running around, which we can not confirm, that these Elementals are illusions controlled by Mysterio. The character from the comics is supposed to be a master of illusions, and we could see Quentin Beck conjuring these beasts to fight so that he can win over the trust of people who have just lost some key Avengers. Is that really Mysterio’s dubious plan?
As for Spider-Man himself, Tom Holland tells us that he was just happy to have these antagonists in the sequel because he felt it gives him better opportunities to see Spidey in fight mode. The new trailers did show off Peter Parker taking down enemies in his Iron Spider suit, his Stealth Suit, and a new suit he appears to wear in London. On the action, Holland told CinemaBlend:
At the end of the day, it's always about saving people and doing the right thing. The world is at risk in this film. I feel like the Vulture was sort of low-level crime. It was sort of under the radar. Not many people know about it. But this is a worldwide event. So the stakes are much higher for him, and I think he understands that. Meaning, he has to really show up and bring his A game. But at the heart of the film, Peter Parker just wants to tell the girl he really likes that he loves her, and have a nice holiday.
Will he be able to? It’s going to be difficult, but we have learned through the years never to bet against Spider-Man.
Sony’s Spider-Man: Far From Home swings into theaters on July 2. We have plenty more content from the set coming to CinemaBlend, so stay tuned.
