Spoilers ahead for Spier-Man: Far From Home
Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has officially come to an end, with Spider-Man: Far From Home revealing how the denizens of the shared universe have recovered since the wild events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. There was a ton of pressure for the Spider-Man sequel to deliver following the massive success of Endgame, and answer some of the questions that fans were left wondering once The Russo Brothers' massive blockbuster ended.
Spider-Man: Far From Home starred many familiar Marvel faces, but also introduced Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio to the shared universe. The trailers surprised comic fans when Mysterio was portayed as a hero, and a mentor to Peter Parker. But his true intentions were more insidious, revealing himself to be the movie's villain about halfway through its runtime. Far From Home co-writer Erik Summers recently explained why the character was so right for the movie, saying:
The world is sort of traumatized by what happened, and confused, and vulnerable to someone like Mysterio. So is Peter. He is traumatized, confused and vulnerable by what happened to him personally. So, Mysterio is the perfect villain to take advantage of that, to get what he wants.
Mysterio is a master manipulator, using technology to pull one over on the world, and become a beloved superhero. And with the world and Peter still grieving Tony Stark's death from Avengers: Endgame's final battle, it was the perfect time for Quentin Beck's particular brand of evil.
Spider-Man: Far From Home picked up shortly after Endgame, with the formerly dusted characters resurrected by The Hulk. We learned The Blip didn't age the departed, and how regular high schoolers were attempting to get back to normal life. The entire world seemed to be collectively mourning the loss of Iron Man, as well as Captain America and Black Widow. And it's this timing that Mysterio tries to take advantage of.
Related: Could Mysterio Return To The MCU After Far From Home?
Of course, there was the challenge of adapting Mysterio for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. On the page, the character is a stunt man and hypnotist, which would have been a different moviegoing experience than the Quentin Beck Jake Gyllenhaal brought to life. In his same conversation with Collider, Erik Summers explained this unique challenge, saying:
Mysterio is just an iconic villain, and we discussed various villains, but we kept coming back to Mysterio. He really seemed like the next logical choice, but the challenge was how to update the Mysterio from the source material, the comics, into someone that we would see in the MCU. So, it just came down to a lot of conversations with the creative team about how we would update Mysterio, how we would make someone who in the comics is a stuntman, special effects guy with strings on his shoes, into someone that we would see coming up against Spider-Man in an MCU movie.
Despite not actually having superpowers Mysterio posed a very real threat to Peter Parker throughout Spider-Man: Far From Home. His illusion technology and drone army got the best of Spider-Man a few times, before the young hero was eventually able to formulate a plan to take him down. What's more, Mysterio got the last laugh by outing Peter Parker. And there's also debate as to Quentin Beck's ultimate fate.
Spider-Man: Far From Home is in theaters now. Be sure to check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.
