‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ Star Jake Gyllenhaal Reveals Why He’s Playing Mysterio

Thanks to major successes early in his career, Jake Gyllenhaal was regularly considered to play a number of superheroes over the past 15 years, finally making the plunge in the genre by playing Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home. The actor recently revealed that his main motivation for joining the film was the complex character that offered new challenges.

When speaking with The L.A. Times, the actor detailed of the opportunity, “It’s great. He’s a great character. It’s one of those things, people have asked me for a number of years, ‘You wanna do a movie like that? If you were asked to, would you?’ And my response has always been, particularly since being at Sundance, so many of the stories have always been, for many years since I’ve been coming here, character-driven, and that has always been my desire, is to find something in that space, that seems to match my skill and also my own honesty. And it just so happened that it does with that part, so I’m glad that people feel excited about it.”

For many Spider-Man fans, this casting decision is a dream come true, as one of the films that the actor was rumored to be up for was Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man in 2002, which ultimately went to Tobey Maguire. Fans have only seen brief glimpses of the actor in the first Far From Home trailer, yet he was one of the standout elements that fans immediately connected with.

The actor is known for compelling dramas like Enemy, Prisoners, and Nightcrawler, which occupy a different corner of cinema than big-budget superhero films. Gyllenhaal previously noted that he was pleasantly surprised with the ways in which the cast and crew offered him a more intimate experience than he was anticipating.

“It actually feels like a smaller-sized movie when you’re acting with the actors,” Gyllenhaal shared with The Late Show. “[The actors] in the movie are great, there’s a great cast in this movie, and actually the director Jon Watts is fantastic and he really makes a space where you can try things out and play around and it doesn’t feel like you’re just sort of automaton, doing whatever.”

Fans will see Mysterio in action when Spider-Man: Far From Home hits theaters on July 5th.

Are you looking forward to seeing Gyllenhaal in the new film? Let us know in the comments below!