‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’s Jake Gyllenhaal on Finally Making the Jump to Superhero Movies

Jake Gyllenhaal wowed Marvel fans with his short, but breathtaking debut as Mysterio in Tuesday’s Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer. The actor has long been on the outside of the superhero world, save for almost being cast as Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2, but his new villainous turn changed all of that, and fans are completely supportive of his casting.

During an appearance on The Late Show on Wednesday night, host Stephen Colbert asked Gyllenhaal about taking on the role, and finally joining a superhero franchise. He asked the actor why it took him so long to finally make the jump, despite always expressing interest in the genre.

Gyllenhaal replied, “I would’ve [always] loved to, and this was the shot.”

Colbert went on to say that Gyllenhaal has been known for his work in smaller, wackier art house films, so joining the MCU was a bit of a departutre from that. Despite the differences however, Gyllenhaal seemed to enjoy his experience working on Far From Home.

“It is. Yeah, people tend to consider me… I guess the movies I make are a little weird. Sometimes,” He said. “[But] it is different and it’s really fun. It was really fun. I was looking for a role in a space like that that felt I could do something with it, and I did something with it. I don’t know how good I did with it, but I something with it, and it’s very exciting!”

As Gyllenhaal continued, he said that Spider-Man director Jon Watts and the rest of the cast actually made the movie feel like a different experience than he might have expected.

“There is, sort of. But it actually feels like a smaller sized movie when you’re acting with the actors. [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.”

As we saw in the trailer, Mysterio is going to be a fairly complicated character in Far From Home. We all know that he’s a villain in the comics, but he’s acting a lot like a hero when he fights off Hydro-Man. This could be an elaborate scheme, or a major identity crisis. Either way, it makes for a compelling addition to the ever-evolving MCU, and we’re certainly glad an actor like Jake Gyllenhaal landed the part.

What did you think of the Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer? Are you excited for the movie? Let us know in the comments!

Spider-Man: Far From Home is set to hit theaters on July 5th.