Spider-Man: Far From Home introduced Jake Gyllenhaal to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Gyllenhaal plays Spider-Man villain Mysterio. Adjusting to acting in a massive superhero universe took some time for Gyllenhaal. As he explained at Ace Comic Con Midwest, Spider-Man star Tom Holland was vital to helping him find his way. Gyllenhaal and Holland were on a panel together at the convention and Gyllenhaal discussed his MCU introduction. “I got thrown into the world in a lot of ways and an interesting thing is our friendship in the movie, it reflected our real friendship in real life,” Gyllenhaal says. “I met him and he was as kind as he is in the movie to my character.”
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“We did a lot of the earlier scenes first, so we started to kind of become friends in that same way. I was totally overwhelmed,” Gyllenhaal continues. “I mean, it’s huge. I mean, walking on set, the first scene I did was when I literally land on Earth as Mysterio when I see Nick Fury. That is the first moment, first scene I shot. I just jumped off a platform and landed into the MCU and that was a little bit intense. But Tom was just so supportive through all of it.”
Gyllenhaal went on to explain that for about six weeks he’d come to Holland for advice on how to behave in proper superhero movie fashion. Knowing that he was going to have to play the villain turn only complicated matters further.
“I was definitely overwhelmed,” Gyllenhaal says. “It was an honor, and then also because the world is so big and you’re jumping in and I also had a particular type of intention, which is that I was for a very long time playing the hero with him and I knew there was going to be a turn and we were figuring it out, a lot of times, as we went in certain spaces. So that was always on my mind and I was always trying to figure out how I was going to turn it. It kind of hurt my heart a little bit that I was going to have to do some bad things to this dude. And then I didn’t care.”
Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio seemed to perish at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home. And yet, fans keep uncovering more evidence that he may yet live.
Spider-Man: Far From Home is now available on home media. Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in spring 2021, Loki in spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If? In summer 2021, Hawkeye in fall 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk are also in the works for Disney+.
