Spider-Man: No Way Home Concept Art Reveals Mysterio Return Was Removed

By Brandon Davis

Spider-Man: No Way Home seems to have had a version which included the return of Jake Gyllenhall's Quentin Beck, also known as Mysterio. As the story goes, the multiverse had its doors blown open when a spell cast by Doctor Strange went wrong and Spider-Man heroes and villains from other universes began to enter the main Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, new concept art shows that a version of the Spider-Man: No Way Home which did not make its way to theaters called for the return of Mysterio, a character who lied about being from another universe in Spider-Man: Far From Home, for the film's final fight at the Statue of Liberty.

it is unclear whether or not Mysterio was originally more involved in the plot of Spider-Man: No Way Home. He was indirectly a part of the cause for the multiverse characters joining the story as his revealing of Peter Parker's identity at the end of Far From Home lead to Peter requesting Strange cast a spell which would prompt the world to forget this information. It seems there was once a plan for Mysterio to have had bigger plans than this, seeing as concept artist Andrew Reeder revealed work for the film featuring the villain.

The art has been released on Reeder's own art site and profile, complete with several other designs and behind-the-scenes looks at Spider-Man: No Way Home. See the photo of Mysterio's return in the tweet from MCU podcast Phase Zero.

Originally, the expectation of this third MCU Spider-Man film was that Kraven the Hunter would be the villain following Mysterio's big reveal. The writers of the film recently confirmed that "every draft" of the movie once had the character as a part of the story, furthering theories that a different version of No Way Home existed pre-pandemic delays when it was supposed to release prior to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – which seems to be where Mysterio would have fit it. Tom Holland has also admitted that the original idea was to see Kraven as the film's main villain, which does make Mysterio's inclusion and the timeline for where he was cut from the story a bit more confusing – but the version clearly now existed at some point.

"When we started breaking the story and even started writing the script, we followed Doctor Strange 2 in the timeline," Spider-Man: No Way Home writer Chris McKenna explained in a recent interview with TheWrap. "So then during pre-production, things got pushed and changed. We were supposed to start shooting in July of 2020 and it became November of 2020, our release date got pushed from July 2021 to December 2021 – there were a lot of things flipping around." It seems that Mysterio may have been one of those things which was "flipping around." In fact, the character went as far as returning on merchandise for the film.

"Originally we were writing this where Strange was gonna be involved but it was after the events of Doctor Strange 2, and so where is he where is his head, and so that's something that we were kicking around," McKenna said. "And then now it seems to be more of like, 'Oh this actually gets him interested in pursuing the multiverse as a concept.'"

More concept art and official images from Spider-Man: No Way Home have slowly started making their way online, with the spoiler window seeming to be officially opening. A new photo shows all three Spider-Man characters together and Hot Toys recently started to roll out figures based on characters from the multiverse, starting with Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin. Check out some more concept art from Reeder in the Phase Zero tweet below. 

Would you have liked to see Mysterio return for Spider-Man: No Way Home? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram! Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing in theaters. 

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