Marvel and Sony will continue the tradition of spotlighting classic Spider-Man villains who have never had the big screen treatment for their untitled Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel. Whatever form Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 takes, one thing is for sure: the villain is Mysterio. This is great news.
Even better, The Hollywood Reporter got word that Jake Gyllenhaal is the most likely to land the role of Quentin Beck, the special effects maestro gone wrong, who eventually becomes everyone’s favourite fishbowl-headed supervillain, Mysterio. Like the most recent movie villain, Vulture, Mysterio is one of Spidey’s oldest foes, first appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man #13 back in 1964, where he was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. His unique look and movie-centric talents should offer some fun possibilities.
Both Jake Gyllenhaal and Mysterio have connections to Spider-Man movies of the past, too. When Tobey Maguire injured his back before the filming of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 kicked off, there was talk of replacing him with Gyllenhaal. It didn’t come to pass, but Maguire’s back injury had a memorable joke inserted into that movie anyway.
But Mysterio was very nearly featured as part of Raimi’s never-made Spider-Man 4. Concept art from that film (which also would have featured Black Cat) revealed Mysterio as a potentially small-time villain that Spidey busts…and that concept art bears a resemblance to Bruce Campbell. I’m pretty sure that one of the many, many unmade Spider-Man movie scripts of the 1980s also featured Mysterio as a villain, too, but it’s not one I’ve actually read. I’ll continue to look into that.
At one point, there were rumblings that Mysterio and Kraven were under consideration for solo movies of their own. It’s not clear if any of that still holds. There still seems to be continued interest in bringing Kraven to the screen as well, and at this time, it’s not yet clear if Mysterio will share screen time with another Spider-Man villain. But since Spider-Man 2 will see Peter getting outside his New York City comfort zone, it’s possible that there’s room for more than one.
The untitled Spider-Man 2 will be released on July 5th 2019.