Jake Gyllenhaal Shares The Appeal Of Playing Mysterio

There’s an almost paradoxical quality to Jake Gyllenhaal’s involvement with ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home‘. While it’s his first time appearing in one of the webbed wonder’s films, he’s been tangentially associated with the franchise for as long as there’s been a franchise. Most prominently, he was in the running for the role of Peter Parker himself in Sam Raimi’s first effort back in 2002. But it didn’t end there. In the run-up to ‘Spider-Man 3’, there were whispers that some of the cast – among them Tobey Maguire – were hesitant to return. Had Maguire backed out, there was a persistent rumor (perhaps a case of Maguire’s agent and the studio negotiating in the press) that Gyllenhaal would step into the role.

So with all that history, you’d think he would have appeared in some capacity – a supporting role, a cameo, a voiceover, something – before now. But the past is what it is, and while we could sit here all day guessing at what might have been, the bottom line is that this history renders it oddly appropriate that Gyllenhaal now finds himself in the role of Mysterio. But it still begs the question: “Why now? Why this movie?”

The answer, it turns out, is a fairly simple one. In a word? Character. Speaking to the LA Times during a Q&A session at Sundance, Gyllenhaal explained that the fundamental draw of Mysterio was that of playing a “great character” in a character driven story. You can find his full answer in a video embedded in the tweet below:

Helmed by returning director Jon Watts, ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Marisa Tomei, and Jake Gyllenhaal. The film will arrive in theaters on July 5, 2019.