From the moment he emerged, seemingly fully formed, into the searing spotlight of the public eye in the cult Richard Kelly fantasy Donnie Darko, Jake Gyllenhaal never quite seemed cut out for the Hollywood heart-throb mould. There have been efforts to recast the actor as a smouldering, musclebound action hero since that spiky early foray into the heart of post-pubescent darkness – conspicuously, if not memorably, in 2010’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. But he has always seemed more comfortable – certainly more watchable – playing offbeat outsiders such as Darko, Nightcrawler’s sociopathic stringer Lou Bloom and Okja’s screwball TV zoologist Dr Johnny Wilcox.
The news that Gyllenhaal is in talks to star as Marvel supervillain Mysterio in the upcoming sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming should therefore come as no surprise. For this is surely a role the US actor was born to play. In the comics, Mysterio is a high-grade pain in the neck, a Wizard of Oz-type figure who uses illusion and subterfuge (rather than superpowers) to mess with Spidey’s head and make him doubt his own worth and reality. He’s a nasty, bitter piece of work, who really shouldn’t be so much of a threat to the masked wall crawler, but ends up being far more dangerous than many of his more vaunted supervillain peers due to his poisonous nature and single-minded determination.
It’s a part that seems to sync perfectly with Gyllenhaal’s knack for portraying society’s wild-eyed misfits and green-eyed American eccentrics. And it requires an actor capable of holding the stage, to make up for Mysterio’s deeply unimpressive superpowers with the ability to project a genuinely magnetic screen presence. To join the garlanded ranks of big screen Spider-Man villains, from Willem Dafoe’s maniacal Green Goblin to Alfred Molina’s Doc Oc, in style.
For long-term comic-book movie superfans, it’s also about time the Brokeback Mountain star joined the party. Gyllenhaal was due to play Batman prior to Christian Bale taking up the cape and cowl, and also auditioned to play the webslinger in Spider-Man 2, during a period when incumbent Tobey Maguire had injured his back starring in 2003’s Seabiscuit.
“I believe whatever happens, happens for good,” he told an interviewer in 2015. “I was definitely open to both the roles. However at a certain point you realise there is always someone more interesting, talented and ready to do the role. In any case, you are not going to get every role you go for. So you can say I neither rue nor am I thankful for having not worked on these superhero films.”
With his aptitude for damaged psyches, it’s easy to see why producers considered Gyllenhaal to play the Dark Knight. If Bruce Wayne had taken just a few more wrong turns in his efforts to avenge his parents’ deaths, he might easily have found himself down in the gutter with Bloom, Wilcox et al.
Gyllenhaal was also recently rumoured to be replacing Ben Affleck as the DC Extended Universe’s caped crusader, but given the mess Warner Bros’ rival superhero stable finds itself in, Mysterio seems like a far more sensible career move. Unlike Affleck, Gyllenhaal appears a prime candidate for an early sashay into character roles, 20 years ahead of Hugh Grant and with barely a wrinkle to his brow – and yet so ready for it.
Moreover, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in need of a new ultra-devious, mischief-making supervillain after (spoiler alert!) Loki ended up facing his own personal Ragnarök in Avengers: Infinity War. And there is no reason Mysterio can’t cross over into other storylines beyond those involving Spider-Man – in the comics, the villain has also menaced Daredevil. Certainly it would be rather a waste if Gyllenhaal only pitched up for one outing as Mysterio before being pushed back behind the magician’s veil. Variety has already confirmed that Michael Keaton’s pleasingly multilayered Vulture will return for Homecoming 2, after all.
Might Mysterio, with his fondness for smoke and mirrors, even hold the clue to explaining how Peter Parker survived Thanos’s finger click at the end of Infinity War? That seems like a stretch, but the supervillain certainly has a ring of ersatz Doctor Strange about him, and it is Benedict Cumberbatch’s reality-bending sorcerer supreme who likely holds the clue to the mad titan’s eventual defeat in next year’s still-untitled sequel. There are certainly a few of us who watched Infinity War’s strikingly grim denouement who would be more than pleased to discover it was all just a petty illusion.
