Despite not being named Chris, actor Jake Gyllenhaal is a famous white guy with a jawline, so it was only a matter of time before he ended up in a superhero movie.
While he’s resisted the allure of tights and a cape for years, reports are now circulating that the Oscar nominee is in talks to star as the villain in the already announced sequel to “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” according to Variety.
Gyllenhaal will reportedly play Mysterio, a big bad who’s been a pain in Spidey’s side throughout comic book history. His most well-known alter-ego is Quentin Beck, a special effects expert turned supervillain who manipulates reality to disarm his foes.
While the fate of everybody’s favorite web slinger was left up in the air after the events of “Avengers: Infinity War,” we know he’ll live another day in the next film in the franchise alongside Zendaya, Marisa Tomei and Michael Keaton as Vulture.
Jon Watts will also return as director with Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley writing the script.
Gyllenhaal has flirted with the superhero universe once before, as he was close to replacing the original Spider-Man, aka Toby Maguire, after the actor’s injury on the set of “Seabiscuit.” Alas, it was not meant to be and Maguire returned for two more sequels and Gyllenhaal went on star in “Brokeback Mountain.”
But don’t let his serious dramatic pedigree fool you. Gyllenhaal has always been a fan of the genre, even as his tastes have skewed further away from blockbuster fare.
“Superhero movies have inspired me. I remember when I saw ’Thor” I was really inspired,” he said at SXSW in 2016. “There’s a reason for myth. They are so moving and so important.”
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