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Be it your hero, your villain, or even a supporting character, the right costume is always important when making a movie. That advices is even more important to heed when you’re making a comic book movie like Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Marvel Studios’ Head of Visual Development, Ryan Meinerding, knows that fact extremely well.
In a recent interview, Ryan Meinderding was asked to discuss the design of Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio, who’s been known to have a traditionally “out there” look. With such a reputation, quite a few designs were hatched for Quentin Beck’s superpowered alter ego, and you can see several of them, courtesy of the video below.
Sure enough, the big sticking point with Mysterio’s costume in Spider-Man: Far From Home was his infamous “fishbowl” helmet, a factor that Ryan Meinerding looked to change into something sleeker in earlier drafts of the costume. However, when tweaks like smaller capes and more modern looking helmets came into play, something didn’t feel right.
Even thinking back on the experience of seeing the fishbowl in the finished film, the theatricality of Quentin Beck’s persona definitely required a look that could project a certain image. The character basically screams for a flourish that only such a flashy item could provide, and eventually, that was the version audiences got to see in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Believe it or not, Meinerding revealed to Earth’s Mightiest Show that about 60 – 70 versions of Mysterio’s costume were drafted and considered, before the final choices were made. Seen in the video rundown above, there are some interesting alternatives that were in play, right down to the color of the fog and magical powers that Mr. Beck would employ in his battle against the Elementals.
It was sort of a secret as to whether or not the fishbowl would play into Spider-Man: Far From Home’s visual language, as there were inklings and leaked looks as early as the end of last year showing us that it was never going to not be present in director Jon Watts’ finished film.
While it isn’t discussed explicitly in the video above, you can see another classic influence from the original Steve Ditko artwork that carried over into this latest Spider-Man adventure.
In his “Upgraded Suit”, Peter Parker has implemented the webbing between his arms and the rest of his costume, allowing him to glide into action when needed. That flourish was particularly popular with earlier iterations of the character, and came back in Spider-Man: Far From Home for all to see.
There’s a lot of good rejected ideas for Mysterio’s costume, but the final variant pays perfect tribute to the original artwork, while moving in more of a fashion-forward direction. It’s truly a wonderful thing when you can see both halves come together in such a way, and that’s just what happened with Quentin Beck, right down to Jake Gyllenhaal’s perfect beard.
Spider-Man: Far From Home is in theaters now, full of flashy theatricality for all to see. For those of you who’ve already enjoyed this adventure, and would like to head to somewhere new and exciting, our 2019 release schedule is along for the ride!