10 Movie Villains Secretly Introduced Way Earlier Than You Realise

10. Mysterio Lurks In The Background - Spider-Man: Far From Home

The first time that Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio, turns up in Spider-Man: Far From Home, he's positioned as a superhero from an alternative Earth.

Acting as a mentor to young Peter Parker, Beck manages to wangle himself custody of Tony Stark's swanky EDITH tech before the reveal is eventually made that Mysterio is a disgruntled former Stark employee who had embraced the dark side.

While that first appearance of Mysterio is as one of the good guys, attentive viewers may have managed to spot that this rogue actually makes his presence known earlier than we all thought. As Tom Holland's Peter does his best to try and enjoy his school vacation to Venice, Gyllenhaal's Beck can be seen passing by ol' Web-head, casually keeping tabs on Parker while acting as nothing more than just a background face in a crowd.

If you go back to watch those scenes of Peter Parker exploring some of the sights offered up by the famed Italian city, you can actually see Quentin Beck at several points - all before these two would formally meet, and obviously way before the Far From Home narrative showed Beck's true motivation.

Authored by Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

First Posted On: 18th May 2021

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