Spider-Man: Far From Home Theory - Mysterio Is Spider-Man From An Alternate Universe

In the recently released trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home, a series line uttered by Jake Gyllenhaal’s Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio, and Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury single-handedly alter the entire status quo of the MCU as we know it.

As Fury says;

“Beck is from Earth, just not ours. The snap tore a hole in our dimension”.

In other words, after the time-traveling/dimension-hopping/not-even-the-writers-and-directors-actually-agree-on-exactly-what-it-was-they-were-doing of Avengers: Endgame, Marvel is going all-in on the concept of the multiverse in this film. According to the story Mysterio is providing, one of the snaps of the infinity gauntlet tore a hole in reality and has since allowed people from alternate universes to slip through.

Obviously, there is the possibility that Mysterio is lying here, as he is a noted trickster and illusionist. But between Nick Fury confirming that he at least believes Mysterio’s story, the sheer dimension-breaking potential of all of the shenanigans that take place in Infinity War and Endgame, and the fact that Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige has talked about bringing the multiverse proper into the MCU for years now, there’s a very strong chance this is true.

But that’s not to say Mysterio is being completely honest either. Because what if, Mysterio is actually just Spider-Man from an alternate universe?

Ever since Spider-Man officially joined the MCU, Marvel and director Jon Watts have been keen on turning his franchise into the most meta-superhero franchise out there. From featuring Michael Keaton, the original Batman and more recent Birdman, as the Vulture to recontextualizing classic Spider-Man movie moments such as the infamous upside-down kiss or him trying to hold pieces of a New York City public transportation vehicle together in Homecoming, they clearly love playing with the off-screen legacy of the character just as much as they do the on-screen legacy. In this trailer, we even get several fun nods to Spider-Man’s cinematic past, such as with the Crusher Hogan poster.

Which is what I think they’re doing with Jake Gyllenhaal. Infamously, Gyllenhaal nearly secured the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sam Raimi’s trilogy not once but twice. He was originally a front-runner for the first film before being beaten out by Toby Maguire and then was a front-runner to replace Maguire in Spider-Man 2, going so far as to nearly be officially cast, until Maguire decided to return.

I believe Far From Home will play to this, having Gyllenhaal’s Quentin Beck be a Spider-Man from a different universe who somehow lost his powers when he came to our universe. He longs to be a super-hero regardless, spending the five years since the snap building his Mysterio tech, only for this universe’s Spider-Man to suddenly return. Thus, he resents Spider-Man, pretends to be his friend and new mentor, but is, in reality, trying to get rid of him all the while. In retrospect, even Gyllenhaal’s line of “we could have used someone like you on my world” sounds rather ominous when put into this context.

All of this would also present a very compelling challenge to Peter as a character; the mentor he believes to be replacing the Tony Stark-sized hole in his heart is actually just an alternate version of himself who’s gone evil. It directly contradicts this version of Peter Parker’s core beliefs and could make for some very interesting moral and thematic conflicts.

There’s clearly something up with Mysterio in this film that Marvel and Sony are doing their best to hide but if I had to bet money on it, I’d say that Mysterio is secretly an alternate universe Spider-Man.