Spider-Man: Far From Home unveils fishbowl-based Mysterio concept art

The latest Marvel hit and the second solo outing for Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, Spider-Man: Far From Home also saw the MCU debut of Jake Gyllenhaal. The renowned actor’s take on the tricky classic villain Mysterio allowed him to go big and broad — and as close to the comics as he could go. 

Now that Marvel has released some of the concept art behind the character’s film debut, fans can see how Steve Ditko’s original comic artwork was the major source of inspiration for the fishbowl-wearing Gyllenhaal. Ditko loved to get into the pulpy strangeness of his supers, marrying that impulse with a dash of the occult and plenty of color. As you can see below, this meant there was plenty of groundwork laid for making Mysterio look his biggest and flashiest on the big screen:

The metallic armor, the gaudy cape, and yes, the face-obscuring spaceman helmet — all iconic. No matter how they tried to modify the helmet to a more “head-friendly” shape, it just didn’t look right. Big glass sphere or bust. Marvel Studios' Head of Visual Development Ryan Meinerding explained that he went through 60 or 70 iterations of the costume before settling on the final version. Oh, and that making the suit metallic was very important.

"One of the things we do to make something automatically feel more real in some ways is just make it metallic," Meinerding said. "The second you use a metallic paint on his suit, it just feels more real. It gives life; when he's moving around, there's reflections playing off of it, and it doesn't feel dead or flat." And why does Mysterio sport a beard in the film? Well, Gyllenhaal simply looks great with a little facial hair.

Fans can further appreciate the look when they check out Spider-Man: Far From Home in theaters now.