WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home, in theaters now.

For comic book readers, Mysterio's villainous turn in Spider-Man: Far From Home isn't at all surprising. However, the film makes even the most skeptical viewer question whether Jake Gyllanhaal's Quentin Beck is actually a bad guy. While the storytelling is effective, there are even more clues about Mysterio’s intentions revealed in his suit, if you know to look for them.

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Speaking with CBR, director Jon Watts revealed more about Mysterio, and the other comic book references hidden throughout the film, as well as the thought process behind that shocking mid-credits scene.

CBR: Peter’s obviously struggling to take on the Iron Man legacy, and he's constantly reminded of his absence as well. Do you think it's possible for Peter to step out of Tony’s shadow and be his own hero?

Jon Watts: I think that’s what he’s struggling with in this movie. We get into these ideas with — you know, spoiler land — both in the way that those murals are creating essentially a fictional version of Tony Stark, Tony Stark is becoming more legend than human in this film because of what he did, and Mysterio is creating a character who's a complete falsehood. But, it's something for the world to potentially believe in so that he can have this power.

I wanted to play with those ideas of what's real and what's not, and how do you take these ideas and incorporate them into your own life. That's what Peter is dealing with because he’s looking towards Iron Man, not as a regular person who made a lot of mistakes along the way, but he's looking at him almost as this fictional character that the world is seeing him as and is trying to live up to that.

But in the same way, Peter knows that he has all these internal conflicts, and he feels like he's not able to live up to this Iron Man ideal because he’s just a regular kid. That's how I wanted to turn this story of Spider-Man finally becoming Spider-Man, stepping out of the shadow of Iron Man. I wanted him to build his own suit. I wanted him to make all these decisions for himself and finally become the Spider-Man that we love.

Spider-Man: Far From Home

Jake Gyllenhaal was so believable, as a mentor figure but also as a villain. Why was Mysterio the character, and also Jake Gyllenhaal the actor, such a good fit for this film?

Once we knew that we wanted these two sides to this Mysterio character, Jake was the immediate person that popped to mind because there's very few actors that can do both of those things so convincingly. The way, potentially, of a new leading man in this Marvel Universe: that rugged movie star character that could become a mentor for Peter and also this crazed villain. You get the two extremes of Jake Gyllenhaal all in one role. So, that was really fun for me to watch.

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I wanted Mysterio because, first of all, just the visual possibilities that are opened up by having someone like Mysterio, by having someone who’s like a master of illusions as the main villain, it really opens the door to show people something that they never seen before and to try some really crazy visuals that you might not normally expect in a Spider-Man film.

Mysterio calls his costume ridiculous at some point, but it's really detailed. Could you talk about those design choices, especially that comics accurate fishbowl head?

Well, it was a fun development process because the very first illustration that Ryan [Meinerding] did was very true to the comic. And it looked great, but we also, you know, I wanted to explore different takes on it like a more realistic version, one that felt more like some sort of spacesuit. We explored a lot of different versions. And at the end of the day, we just came right back to Ryan's original design, which is very, very true to what's in the comics.

But once you know the twist of the film, and you go back and look at the design of the suit, you’ll realize that Ryan incorporated details from other Marvel superheroes into the suit. Because essentially, Mysterio is trying to create the perfect Marvel superhero. And in doing so, he steals elements from Thor, and from Doctor Strange and even from Black Panther in his suit. Just little details here and there so that he literally is an amalgamation of the other Marvel superheroes.

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I read that you're a huge Spider-Man fan, so how much did you pull from the comics for this film, aside from perhaps Mysterio and the Elementals?

What’s great about Spider-Man is every idea that you come up with has probably already been explored at some point in the Spider-Man comic. So I tried to give little clues along the way for whenever there’s an iconic Spider-Man moment in the film, I try to hide a reference to which comic I lifted that from.

Can you give an example of that?

Peter and MJ, at the end, there’s a nice little nod to the first time they were together like that in the comics.

That mid-credits scene is going to be trouble for Peter. Even though Peter’s secret identity was never truly an isolated secret, making it public is a different story. What was your thought process behind that decision and what that could potentially set up?

I thought it was a nice way to end this film, where he’s stepping out of Tony’s shadow, but because it’s Peter Parker, things never really go as planned. And while Tony had the opportunity at the end of Iron Man 1 and chose to reveal to the world, of course, that's not going to happen to Peter. And in this movie that's all about lies and deception, Peter’s one last big secret is revealed by Mysterio, which is a little ironic and definitely opens the door for some new problems for Peter Parker. Just when everything was finally going right in his life.

Directed by Jon Watts, Spider-Man: Far From Home stars Tom Holland, Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, JB Smoove, Jacob Batalon and Martin Starr, with Marisa Tomei and Jake Gyllenhaal. The film is in theaters now.

KEEP READING: Peter Parker, Like Tom Holland, Is Really Bad With Secrets