Spider-Man: No Way Home has been smashing box office records for over a month, and the film delivered on the seemingly impossible, bridging the gap between three generations of Spider-Man fans while also telling a compelling and emotionally rich story in its own right. Seeing the return of characters like Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, Charlie Cox’s Daredevil, and both Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire’s versions of the webhead will go down as one of the most memorable cinematic experiences of all time. However, thanks to newly released concept art from No Way Home, it’s been revealed that another classic Spider-Man villain was set to return.

Concept art released by digital artist and set designer Andrew Reeder, who has worked on various other Marvel projects like Avengers: Infinity War, revealed that Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio was set to make an appearance. The concept art in question sees Mysterio in his costume from Spider-Man: Far From Home facing off against Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) next to an under renovation Statue of Liberty.

Fans will remember that this is where the epic final act of the film took place, filled to the brim with poster worthy moments, emotional payoffs, and crowd pleasing heroic acts, but having five villains instead of the classic six for “The Sinister Six” felt like a missed opportunity in the eyes of some fans. This concept art confirms that the filmmakers were at least trying to make the villainous team a reality, but villain overload might be to blame for having Mysterio cut from the film.

Concept art of Mysterio vs. Doctor Strange in #SpiderManNoWayHome

🎨 Andrew Reeder pic.twitter.com/8Z9OtStBvc

— ScreenTime (@screentime) January 25, 2022

Mysterio “died” at the end of Far From Home, but in the MCU, death never seems to stick. Especially given that this is a character based around tricks and illusions, what we saw at the end of Far From Home might not be the reality of what actually happened. It would have been interesting to see Mysterio’s tech based deception go up against Doctor Strange’s magic, and this would have given Tom Holland’s Peter a villain of his own in the film, but this concept art hints that Mysterio’s story may not be done in the MCU.

Maybe he will show up in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness along with the dozen other rumored legacy characters? Only time will tell.

via Collider