'Spiderman: Far From Home' trailer leaves some asking: Who is Mysterio?

As Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures drop the teaser trailer for the seventh film starring Spider-Man, filmmakers appear to be showcasing more obscure villains in Spidey’s rogue’s gallery like Mysterio and the Elementals. (Marvel Entertainment)

As Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures drop the teaser trailer for the seventh film starring Spider-Man, filmmakers appear to be unabashedly showcasing more obscure villains in Spidey’s massive rogue’s gallery.

This time around, “Spider-Man: Far From Home” director Jon Watts and writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers are showcasing the lesser-known villains of Mysterio and the Elementals.

After months of fan speculation, actor Jake Gyllenhaal revealed he was playing the Mysterio character, who appears to be wrecking half of Europe in the Spider-Man sequel slated for July 5, 2019.

But the recent trailer may have left some casual viewers wondering who Mysterio even is.

While few details have been released about the film so far -- including exactly where it falls on the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline -- here’s what we know about the character.

In the comics, a number of characters don the iconic Mysterio fishbowl helmet but the most famous one is Quentin Beck.

He’s typically portrayed as a stage illusionist, master hypnotist and designer of special effects who doesn’t have any superhuman powers.

He first showed up in Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s 1964 The Amazing Spider-Man #13. In a comic book run, the character fails at transitioning to acting and he decides the best way to make it big would be killing off a superhero. That’s when he set his sights on Spider-Man.

In other different interpretations, he’s also a member of the Sinister Six -- a team-up of villains who take on Spidey.

Mild spoilers ahead: But the film version of the Beck character is reportedly recruited by Nick Fury because he’s an expert on the relatively obscure Elementals. In the film, they appear to be extra-dimensional immortal beings who can wield different forces of nature.

The inclusion of these second-tier villains has been part of a recent trend for the wall-crawler.

When Marvel and Sony Pictures decided to jointly release “Spider-Man: Homecoming” starring Tom Holland in 2017, director and co-writer Jon Watts began branching out from the usual suspects of baddies.

Watts had the second-tier Spidey villain Vulture taking centre-stage against the teenage superhero. With two other lesser-known villains, Shocker and the Tinker, having supporting roles in the film.

Critics lauded the performance of Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes’ Vulture, with comic fans loving the new twist Watts put on the villains.

The recent inclusion of the Mysterio bucks the trend of having the hero face off against only iconic villains, as is the case in more recent wave of comic book movies: Batman fighing Joker, X-Men fighting Magneto and Aquaman facing off against Black Manta.

But because there have been so many Spider-Man films, writers have had to dig deeper into the character’s history.

In Sam Raimi’s original “Spider-Man” trilogy starring Tobey Maguire, he fought Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Venom and Sandman. And then in the critically panned, rebooted movies starring Andrew Garfield, villains included the Lizard, Rhino, Electro and yes, Green Goblin again.

“Spider-Man: Far From Home” writers appear to have avoided the problem of re-using the same villains, which can lead to the movies feeling much too similar.

For example, in both the 2006 and classic 1970s “Superman” films, the titular character faced off against Lex Luthor a number of times. And in both film interpretations of “The Fantastic Four,” the characters fight off different variations on the Doctor Doom character.