Jake Gyllenhaal Shares Bloody Spider-Man Throwback For Tom Holland’s Birthday

Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Far From Home

Today marks the beginning of June, but if you’re Tom Holland, it’s also cause for celebration. The Spider-Man actor has turned 25, so obviously a lot of people are wishing him a happy birthday. This includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Holland’s costar on Spider-Man: Far From Home, who broke out a picture of the two of them together on the 23rd Marvel Cinematic Universe movie that’s a tad on the bloody side.

Peter Parker and Quentin Beck, a.k.a. Mysterio, may have ended up as enemies in Spider-Man: Far From Home, but in real life, Tom Holland and Jake Gyllenhaal got along splendidly. So much so that Gyllenhaal misses hanging out with Holland, as evidenced by the picture he shared on his Instagram Stories:

Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Holland Spider-Man: Far From Home selfie

Here we have Tom Holland and Jake Gyllenhaal taking a break from shooting Spider-Man: Far From Home’s final battle between Peter Parker and Mysterio. You can tell that by Gyllenhaal wearing a motion capture suit rather than the actual Mysterio costume and the placement of fake blood around Holland’s face. No doubt this was one of many selfies that Holland and Gyllenhaal took together on Far From Home, but today, Gyllenhaal chose that one to commemorate Holland’s birthday and reflect how he misses being in his young costar’s company.

Spider-Man: Far From Home marked Jake Gyllenhaal’s first time working within the superhero movie genre, with his version of Mysterio initially representing himself as a superhero from another reality who came to the MCU reality to stop the Elementals. In traditional Mysterio fashion, however, it was all a ruse, with Quentin Beck actually being a disgruntled ex-Star Industries employee who teamed up with other people who used to work for Tony Stark to obtain the E.D.I.T.H. glasses and establish Beck as an Avengers-level superhero. Mysterio’s illusions initially threw Peter for a loop, but eventually, he was able to take down the supervillain by relying on his Spider-sense. You can enjoy Spider-Man and Mysterio’s London confrontation below.

As things officially stand in the MCU, Mysterio is dead, although many fans suspect that he managed to fake his demise, as he does so often in the comics. Either way, before Spider-Man: Far From Home was over, Mysterio left the Peter Parker two parting gifts: framing him for both his death and the Elemental attack on London, and revealing his secret identity to the world. Peter’s now in quite the pack going into Spider-Man: No Way Home, and if things weren’t bad enough already, he’ll also have to battle villains from other universes, like Electro and Doctor Octopus.

Whether or not Mysterio ever returns to the MCU remains to be seen, but for Jake Gyllenhaal’s sake, hopefully he’ll cross paths with Tom Holland again, whether it’s on another project or in a social setting. For now, you can next hear Gyllenhaal’s voice in the animated movie Spirit Untamed, which opens this Friday, June 4. As for Holland, he’ll mask back up when Spider-Man: No Way Home arrives on December 17.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.