**”Avengers: Endgame” Spoilers Below**
Judging by the first two trailers, it’s clear that “Spider-Man: Far From Home” is a very different beast than its predecessor, ‘Homecoming.’ Not only is Peter older and wiser, along with being more comfortable as Spider-Man, but there’s a lot of literal changes to the world around him that are affecting the character. There’s the whole business about Thanos, the Snap, and the fact that his mentor, Iron Man, is now dead.
But even more than that, there’s the fact that ‘Far From Home’ takes the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man outside of his own neighborhood, putting him in Europe on a class trip. And in a set visit, the people involved with the film describe how the European setting for the film offers a new take on the classic franchise.
“This film is kind of like if ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ and ‘Spectre’ had a baby,” said star Tom Holland (via Fandango). “It has the sexy aspect of being in Europe, of having the spy mission undertone, but at the heart of it is still a very similar film to ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ in the sense that it’s really about Peter and his friends and the kids and the lighthearted humor that they have.”
Considering that Spider-Man now finds himself outside of the US, working for Nick Fury, a level of discretion was required. Enter the new black suit that was seen in the most recent trailer. With no spider seen anywhere on the costume, it’s clear that the spy suit is meant to be a bit more…stealthy.
“It’s inspired by a bunch of different looks in the comics — he had the Noir, Big Time — but when Ryan Meinerding was designing this, he had all the sort of past S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in mind, so it’s very reminiscent of what Black Widow or Hawkeye would wear,” executive producer Eric Hauserman Carroll said. “This is supposed to be a very tactical version of the suit. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that Tony gave him. But it allows him to work in Europe without everyone assuming Spider-Man is on the scene.”
And since Peter finds himself working with Fury in this film, that means that the supporting cast surrounding the hero is changing. Instead of the high school kids that rounded out the cast of ‘Homecoming,’ there’s a lot more spy types littered around, including a new character named Dimitri, played by Numan Acar.
Now, if you’re a diehard Spider-Man fan, your Spidey Sense might be tingling after hearing the name Dimitri. In the lore of the hero, Dmitri Anatoly Nikolayevich Smerdyakov (quite the mouthful) is the name of one of Peter’s greatest villains, Chameleon. And according to the film’s producer, that may not be a coincidence.
“I think anyone who works for Nick Fury certainly has a mysterious past. We’re not specifically saying that he’s Chameleon, but we’re not not saying that,” said Carroll.
Carroll also talked about another fan-favorite character that might make his way into the new film — J. Jonah Jameson. Obviously, fans know the character as Peter’s curmudgeon of a boss that works at the newspaper that the hero freelances for. Jameson didn’t show up in the ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ films, but was a large part of Sam Raimi’s trilogy. The producer wouldn’t go into details, but said that Jameson and the Daily Bugle might show up in some form in the film.
Carroll revealed (via SlashFilm), “So we’re trying to pay as much homage to the source material as possible, and we do think there are a couple of fun ideas like that in here, most of which I don’t want to spell out for you, but absolutely. We want to take as much of the mythology that people love and present it in a way that’s totally faithful to what people love about it, but in a [different] way.”
And since this is all reported from set visits, there’s no way that Marvel Studios or Sony are going to let spoilers fly around. That being said, Holland did talk about a scene that he thinks fans are going to have a big reaction to.
“There’s a scene in this film where audiences will feel like they’ve been punched in the face,” revealed Holland. “Even filming it, I remember walking out and then watching it again on the monitors and asked Jon [Watts], ‘Are you sure that’s okay?’ And he’s like, ‘No, it’s not. People are going to hate this scene.’ It’s pretty crazy.”
Let the speculation begin!
“Spider-Man: Far From Home” hits theaters on July 2.