Spider-Man: Far From Home: New Photos Promise Globetrotting Adventure
The MCU's Phase Three isn't over just yet.
Next month will see the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home, a globetrotting new adventure for Tom Holland's web-slinging hero and the final film before Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe commences. In order to build up anticipation (as if we weren't already pumped enough), Sony Pictures has released a series of 15 new images from the flick. (via Collider)
While the stills don't offer any new plot information that can't be gleaned from the trailers we've seen so far, they do give us nice, clear shots of Spidey's new costumes (yes, that's plural), as well as Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio and a few tense moments involving Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury (a man who kind of specializes in tense moments). Without further ado, here they are, accompanied by our expert analysis.
Don't you hate it when the historic building to which you've anchored your web just explodes? So does Peter Parker; all he wanted from his European vacation was to see the sights, flirt with MJ (Zendaya), and absolutely, positively not do any Spider-Man-ing. Of course, Nick Fury and a sudden incursion by towering, elemental monsters ruined those plans. If we look closely here, we can see that Spidey is sporting his new, red-and-black duds that — as we've seen in Chinese TV spots that have leaked stateside — were apparently created in some kind of lab owned by Parker's late mentor, Tony Stark.
Here's a better look at the new suit. Is it us, or does it look like Spidey is not so much swinging heroically into action as he is hanging on for dear life? This appears to be from the scene we saw in the first trailer, in which Mysterio arrives to do battle with the water monster wreaking havoc on Venice, informing Parker that he's out of his element (no pun intended).
An image from Parker's first formal introduction (via Nick Fury) to Mysterio, who looks to be a candidate to fill the "older, wiser mentor" position which was so cruelly vacated when Iron Man sacrificed himself to save the universe in Avengers: Endgame. But, is the new guy as benevolent as he appears to be? We'll discuss further shortly.
We know from the trailers that Parker intends to leave his suit at home when he leaves for Europe, and that he ends up packing it along anyway — but we weren't quite sure how. Here, it looks like he's being presented with the suit by a friendly customs agent, and our money is on Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) being the one who surreptitiously slipped it into his bag. We're sure Parker will have some goofy excuse about how it's for cosplay or something, which he will completely fail to sell, but which this woman will somehow buy anyway.
Oh, Nick Fury. You always have to ruin everybody's good time with your world-saving plans and high-minded speeches invoking the higher responsibility superheroes have to the world and, indeed, the universe. Killjoy.
We know that Parker intends to take his friendly relationship with MJ to a more-than-friendly place in Far From Home, and we also know from the trailers that MJ deduces that he is indeed Spider-Man (because "it's kind of obvious"). We'd like to think that, despite all of the superspies and elemental monsters, he'll find a way to seal the deal and make the lovely lady his girlfriend — but this is Peter Parker we're talking about, so somehow, we really doubt it.
Fury is awesome and all, but it's great to see Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) finally getting more than just a cameo in a Marvel movie for the first time in awhile. We must say, though, that whatever happened here, it looks like it's going to take more than a couple sidearms to deal with it.
Hill and Fury in the middle of a strategizing session. S.H.I.E.L.D. may be no more, but some things never change — all that's missing here is the random dude in the background playing Galaga, hoping nobody will notice.
Parker's best buddy Ned (Jacob Batalon) is no stranger to high-stakes situations, having famously served as the web-slinger's "guy in the chair" during the climactic confrontation with the Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Of course, a normal man with some admittedly sweet Chitauri tech is one thing, while elemental creatures standing several stories high laying waste to iconic European locales are quite another. Check out Ned's protective stance, though; we're pleased to see that he's developing into quite the man of action.
Quentin Beck, AKA Mysterio, is one of Spider-Man's most dedicated and consistent antagonists in the pages of Marvel comics. The trailers for Far From Home, director Jon Watts, Gyllenhaal himself, and your next-door neighbor's brother all insist that this is a different version of Beck, one with heroic rather than villainous intentions. Are we buying it?
Sure, Parker is badly in need of a new mentor, and Mysterio — as presented in the trailers — seems to be as powerful as he is wise and empathetic. But since Tom Holland famously can't keep his mouth shut about Marvel plot details, he may have revealed that Beck — whom Fury claims is from an alternate universe — may be fibbing his fishbowl helmet off. "There's a scene in this film where audiences will feel like they've been punched in the face," Holland said in an interview. "Even filming it, I remember walking out and watching it again on the monitors and asking Jon, 'Are you sure that's OK?' and he's like, 'No, it's not. People are going to hate this scene.' But God, it's pretty crazy. It's very similar [to the famous Dad Talk scene with the Vulture in Homecoming] in the way that it's very tense, and it sort of whips the rug from underneath your feet. It's pretty awesome." If his remarks have nothing to do with Beck, we'll eat a pine cone — and if a recent rumor is true, we may even see him being recruited into the supervillain team known as the Sinister Six (by none other than Norman Osborn) in one of Far From Home's post-credits sequences.
It's tough to imagine Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) tolerating anybody getting in his face, with the possible exception of Fury. Our question: what's the conflict here? We're guessing that Hogan, who spent the entirety of Homecoming being supremely annoyed with Parker, has since adopted a fiercely protective stance towards the kid after the events of Endgame. Fury, of course, is a man willing to do virtually anything to get the job of protecting the world done — even putting a teenager, albeit a very powerful one, in mortal danger.
We've all caught glimpses of it by now, but the stealth suit is simply one of the coolest damn things we've ever seen. We still don't know what Fury and Hill will have Spidey up to that requires stealth, but frankly, we don't really care, because this just looks ultra-rad.
Another excellent look at the stealth suit. Holland has said that, unlike his Stark-designed suits, the stealth version won't really have any bells and whistles (and if you ask us, it kind of looks like modified S.H.I.E.L.D. gear). "It's awesome. It's not actually capable of much," he said. "We sort of stripped Spider-Man back and now it's him relying on his powers, but it's his ability to act like Spider-Man without the world knowing that Spider-Man is there."
Finally, a shot that is not actually a still from the film (as you just might have guessed). This is director Jon Watts in action, hard at work crafting the second MCU solo Spidey vehicle for us. In an interview with Slashfilm, Watts revealed his interesting approach to sidestepping the "bigger is better" trap that superhero sequels are prone to falling into. "That second movie bloat is definitely something I was always aware of and trying to avoid. For me, it's just really continuing to make the story be a personal story about Peter's coming of age," the director said. "If [Homecoming] is about wanting more responsibility and not being able to get it, this movie's about getting that responsibility and not necessarily wanting it — at least at the moment. What Peter wants in the moment is to just go on this European trip with his friends, and he doesn't want to get swept up into this world of intrigue with Nick Fury. In a way, Peter's story is trying to resist the pitfalls of a sequel. It's as if Nick Fury's saying, 'Come on, we're going to expand the scope. We're going to go to all of these different places.' And Peter's like, 'Eh, I kinda just want to be hanging out with my friends still.' So we kind of embraced it on a mildly meta level."
That... sounds kind of ingenious, and these photos have us more psyched than ever to find out what Watts and company have in store for us. Fortunately, we don't have long to wait: Spider-Man: Far From Home hits the big screen on July 2.