Questions We'll Never Get Answered With Spider-Man Out Of The MCU

The news that we may never see Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe again is disappointing for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being all the unanswered questions. MCU's storytellers like to play the long game, often planting seeds in one movie that only bear fruit years later — sometimes in a completely different franchise's film. With Spidey's next flicks left outside that narrative, there's a lot that's sadly going to die on the vine. 

In the comics, Spider-Man's been around long enough that he has fairly complex relationships with most, if not all, of the company's oldest heroes. He's been in the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. He enjoys team-ups that have built relationships with heroes like Daredevil, Iron Man, Wolverine, and even black sheep like the Punisher. With Spidey strictly a Sony hero now, the potential for a lot of promising team-ups will be lost, particularly with the Disney acquisition of Fox opening the door for the X-Men, the FF, and Deadpool to appear in the MCU. Friendships, rivalries, and romances that we've seen in the comics and hoped to see echoed on the big screen will apparently have to remain in the comics for now. 

For a reminder of the mysteries that we'll never see unraveled now that Spidey's truly gone "far from home," read further for many of the questions that won't get answered with Spider-Man out of the MCU.

Tony Stark is a father figure for Peter Parker, one who Peter desperately wants to live up to. Having died in Avengers: Endgame, Stark doesn't even appear in Spider-Man: Far From Home, yet even in his absence, everything revolves around him. Not only is Peter trying to live up to Tony's legend, but the film's villains — Mysterio and his small army of disgruntled Stark workers — are terrorizing Europe with false elemental titans precisely because the late Iron Man trusted Peter more than he trusted them. 

What may prove to be director Jon Watts' biggest challenge in future Spider-Man films is how to not mention Iron Man. In all the films that Tom Holland's Spider-Man has appeared in so far, the relationship between Peter and Tony is paramount. For no one in a Spider-Man sequel to be able to mention Tony Stark feels kind of like if, after filming the first 1977 Star Wars film, Obi-Wan Kenobi could never appear or even be mentioned in that franchise.

We're never going to find out if Tony had more plans for Peter. Within a couple of days of meeting Parker, Tony had a new suit designed for him. The Iron Spider suit was ready by the end of Homecoming and Stark had more surprises for Peter in Far From Home. It's a sure bet that if Spidey were to continue in the MCU, we would learn Stark left even more toys for his protégé.

In the Spider-Man: Far From Home mid-credits scene, we learn that, for at least a significant chunk of the flick, the people we thought were Nick Fury and Maria Hill were actually Skrulls — the shape-shifting aliens introduced in 2019's Captain Marvel. Even with that reveal, however, there's a lot we don't know. We don't know for how long the Skrulls replaced Fury and Hill, and we don't know precisely why they did it. While we see the real Nick Fury on what appears to be some kind of space station, we don't learn the real Maria Hill's whereabouts. 

While we may still learn answers to some of those mysteries without Spidey in the MCU, one we won't discover is exactly how long the Skrulls have been checking in on Peter and why. Upon the release of Avengers: Endgame, some fans thought they saw Ben Mendelsohn — the actor who plays the Skrull Talos in Captain Marvel and Far From Home — as a teacher in the hallway where Peter reunites with Ned. The theory was debunked, though it's intriguing it sprang up at all when we would eventually learn a few months later the Skrulls were keeping tabs on Peter. It looks like we'll never learn if the aliens had any specific interest in him or not.

Tom Holland wants to team up. With pretty much everyone.

Ever since Holland was cast as Spider-Man in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, the spoiler-prone actor has made public comments about all the Marvel heroes he wants to have team-up movies with. Most recently, during the ramp-up to the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home, Holland mentioned wanting to do buddy movies with Doctor Strange, the Hulk, Tom Hardy's Venom, and Wolverine. Back in 2017, he even told an interviewer he wanted to team-up with Ant-Man, presumably to fight manufacturers of bug spray.

Unfortunately, almost none of those team-ups can happen now. For fans wanting a Spider-Man/Venom crossover, the new status quo probably makes that team-up more likely. But we won't be seeing Spidey leaping through Doctor Strange's portals or perched on the Hulk's green shoulders anytime soon. 

With Spider-Man remaining exclusively in Sony's stable, the possibility that we're going to see Spidey and Venom working together — but probably only after beating the crap out of one another — is pretty good. But some fans were hoping we might learn what Marvel's symbiote hero would be like in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Many speculated he'd spring up in Far From Home, but when that didn't prove to be the case, it still seemed possible it could happen sometime down the road. But now without Spider-Man in the MCU, Venom's best doorway into that narrative is closed. 

We don't necessarily think Eddie Brock and his symbiote would be prime candidates for Avengers candidacy or anything like that, but it could still be interesting to see how he'd interact in the much brighter and hope-filled world where heroes rarely, like ... eat people.

The 2018 animated smash hit Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse not only brought the Miles Morales Spider-Man into the spotlight — along with featuring the film premiere of characters like Spider-Gwen and Spider-Man Noir — but for a lot of fans, it offered the potential for a narrative connection between the Sony films and those of the MCU. After all, the montage early in the film showing different versions of Spider-Man was clearly meant to represent the different film portrayals of Toby Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland. With that scene, Into the Spider-Verse raised the possibility that its multiverse could connect the Sony Spidey movies to the MCU ones. The MCU could simply be seen as another alternate timeline, like the one where everyone's a cartoon animal or the one whose Spider-hero is a teenage girl in a robot. 

Spidey's exit from the MCU makes that connection impossible. Or, at least, impossible to represent on the big screen. Fans can still imagine the fictional multiverse works that way if they want, and any Spider-Verse sequels could probably still make a few snarky comments about the MCU. But in any other way, the Spider-Verse and the MCU are severed.

One of the ironies of Spider-Man: Far From Home is that even though it's technically a Sony film, in at least one way it's one of the most important MCU entries in terms of the overall narrative. Far From Home is the first movie to give us a glimpse of the Earth that exists in the wake of all of Thanos' victims coming back to life at the end of Avengers: Endgame. Peter and most of his friends lost five years during what the world knows now as "the Blip," and Far From Home shows us a little bit about the bizarre changes the world has to roll with, like Peter and his friends returning to a school where unremarkable junior high students have been transformed into absolute studs. 

Strangely, no future Spider-Man film will be able to reference the events of Infinity War and Endgame. The fact that Peter and everyone in his life is in a world where most of them just abruptly died one day and came back five years later can never be referenced, and we'll never get to see any other ways the "Blip" complicated things in Peter's circles.

One of the funnier developments — funny, mainly because of Peter's reaction to it — of Spider-Man: Far From Home is the growing romance between Happy Hogan and May Parker. In the beginning of the film, they're just flirting, though by the end of the movie, it's clear they're officially an item. 

What will happen to Happy and May now? Maybe the filmmakers will figure out some way to mention a break-up and make it clear who it was with without mentioning Happy by name. Otherwise, we'll never know. These two awkward lovebirds will enjoy only the briefest of romances outside of fan fiction. 

It's regrettable, but who knows? Maybe Happy and May were destined to spit, regardless. Still, even though Happy could technically never be Peter's step-father because May isn't his mother, it could still be funny to watch Happy try to ground Peter or to tell him to stop goofing off and do his homework. Or even just having Peter find Happy at home in a recliner, watching Downton Abbey and eating a TV dinner, would be an absolute blast. Too bad that'll never happen now.

This may seem like a strange claim considering we've seen Spider-Man team up with other MCU heroes in four movies, but we really haven't gotten to see Spidey as an Avenger all that much. He's absent for most of Endgame, and the only bonafide Avenger he's with in Infinity War is Iron Man. We don't see much social interaction between him and the other heroes in Civil War, and again in Homecoming, the only other Avenger is Iron Man.

With most of the original MCU Avengers either dead, retired, or in space, a new Avengers squad is likely to rise, and not only would Spider-Man be likely to have a much more central role in that team, he'd quickly go from being a rookie to a veteran. Now, unfortunately, if and when that new Avengers team rises, we won't get to see how Spidey would respond to being one of the team's senior members or how he'd interact with his new teammates.

The post-credit scene of Spider-Man: Far From Home's gives us two big surprises. We're lucky enough to see J.K. Simmons return to the role of journalistic curmudgeon J. Jonah Jameson. Unfortunately for Peter, Jameson's busy not only broadcasting altered footage that makes it look like Spider-Man needlessly murdered Quentin Beck in London, but he also tells the world Spidey's real name. 

The news about the split between Marvel and Sony doesn't change the fact that Parker's going to find himself in a difficult situation in the beginning of his next film, but it does leave one question unanswered — would the Avengers be hunting Spider-Man down?

In most likelihood, Peter Parker is now a wanted man. The man most likely to defend him in the Avengers — Tony Stark — is dead. Out of all the active and earthbound Avengers post-Endgame, most them only know Spider-Man as the guy who was helping beat them up in an airport in Civil War. It's questionable if they'd choose to protect him. The next Spider-Man film could have seen the Avengers trying to put the cuffs on ol' web-head, but now we'll never know how they'd react. 

Months before the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home, rumors circulated that Marvel would use the sequel to introduce Deadpool to the MCU. The rumor was debunked, but that doesn't mean the two couldn't have teamed up later. They've enjoyed interesting partnerships in the comics, including a recently concluded 50-issue run on the team-up title Spider-Man/Deadpool. 

While it brings up content questions — e.g. it's tough to imagine the Tom Holland Spider-Man walking away from Deadpool killing a dude by flinging him into a highway sign — it has a lot of potential. Whether he's on the big screen or in the comics, Deadpool is arguably at his best when he's riffing off other superheroes, which may be why most of the character's titles are either team-up books like Spider-Man/Deadpool or "Vs." titles like 2018's Black Panther Vs. Deadpool, 2017's Deadpool Vs. Old Man Logan ... and too many to mention without taking a break while typing all their names. Considering Spider-Man's wisecracking nature, Deadpool's more R-rated humor makes him one of the only Marvel heroes able to force Spidey into the position of the straight man. 

It doesn't look like we'll ever get to see how Spider-Man and Deadpool would get along in the MCU. Considering some of the MCU cracks Wade made in his movies before Disney bought Fox, it likely won't stop him from making fun of ol' web-head, regardless. 

In 2005's Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1, a romance is introduced that had never been seen in the prime Marvel Comics continuity: Peter Parker and the X-Men's Kitty Pryde. Both had just suffered break-ups — Peter with Mary Jane and Kitty with Bobby Drake, a.k.a. Iceman — and by the end of the issue, they're dating. Their relationship lasts until 2007's Ultimate Spider-Man #105, when Peter reconciles with MJ. 

With Disney's acquisition of Fox, the future of the MCU will include a whole bunch of X-people, and Kitty Pryde is likely to be one of them. That doesn't necessarily mean the two would've become an item in the MCU, but they were a popular couple in the comics, and if they'd had the chance to share the same narrative on the big screen, there's a good chance the idea would've at least been mentioned. Maybe there would be a little harmless flirting in a team-up flick. Now we'll never know.

One of the oldest friendships in Marvel Comics is between Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four's young hothead, Johnny Storm, a.k.a. the Human Torch. Peter first encountered the Torch and the rest of the FF in 1963's Amazing Spider-Man #1, hoping to earn both a spot on the team and a paycheck. Two issues later, Storm appeared as a guest speaker at Peter's high school, and his words inspired Peter — even though he'd just suffered a horrible defeat at the hands of Doctor Octopus — not to give up. Over the years, the two often met at the Statue of Liberty, including in the wonderful 2005 Spider-Man/Human Torch mini-series. Their friendship is part of the reason why Spider-Man replaced his friend when Johnny was believed to have died fighting off Annihilus' hordes in 2011's Fantastic Four #587.

With Disney's acquisition of Fox opening the doors for Marvel's First Family to finally come to the MCU, it seemed likely that we'd finally see the Spidey/Torch camaraderie reflected on theater screens. Unfortunately, it looks like we won't get to see how the two would've gotten along or if they'd want to hang out at the Statue of Liberty now that Spider-Man is out of the MCU.