RW / MediaPunch/MediaPunch/IPx The trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home hit YouTube last Tuesday. The action packed teaser features Peter Parker and friends’ European travels, various giant monsters, Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio, and of course Spider-Man swinging through it all. There’s just one problem: Spider-Man is supposed to be dead. In the finale of Marvel’s massive superhero event Avengers: Infinity War, the villain Thanos murders half of all life in the universe. And in the most heart wrenching moment of this massacre, Peter Parker drops to his death. The young hero begs for his life, falls into Tony Stark’s arms, and then fades from existence. This moment, more than anything else that happens, solidifies how horribly the Avengers had failed. So how on Earth is Peter Parker now gallivanting around Europe and flirting with Zendaya? Well, despite Tom Holland running off the stage when asked this question point blank, the solution is clear: Spider-Man comes back to life in the upcoming Infinity War sequel Avengers: Endgame. To astute viewers this is not a surprise. Marvel and Sony worked hard to bring the character into the current canon, and his profit potential is so great that it would make no sense to just kill him off. So even when fans witnessed and mourned the death of Spider-Man, they knew that somehow the upcoming Avengers: Endgame would undo this. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Again, that Spider-Man and many of the fallen heroes will return is very much a given. But what we still don’t know is how that happens. Regardless, it is sure to be an emotionally powerful and momentous narrative event that sets the stage for the Marvel film series going forward. So then, the problem with seeing the resurrected Spider-Man in this trailer is that we are witnessing the aftermath of this deeply emotional event without first experiencing it. We as an audience have not yet earned the resurrection of Spider-Man, so seeing him alive again so soon just feels like cheating. To explain, let’s make a hypothetical using the Harry Potter series. Suppose Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (the fourth film) just hit theaters. As viewers will know, this film’s finale features the resurrection of the villain Voldemort, a clear sign of bad things to come. Suppose the film ends and we go on eagerly waiting for the series’ fifth entry. Only then, Warner Brothers’ makes the odd move of showing us the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, the final entry in the series. The trailer shows us war, suffering, pain, and the full horrors of Voldemort’s reign. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP This would not feel right. Intellectually, after Voldemort returns, we know that bad things are coming. But the art of the Harry Potter series is that it builds up the dread of this threat slowly. For three movies after the return of Voldemort we experience the young protagonists fighting for their lives, learning to fend for themselves, and dealing with the implications of Voldemort’s arrival. Only after all of this, when we fully understand the weight of all that’s happened, are we allowed to glimpse the eighth movie’s grim outlook. Just in this way, Avengers: Endgame will be doing a lot of important narrative work to prepare us for the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the coming years. So to be shown what the future is like without first experiencing that pivotal moment just feels odd. To be fair, this wasn’t a narrative choice but a marketing one. Spider-Man: Homecoming’s release is just three months after Avengers: Endgame’s. Because of this, there was no way Sony was going to risk their profits by waiting that long to begin the campaign. So they didn’t have much of a choice here. Christy Radecic/Invision/AP To my knowledge nothing like this has ever happened before. Never has a film franchise been so massive that one sequel and the next one needed to be marketed at the same time in order to ensure profits. Imagine Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight being marketed to audiences concurrently with The Dark Knight Rises. It would be confusing and would likely hurt the sales of both projects. But as Marvel Studios continues to shape the nature of Hollywood blockbuster storytelling, this is a new kind of move that will surely have implications on how the industry sells its interconnected films. I just hope it doesn’t wholly diminish the impact of Avengers: Endgame. Spider-Man: Far From Home hits theaters on July 5th, 2019. The film stars Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Zendaya. It is directed by Jon Watts with a screenplay written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. For more thoughts on superheroes and the entertainment industry, see the rest of my articles, follow me on Twitter, and subscribe on YouTube.<doc-sep>In the just-released trailer for the Sony/Columbia Pictures summer release Spider-Man: Far From Home, the superhero mostly closely associated with New York City finds himself a long way from the friendly neighborhoods of his native Queens. As Peter Parker (Tom Holland) gets ready for a much-needed European vacation he doesn’t even bother to pack his Spider-Man costume. But his travel plans (and romantic aspirations) are derailed in Venice by the gruff spymaster Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who recruits the young American visitor to help defeat the mysterious threat presented by a group of elemental creatures. Spider-Man: Far From Home hits theaters on July 5. Jon Watts is directing the script from Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna, Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal are producing. The trailer shows Jake Gyllenhaal as a character who calls himself Mysterio and seems to wield similar magic powers (not to mention the same sense of fashion) as Doctor Strange. The newcomer uses those powers to fight elemental creations that are tearing up London — but is Mysterio friend or foe? The character’s intentions may be as elusive as his name but, (if Marvel Comics history is followed) it’s a solid bet that Mysterio’s good-guy act is all smoke and mirrors. Related Story 'Moon Knight': Oscar Isaac Confirms Casting In Marvel & Disney+ Series Mysterio was introduced in comics in Amazing Spider-Man No. 13 back in 1964. A creation of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the villain was a show-biz reject who used special-effects tech to first frame Spider-Man for a series of robberies and then to defeat him in battle. The character may be far different on screen, time will tell. Marvel Entertainment The cast is crowded with familiar faces from Marvel Studios’ wider ensemble, among them Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Colbie Smulders as Maria Hill, Marisa Tomei as May Parker, Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes, Zendaya as Michelle Jones, Laura Harrier as Liz and Jacob Batalon as Ned. The cast will also include JB Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm), as first reported by Deadline. Spider-Man Homecoming, which was released in July 2017, grossed $334.2 million domestically and $880.1 million worldwide. Homecoming and Far From Home were produced under a pact between Disney and Sony that represents a rare united effort by rival Hollywood powers. The deal allows for a “unified” Marvel cinematic universe, with Sony’s Spider-Man interacting with the Avengers, Black Panther, Doctor Strange and other characters from the Disney/Marvel Studios films. Holland has portrayed Spider-Man in three films to date: Disney’s Captain America: Civil War (2016), Sony’s Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Disney’s Avengers: Infinity War (2018). Holland will be seen next in the role in Disney’s Avengers: Endgame on April 26. Watch the trailer above.<doc-sep>Now let's talk about the unusual nature of this trailer. Sony doesn't acknowledge, at all, the fact that Peter Parker turned to dust at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. This trailer basically picks up with Peter somehow having survived. And there's no real mention of the fact that Peter somehow made it back. I suppose it's fair for Marvel fans to just accept the fact that there will be a solution to Spidey's predicament in Avengers: Endgame, which will open nearly three months prior to Spider-Man: Far From Home reaching theaters. But still, yeah. This is all a little strange.<doc-sep>
The first trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home Peter Parker looks remarkably perky for a boy who got turned into ash at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. It's absolutely packed with clues and Easter eggs which might point toward how the follow-up Endgame will turn out if, as is assumed, Far From Home comes after Endgame in the Marvel chronology. For one thing, the giant novelty cheque given at the charity do Peter appears at features the signature of Stark Industries co-founder Pepper Potts, but the appearance of a reference to Stark has been taken by some as a clue that he'll make it out of Endgame alive. Then again, the fact that Peter's year of birth isn't shown on a shot of his passport is a potential pointer too. We don't know quite when this film happens, and as one of the most popular fan theories to explain any reversal of the death of half the universe involves time travel, revealing what year the film's set would undermine that reveal a bit. You can see the Avengers Tower being slowly decommissioned in the background of one shot, after Tony Stark decided to downsize and move upstate in Spider-Man: Homecoming. That could be a very meaningful pointer: fans reckon that the new owner might be noted wrong 'un Norman Osborn, AKA the Green Goblin - with a view to setting up a rumoured Dark Avengers film that could come from Endgame - or possibly the Fantastic Four, who could cross over into the Marvel universe once a deal between Disney and Fox is sorted. A further theory runs that the Skrulls, a race of shape-shifters who will be introduced in Captain Marvel, could be behind it.