Endgame was the culmination of eleven years of movies, the climax to a saga that had been building up ever since Tony Stark first built a mechanical suit in a cave in Afghanistan. But actually, echoing some of my thoughts about Game of Thrones, sometimes you need a big denouement for a story as large as these, and it seems like Far From Home will, in a way, serve as a bit of an epilogue to what has come before.
Naturally, we'll be getting more MCU movies, but Endgame's effects were so broad and huge that it makes sense for us to take some time and look at the repercussions. At the same time, Far From Home will of course have to be its own movie as well.
Now, this is ultimately a reaction to a trailer, but it's a trailer with spoilers for Endgame, with even a disclaimer by Tom Holland at the beginning telling you not to watch it if you haven't seen Endgame.
We are definitely still well within the statute of limitations on spoiling Endgame, so I'll make a cut.
In their four movies together, Tony Stark and Peter Parker developed a bond. Tony clearly admired Peter's brilliance, and Peter saw Tony as a role model. When we meet this version of Peter Parker, he's already become a superhero to his neighborhood, but in the Avengers and Iron Man in particular, he gets someone to show him the ropes.
Indeed, it's Peter's death in the snap that ultimately convinces Tony to help the other Avengers undo what Thanos accomplished. And that means that, ultimately, Tony Stark gives his life to save Peter Parker's. Sure, he was also saving the entire universe at the same time, but for Peter, knowing that connection and that sacrifice has got to cause a massive emotional response - admiration and sadness, and maybe even some guilt. There's also maybe a sense of obligation to try to live up to the example Iron Man set for him.
And at the same time, there's got to be some real weirdness. Peter was dead for 5 years, along with half the universe. That means that he, along with the others who were returned, has got to make sense of this world where the other half has spent five years trying to move on. And in particular, as a teenager, five years is a really big gap - some of his friends who should be his age might be in college by now.
Now, it does look like he's gotten - if you'll pardon the pun - back into the swing of things, and the grander world of the Avengers starts butting into his local-hero identity in the form of Nick Fury.
The trailer suggests some massive developments for the MCU - that we're actually getting a multiverse, and that Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio is from an alternate Earth. It could be justified by all the time fuckery in Endgame, and indeed it lets Sony have its cake and eat it too by explaining that all of its Spiderman Movies, the Tobey Maguire and the Andrew Garfield ones, are also canon, just in different universes that are linked as they are in their excellent animated Into the Spider-verse. The MCU, thus, just exists as its own universe alongside those and the comics' Ultimates or original "616."
On the other hand, the trailer makes it seem that Mysterio will be an ally in this movie while the rampaging "Elementals" (which, to anyone who has played a fantasy RPG will recognize as living creatures embodying things like fire, earth, air, or water) are the threat to be defeated.
Naturally, if you know anything about the comics (and I do just barely,) Mysterio is a major Spiderman villain whose powers are all built around illusion. Whether from a different universe or not, it seems 100% certain Mysterio will be revealed as a villain in this movie.
But how much of what we hear is part of his lie? Is that even really Nick Fury?
We know that the MCU as a setting is going to feel very different moving forward. I think having half the universe miss 5 years and the other remember spending those 5 years mourning the former half (with people potentially moving on, getting remarried, or... and I don't think the movies will go this dark, but, you know, there were probably a lot of people who killed themselves after such an event) is definitely enough to generate drama. I could see a lot of new villains motivated by the trauma of the snap.
But then if we're also throwing in multiverse problems, things could get very crazy.
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