**It’s been a week now but still, spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home will follow**
The mid-credits scene of Spider-Man: Far From Home shaped the way Spider-Man will be viewed in the MCU for films to come. After saving the world and getting the girl, Spider-Man is framed for Mysterio’s crimes in a video obtained by website The Daily Bugle, and in the video Mysterio himself not only lies that Spider-Man is behind the attacks but reveals his secret identity.
That’s a twist most probably didn’t see coming, and of course when breaking down the film with the New York Times, screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers were asked why they decided to shake up the MCU that much.
“We were wondering, ‘Are we going as deep as we need to at the end of the movie?’ We played with the idea that Peter is the one who sacrifices his identity out of necessity during the final battle, then it seemed more interesting if Mysterio tricks him into doing it, but any time we wrote a version where he was being revealed to the world in that battle, it felt like it diminished the victory,” said McKenna. “So before it became a tag, it was really just the end of the movie: Right as he feels he’s stepping up as Spider-Man, he has the rug pulled out from under him again.”
Sommers added “We were definitely debating, should we just reveal who Spider-Man is, or should we frame him for something and turn him into a pariah? Ultimately, we decided that both was the way to go. It’s such a triumph at the end because he’s got the girl and finally earned a big swing through the city, so we want to knock him down as far as possible.”
Honestly, can Peter Parker catch a break?
We are, however, in new territory for a Spider-Man movie. Sam Raimi’s trilogy never went as far as having Peter’s identity become public knowledge, and neither did Marc Webb’s two films. Peter Parker is now Spider-Man and, worse, he’s going to be on the run from the law. Even when he clears his name, there’s no way to change the fact that now everyone knows his secret and his family is in danger.
So what does this mean for Peter Parker going forward? We don’t know when the next Spider-film will be released, or if he’ll be teaming up with the new Avengers in an upcoming film in the next few years. Could Spider-Man on the run speed up his third film, so that we get a resolution to that cliffhanger faster, or will he be a vigilante figure for the foreseeable future as he protects the neighborhood while avoiding being arrested?
Maybe Nick Fury can help, or rather, who we think is Nick Fury. SHIELD can help Peter stay out of custody, but we forget that Peter is still a kid and shouldn’t be running for his life, or fighting on behalf of SHIELD to stay out of jail. Can we let Peter be a kid, for goodness sake?
Maybe the screenwriters wanted to end Phase 3 and the Infinity Saga on an “I am Iron Man” level twist, except Peter isn’t openly saying that he wants his identity to be known so it’s a bit of a bad comparison. Still, if this was in the outline for so long, it probably means that Marvel has a big plan for a secret identity-less Spider-Man. What could the future hold for Peter now? We know he’ll probably clear his name, but what happens after that?
Maybe we’ll get an answer at Hall H this year.
(via The New York Times, image: Marvel)
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