Marvel has become increasingly sneaky and deceptive with its trailers of late, misdirecting us with shots not in the movie and manipulating shots so that we can't glean too much information about the film before we see it. This trend continues with the new trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home. Despite showing us multiple suits, Nick Fury and a fishbowl-wearing Mysterio, the trailer cleverly keeps us in the dark about the biggest question we have: the timeline. Take a look.
If you look closely, you can see that this shot of Peter Parker's passport is missing one key detail: what year it was issued. The passport was issued on July 19, but it doesn't say what year. The year the passport expires is also removed, so we can't work backwards and subtract the either 5 or 10 years (depending on his age at the time of issue) passports last to find out when it was issued, and thus when Spider-Man: Far From Home takes place.
This wouldn't matter as much if we had seen Peter Parker get his passport in Spider-Man: Homecoming, but because we see in the trailer that he gets it in this film before his European vacation, that date could be very revealing about the timeline in Far From Home.
The timeline of Spider-Man: Far From Home is of particular interest because when we last saw Peter Parker in the MCU, he wasn't feeling so well as he turned to dust in Tony Stark's arms due to The Decimation committed by Thanos. Just the fact that Spider-Man: Far From Home was announced could be considered spoilerish, even though we all assume that Peter Parker and the other snapped characters are returning.
Kevin Feige has said in the past that Spider-Man: Far From Home would pick up only a few minutes after the end of Avengers: Endgame, where we all assume the snap will be undone. That would explain Peter Parker being alive here. It does make you wonder though, with those comments and everyone assuming that the Snap will be undone, why bother hiding the date if it takes place post-Avengers: Endgame? Just to fuel fan speculation perhaps?
However, we don't know the exact timeline of Avengers: Endgame or Phase 4 either and whether everything is just reset or what. So keeping the timeline of Spider-Man: Far From Home hidden protects that film's secrets as well.
Another possibility is that despite what has been said in the past about when this film takes place, keeping us in the dark about the Far From Home timeline still allows for it to be set after Spider-Man: Homecoming, but before the events of Avengers: Infinity War. Yet, if that were the case, you would think that they wouldn't hide it. Telling us that it's in the past would allow Marvel to keep up the pretense that Spidey is still dead in the present and may remain so.
We also see Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in this trailer, but his appearance provides no obvious clues about when this movie takes place. They could have met post-Homecoming and pre-Infinity War, or during Endgame, but that history was erased. Basically we don't know anything at the moment.
Spider-Man: Far From Home swings into theaters on July 5. For all of this year's biggest movies, check out our release schedule.
