SPOILER WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Avengers: Endgame. If you have not yet seen the film, read on at your own risk!
Thanks to its time travel wackiness and an unannounced future slate of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, Avengers: Endgame is a film that has audiences asking a lot of engaging questions while coming out of screenings – and one of the most significant has been about Tom Holland’s Peter Parker and his high school classmates. Because the blockbuster jumps ahead in the timeline five years, some have wondered why it is that many of Peter’s friends appear to be basically the same age in the upcoming Spider-Man: Far From Home as they were when we last saw them in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War.
While this may seem confusing to some, Avengers: Endgame co-writer Stephen McFeely has a pretty simple explanation for the situation: anyone who appears to be the same age after the events of the movie were turned to dust following Thanos’ snap, and are still the same age they were five years earlier for the same reason Peter Parker didn’t get older. Said the screenwriter,
That one seems easy to me. Isn't it clear that anybody who looks the same blipped, and they're back just like [Peter] is? I don't know what happens in [Spider-Man: Far From Home] at all, but I can only assume that most of the main characters got blipped, and maybe some ancillary characters are now older, and then you'll get some comedy from that? I don't know.
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely as part of the latest episode of our HeroBlend podcast, and it was early in the interview that the subject of Spider-Man and his pals not aging came up. I’ve personally had many conversations with friends about this particular aspect of Avengers: Endgame, and while explanations similar to McFeely’s have generally resolved the debate, it’s nice to hear it directly from one of the filmmakers involved with the film.
In Avengers: Endgame the only friend of Peter Parker we actually see is Ned Leeds (played by Jacob Batalon), who apparently got snapped away just like his buddy - but the first trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home seemingly confirms that Spider-Man and The Guy In The Chair weren’t alone being affected by The Decimation. As seen in the screenshot above, apparently both Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori) and Betty Brant (Angourie Rice) also disappeared following the events of Avengers: Infinity War, given they look basically the same as they did in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and it seems that it’s also the same situation with Zendaya’s M.J.
This lingering Avengers: Endgame question was one of many that I got to ask Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely about during our interview, so if you want to hear more be sure to click play on the HeroBlend episode below and give it a listen:
Avengers: Endgame is now out in theaters everywhere, and Spider-Man: Far From Home will be hitting theaters this summer on July 2nd. For the latest updates about both Marvel Cinematic Universe titles, be sure to stay tuned here on CinemaBlend.
