With Spider-Man: Far From Home being the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie post Avengers: Endgame, a lot of secrets were being kept about the film to keep the big crossover event properly secret. Now that things are getting a bit relaxed on the spoiler front, we're getting some more detail about what is actually in the upcoming movie, as well as what's not in it, including an appearance by the Vulture.
For many, one of the highlights of Spider-Man: Homecoming was Michael Keaton's role as Adrian Toomes. He's generally viewed as one of the better MCU villains to date, and that film ended with Toomes knowing the secret of Spider-Man's identity. It seemed like the sort of thing that might factor into a sequel, and so the word that Michael Keaton would be back for the movie that came to be known as Spider-Man: Far From Home wasn't a huge surprise.
Except, it turns out, that's not the case. Director Jon Watts says that we won't see Michael Keaton in the new movie, nor will we see Laura Harrier, who played Liz, Peter's love interest, and Toomes daughter, in the first film. According to Watts...
Keaton is not in the movie. And Laura is not in the movie.
Jon Watts doesn't go into further detail with Fandango, so it's not clear why it was being reported that Michael Keaton would be returning a year ago and now that turns out not to be true. It's possible there were initial plans to have Adrian Toomes appear, but the script went through changes. It's also possible that somebody got a hold of a fake script, something MCU movies have been known to use in the past to prevent spoilers from leaking.
Back when it was reported that Keaton would be in the movie we knew very little about the project as a whole, and so the possibility that he would be returning was certainly there. Now that we know what the movie is about, with Peter Parker on a European vacation with classmates when some massive elemental monsters appear, it's hard to imagine how Keaton's character, in prison in New York as far as we know, would fit into the story.
There appears to be plenty going on already. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Mysterio, a character who is typically a Spider-Man villain, but appears to be a hero in the trailers. Of course, Mysterio is usually a fraud in the comics, so it remains to be seen if this is all on the level.
In addition to that, we have the information that a hole has been torn in between dimensions as part of the use of the Infinity Stones, allowing at least one person from an alternate reality to cross over.
While we may not see Michael Keaton return in Spider-Man: Far From Home the possibility of him returning in the future is always there. If the multiverse really is going to play a role in the future of the MCU, we could see multiple versions of Michael Keaton for all we know.
