The conclusion of Avengers: Endgame really did feel like the end of an era. The Marvel epic provided fitting closure for two of its core characters, it featured a massive battle sequence with just about every MCU character yet (hell, even Howard the Duck showed up) and could quite possibly become the highest grossing movie of all time. But Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has stood his ground on the fact that Spider-Man: Far From Home is the last film in MCU Phase 3, not Avengers: Endgame.
It doesn’t make sense, does it? What’s our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man doing – coming in, swinging past the small ocean of nerd tears Avengers: Endgame poetically manifested in us with its ending and closing this chapter of MCU history with his own movie? But after a look at the new spoiler-y trailer for Far From Home that came out this week, it’s starting to become more clear. There are some loose ends that Endgame didn’t tie up that the next Spider-Man movie will address, thus closing out Phase 3 and the Infinity Saga. Here’s why it makes sense for the summer release to end this chapter:
The Impact of Endgame
Avengers: Endgame was so focused on Earth's Mightiest Heroes undoing Thanos’ snap and bringing closure to the stories of Tony Stark and Captain America that it glazed over one important impact of the whole situation: what’s next after the giant upheaval that killed off half the population of the universe and then brought them back? While part of living creatures will be dealing with a world back at maximum population after mourning and picking up the pieces for five years, others will be coping with the time they’ve lost and the changes to the world since they were snapped out of existence.
Spider-Man: Far From Home will need to address the situation a bit before Phase 4 can begin and framing the last MCU film through the hero’s world is a clever way for the studio to do this. As Jon Watts recently explained to Fandango, Peter Parker has the “ground-level perspective” into daily life that other heroes such as Thor or Hawkeye would have. He may be rolling with the Avengers now, but under the suit he’s just a normal kid. He still needs to go to high school… which means his movie needs to deal with the shift in dynamic of that post-Endgame.
Spider-Man: Far From Home makes sense as a Phase 3 movie because it should answer a bit of our curiosities about a changed world after the Avengers’ fiercest battle yet. Although it seems like most of Peter’s immediate friends (Ned, MJ, Flash, Betty) and Aunt May are dealing with the side of being snapped and coming back, they will come in from that unique perspective of what it’s like to come back to a world you were dusted from, whereas Endgame dealt with the people who were left alive. As audiences, we need both of those sides for the storyline to find balance about the events.
The Death of Iron Man
Since the MCU started with Iron Man, the franchise has always been rooted in Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark. Avengers: Endgame didn’t answer the question about how the franchise will move on sans Iron Man. Spider-Man: Far From Home is the perfect opportunity for the MCU to explore this, especially since Tony was established in Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming as Peter’s mentor and Avengers father-figure. While as an audience we feel a bit lost about what’s next for the franchise without our favorite playboy, billionaire, philanthropist, so will Spidey.
In fact, it looks like the theme of the movie will revolve around Peter coming to terms with Tony’s great sacrifice and finding his place in the world without him being there to call up, bail him out or give him a pep talk. The trailer threw around “the new Iron Man” a couple times and will explore the hero as he tries to ignore his “great responsibility” to be a normal teenager. He can send him to voicemail, but he can’t run from Nick Fury’s call to a big mission involving the Elementals and the Multiverse.
Spider-Man: Far From Home will answer one question that Avengers: Endgame just didn’t have the time for: what’s next for the Avengers Initiative? How does it look like now? Nick Fury is calling on Spider-Man this time around, so does that mean he will be a prominent figure in the MCU now? Will he be the new Iron Man? Maybe a new dynamic all together will form within the confines of Far From Home that will wrap up and bring closure to what started with Iron Man in 2008 and give us a hint about how we move forward.
The Next MCU Saga
Another aspect of Avengers: Endgame that doesn’t make it feel like the definitive end to Phase 3 is there’s still a lot up in the air where exactly the MCU is going next. The team may have assembled and taken down their ultimate enemy when they stopped Thanos from using the Infinity Gauntlet the second time, but we don’t know enough about how that’s changed things enough to know how it will mold into the next saga. Spider-Man: Far From Home for example seems to already be giving us a hint about just why we need it to clue us in.
The latest trailer sets up the Multiverse when Nick Fury explains that the snap (although it’s unclear which one) tore a hole in our dimension and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio is from one of the alternative worlds. This new detail made it especially clear to me why Spider-Man: Far From Home is an MCU bookend. The movie is building off the events of the MCU thus far, so it can be placed in the Infinity Saga category, but it’s also opening up a portal (quite literally) into the potential of what could be to come. Will the next phase revolve around the Multiverse? The set-up for Far From Home certainly seems to hint at it.
From here, Spider-Man: Far From Home looks to be a fitting last film in Phase 3. It does seem like a lot to cover in a Spider-Man sequel, but the new trailer seems to deliver on just about every front of touching on these unanswered questions that I didn’t think it was capable of doing before, so I’m confident it will fittingly be the end of the Infinity Saga and mark the impending beginning of a new one.
Spider-Man: Far From Home will spin its web in theaters on July 2, so be sure to keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more coverage.
