SPOILERS from Avengers: Endgame ahead.
There should be a class at Peter Parker's high school covering Spider-Man: Far From Home's connections to Avengers: Endgame. There are things I get, but also a few questions and plot conveniences I suspect we're supposed to just accept since (deep breath) none of this is real.
Now that Avengers: Endgame is in theaters explaining how Peter Parker even could get a sequel to Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home is ready for its debut. That leaves the Spider-Man cast to answer any lingering spoilery questions, and they are not up to the task.
Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, and Jacob Batalon were all on Jimmy Kimmel Live when Kimmel asked about the five-year time jump in Avengers: Endgame. If five years have passed for everyone, why are Peter, Ned, MJ, and others still in high school? The cast members looked at each other and laughed.
Tom Holland: Why … why are we still in high school? [laughs]Jacob Batalon: I mean, it might be one of the biggest plot holes of all time.Cobie Smulders: I don’t want to pull that thread. I don’t know.
It doesn't seem like the kind of thing they'd avoid talking about for fear of spoilers, since the question itself comes from knowledge of Avengers: Endgame. They may just not understand. Did the time jump idea just not come up during Far From Home filming?!
Avengers: Endgame co-writer Stephen McFeely did address this "plot hole" with CinemaBlend. He said any of the teens who look the same age would've been part of the 50% that turned to dust during The Decimation of Avengers: Infinity War. When they returned in Endgame, five years hadn't passed for them. To McFeely, it makes perfect sense:
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.
As he emphasized, he doesn't know what happens in Spider-Man: Far From Home. That wasn't part of his job to explain. The first Far From Home trailer showed several characters from Spider-Man: Homecoming. Not only do we have Peter and Ned and MJ, there's also Tony Revolori back as Peter's bully Flash Thompson, and Angourie Rice as Betty Brant.
So they were all part of the 50% snapped, and now they're back and returning to high school? Are their classmates all people who used to be five years younger than them? Are their former classmates now in college? Will that angle be explored at all, or not part of the overall story?
Spider-Man: Far From Home is set after the events of Avengers: Endgame, but still shows Peter Parker in mourning for Tony Stark. The story also shows Peter going to Europe on a school trip with his classmates. Nick Fury tasks him with a mission, and he meets up with Quentin Beck/Mysterio. So far, it sounds like a lot of the mystery will be about Mysterio and the Elementals, and not so much dusted high school kids coming to grips with the fact that half of their classmates lived without them for five years. (Save those storylines for The Leftovers and Manifest, I suppose.)
Spider-Man: Far From Home opens in theaters on July 2, as one of the many movies worth keeping an eye on with our handy 2019 movie schedule.
