Warning: The following contains major Avengers: Endgame SPOILERS (obviously)!
It’s been a little over two months since Avengers: Endgame arrived, breaking hearts and box office records alike and mostly living up to the lofty fan expectations by delivering an epic story that changed the MCU as we know it. While Avengers: Endgame is still in theaters, and will even be getting a re-release shortly, the MCU is moving on to Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Unlike the post-Avengers: Infinity War MCU titles Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel, which took place before that film, Far From Home picks up the story after the events in Avengers: Endgame. Because of that, it has the potential to answer some of our lingering questions from Endgame. The Russo Bros. film provided a lot of closure to certain story threads, but since this is a world that will continue on, it also left us with some questions.
Spider-Man: Far From Home is poised to answer some of them. The film functions as the end of the MCU’s Phase Three as well as the closing chapter of the 11-year, 23-film arc known as The Infinity Saga. Early reactions indicate that it is very much a follow-up to Endgame and acts in some ways as a denouement or epilogue to that film. So, here’s hoping our questions get answered.
There are plenty of questions specific to this film. Will Peter kiss MJ? What’s Mysterio’s real deal? What’s with all the new suits? Regardless, there are plenty of Avengers: Endgame questions we hope Spider-Man: Far From Home answers, and I've taken a look at a few, below.
Did Peter’s Whole High School Class Get Snapped And Returned?
At the end of Avengers: Endgame, when everyone returns, we see they haven’t aged and were returned as they were when the Snap occurred. We also see Peter Parker returning to school and reuniting with his best friend Ned five years later. If Ned and MJ and Flash and the rest of Peter’s classmates weren’t snapped, they would have graduated high school at this point, so that must mean that at least the characters we know were all lost in The Decimation.
While this might be convenient story-wise to keep all of Peter’s recognizable classmates the same age and in school, it is feasible from an odds standpoint given that it was half of all life, not half of the high school that was extinguished. But we will still need to know how being snapped and returned affects things. Zendaya has spoken about how they will be the oddballs, but does that mean the fallen will be ostracized in some way? How will they adapt to returning to a world they don’t entirely recognize, with people they knew now five years older?
What’s The Fallout For The World?
In a little over 5 years time in-universe, the Earth has suffered an invasion by Thanos, The Decimation where half the population was wiped out, five years of misery and mourning, another invasion by Thanos and his forces and the restoration of that missing population. That has to have an effect on people, right? While we know that Spider-Man: Far From Home will address the more personal elements to all of that, like how Tony Stark’s death affects Peter, it would be strange for the film not to address what is going on in the world at large.
Consider how the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron led to the Sokovia Accords -- are those still in effect? -- how will governments and institutions react to what happened with Thanos? The instant restoration of 3.75+ billion people, not to mention countless animals, would have a profound impact on all aspects of life that could essentially lead to global societal collapse. That would be a different movie, but we should hopefully get some sense of what the fallout is from the events of Endgame and how the world is dealing with it.
Are There Now Multiple Timelines In Play?
In Avengers: Endgame, The Ancient One explained to Bruce Banner how important it was to protect the timeline. Well, the Avengers, and a 2012 Hulk kind of screwed the pooch on that one when Loki absconded with the Tesseract. That would seem to create a parallel timeline, unless that too was fixed with Cap’s final time travel mission. While this makes the Loki Disney+ series possible from a narrative standpoint, it also opens a major can of worms that Far From Home could address.
Based on the trailers, it seems the multi-verse is now in play, but is that the same thing as multiple timelines? And even if the multi-verse is merely a smoke and mirrors game by Mysterio, the Time Heist used to bring everyone back could still have had unintended consequences in the space-time continuum. I’m not sure this film will address it, but it would be cool to at least get some hints about this if it will play a future role in the MCU.
What Is The Status Of The Avengers?
In the trailers for Far From Home, we see Nick Fury recruiting Peter Parker for a mission involving Mysterio to help defeat the Elementals. Peter, who is just trying to make moves on MJ and have a nice vacation, is not interested in being the Friendly European Spider-Man. He wants to know why he must be responsible. Nick Fury responds that Thor is offworld and Captain Marvel is unavailable, but those are hardly the only Avengers. At the end of Endgame the team is down Steve Rogers, Black Widow and Iron Man, but what’s the status of the rest of the group?
With everyone brought back, there should be plenty of other heroes around to help deal with this situation. Is there still an Avengers team at all and if so, is Sam now leading it as the new Captain America? Is Nick Fury putting together a new team? Basically, what’s going on with Earth’s mightiest heroes and what’s everyone up to after defeating Thanos? Of course, after the events in Infinity War and Endgame, maybe they all had the same thought Peter Parker did and decided to take a vacation!
How Will Tony Stark’s Death Affect Peter And Is He Completely Gone?
Tony was a mentor and a father figure to the young superhero and he has fulfilled an Uncle Ben-type role in this iteration of the character. We know that Peter was devastated by Tony’s death in Endgame, but beyond the funeral in that movie, we haven’t seen a ton of how the characters have moved on now that the face of the MCU is gone. Can Peter truly step into Iron Man’s massive shoes to fulfill the very public and prominent superhero role that Tony did?
Beyond that, I think there is still a question of whether or not Tony Stark could still show up in some surprising fashion. While I don’t think his death will be undone in any way real way, it has long been theorized that Robert Downey Jr. could continue on in the MCU as a suit A.I. for Peter or a J.A.R.V.I.S.-like construct. In Endgame he had a hologram goodbye message for his family, so who knows what other failsafes he may have left behind that would give Peter and us the opportunity to see/hear Tony again.
How Will It Wrap Up Phase 3/The Infinity Saga?
For a long time, we believed the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming would be the first film in the MCU’s Phase Four. Kevin Feige has disabused us of that notion and despite the epic culmination of the MCU’s first 11 years, Avengers: Endgame is not the last film in The Infinity Saga and Phase Three, Spider-Man: Far From Home is. Kevin Feige has said that Far From Home and Endgame are two parts of the same story, but what does that mean?
He was mentioning the fallout of Tony’s death and Peter coming in to his own, but what other ways could Far From Home complete the Endgame story and The Infinity Saga at large? Whether its setting up Phase 4 or really tying in and tying up the plot thread from Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home needs to put a definitive stamp on things as the final film in this saga.
Avengers: Endgame left us with plenty of other questions. Going back to general concerns, I still wonder what happened to Gamora, what’s next for Thor (some gym time hopefully) and will we ever see regular Bruce Banner again? Those are questions that we'll probably have to wait for answers for until the next set of films start trickling out. Either way, it will be great to get back to the MCU and see what happens after its most monumental and consequential film to date.
Spider-Man: Far From Home swings into theaters on July 2. Check out our 2019 release schedule to keep track of all this summer’s biggest movies.
