This story contains MASSIVE spoiler for Spider-Man: Far From Home. Do not keep reading if you have not seen the movie yet, because we are about to spoil the ending, and the mid-credits scene.
There are two end-credits scenes in Spider-Man: Far From Home, but it’s the first one that’s the true jaw-dropper. In it, Peter (Tom Holland) has dropped off MJ (Zendaya) after taking her for a swing around New York City. He’s about to take off when a news broadcast beamed on the side of what looks to be Madison Square Garden catches his eye.
Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), it seems, has prepared doctored footage from the drone attack in London, and he’s making Spider-Man look like the guilty party. The footage was sent to The Daily Bugle, and fans likely freaked out when they saw JK Simmons reprising his role of J. Jonah Jameson, this time in the MCU.
That shock might have overpowered the other major reveal in that scene – Mysterio reveals Spider-Man’s true identity to the world. THAT is a game changer in the Spidey MCU franchise.
During the London press event for Spider-Man: Far From Home, the ReelBlend hosts were lucky enough to sit down with director Jon Watts for a spoiler-filled discussion, and we got into the notion that revealing Peter’s identity mirrored the end of Iron Man, when Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) decided to confess his biggest secret to a room filled with journalists. Seeing as how MCU Spidey has been tied to Iron Man on a deep level, we asked Watts if they were trying to connect those two endings, and he opened up by saying:
I thought it was a nice comparison to what happened at the end of Iron Man, because for so much of Far From Home, we're having the world ask Peter, ‘Are you going to be the next Iron Man? Are you going to step up and be the next Iron Man?’ And he makes this decision not to be the next Iron Man, but to be the first Spider-Man.And it's Peter Parker, and nothing ever goes according to plan. So we thought, as soon as he was starting to have things figured out, we would pull the ultimate reversal on him, which is -- Tony chose to reveal himself to the world. And now this time, it's Mysterio. And it just made sense in this movie that's all about lies and deception that Peter's greatest secret would get revealed.
The ramification on Peter Parker will be enormous. When you look back at the two Iron Man sequels that followed Tony’s reveal, they spent a lot of time dealing with the danger that Tony brought on himself by giving up his identity.
But Stark had the resources to combat that invasion, whether it was constructing more suits, or going out of his way to save Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) when they became collateral damage. Peter Parker is a teenager from Queens. He has no resources, and Mysterio made this decision for him. That seems to be the biggest difference here.
In fact, it is that change in the way that the identity is revealed that has Marvel President Kevin Feige the most excited about where they can take the character now that this has happened to him. We were able to discuss Mysterio’s master plan with Feige during an exclusive interview, and he told CinemaBlend:
In the spoiler territory of the end of the movie, we return [Peter] back to New York. And we return to the fun of how awesome is to see Spider-Man swinging around New York. We return to a new classic version of J. Jonah Jameson that we haven't seen in many films, and yet, in a totally different, new context. And at the same time, charting new ground for [Spider-Man] with, his identity is out there. Which has never been done before in the movies. …One was [Tony Stark’s] choice, one was against [Peter’s] will. That's the difference. That was the difference. So in terms of your question about going forward, it'll be fun to see Spidey back in his element, out of the shadow of Tony, out of the shadow of the other Avengers, as his own man now, as his own hero. And yet now facing his own challenges that aren't coming from Avengers fighting, like Civil War, or aliens coming, like Infinity War or Endgame. It's all Peter focused and Peter based.
I can not stress to you how important that last bit of insight from Kevin Feige feels to me, as a diehard Spider-Man fan. As much as I love Tom Holland’s interpretation of Peter Parker – he, hands down, is the best on-screen Peter and Spidey we’ve ever seen – I have disagreed with the MCU’s decision to make Peter’s existence tied so closely to Stark. As one outlet put it, Tony has essentially become Peter’s “Uncle Ben,” in terms of his origin, and that feels artificial.
Now, however, by the end of Far From Home, it feels like Peter is firmly established in his own corner of the universe, and Marvel can start building Spider-Man stories that are more in line with this character. He is, after all, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, and his adventures – because he is a teenager of limited means – are supposed to be smaller in scale.
And yet, so far in the MCU, Peter gets introduced in Germany, goes off on an intergalactic mission in Infinity War, defends the fallen Avengers headquarters in Endgame, and then whisks away on a European vacation in Far From Home. Fine. Cool. NONE of that is nearly as exciting, to me, as seeing Peter in his new red-and-black suit swinging through his home city of Manhattan as this new sequel draws to a close.
It’s my hope that going forward from here, Marvel Studios will be able to construct some amazing “Peter-focused” stories, as Kevin Feige puts it, that are free from the shadow of Tony Stark. Not that the MCU ever will, or should, forget the impact that Stark had on Peter and the universe. But it’s more than time for Spidey to be Spidey, not Iron Man’s intern.
Before we get there, everyone has to check out Spider-Man: Far From Home. It’s the last Marvel movie we will have in theaters until May 2020, so head to the multiplex and get your fix (though, if you made it this far in the article BEFORE seeing the new Spider-Man movie, then sorry, we just ruined most of the fun that you will have watching this!)
