Trivia / Spider-Man: Far From Home

• Ability over Appearance: Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio. In the comics, Quentin Beck was a special effects artist who couldn't get a career as an actor because he was too ugly. Gyllenhaal on the other hand is widely considered a Mr. Fanservice. His casting may have made it necessary to change that part of his backstory, considering the awkward situation they'd be in if they tried to pass him off as unattractive. It ultimately didn't matter in the end, since they made him a former employee of Tony Stark instead of an actor.
• Acting for Two:
  • In the sense that Samuel L. Jackson plays Nick Fury, Talos disguised as Nick Fury, and finally Mysterio's illusion of Nick Fury.
  • In the Latin Spanish dub.
    • Ricardo Mendoza played Mr. Julius Dell and Talos.
    • Gabriela Guzmán played Janice Lincoln and Soren.
    • Claudia Contreras played the custom officer at the airport and Victoria Snow.
• Acting in the Dark:
  • According to Zendaya and Jacob Batalon during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the scripts that they were given to rehearse with were partially redacted for spoilers. The actors weren't given all the information until the time came to film the scenes in question.
  • Cobie Smulders was unaware that she wasn't playing the real Maria Hill until a week before the premiere, as the post-credit scene was added late in post-production.
• Ascended Fanon: Post-Infinity War, Marvel went out of its way to officially title Thanos's culling of half the universe as "The Decimation". In the second trailer for this film however, Nick Fury explicitly refers to the event as "The Snap", which is what MCU fans have named it ever since Infinity War came out. The movie then refers to the subsequent return of all the victims as "The Blip".
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Ben Mendelsohn was more than willing to shoot his cameo as Talos in The Stinger, as he thought the reveal that him and Soren impersonating Nick Fury and Maria Hill for the entire movie was a genius idea.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: When Mysterio uses the EDITH drones to create illusions of a fused Elemental in London, he says "Now that is an Avengers-level threat." People ended up misinterpreting the line into a meme, usually in response to seemingly minor things being Serious Business, replacing the word "that" with "this".
• The Danza: Many of Peter's classmates who are not MJ, Ned, Flash or Betty were credited with the same name as their actor.
• Dawson Casting: With the exception of Angourie Rice (18 at the time of the film's release), all of the high school-aged characters are played by older actors. The most extreme case is Remy Hii, 32 at the time, playing someone literally half his age (to his credit, though, he does look much younger than he is). This is somewhat meta-humor, as Hii's character is technically the youngest of the classmates, but biologically older because he wasn't Snapped by Thanos.
• Defictionalization: To commemorate the film's digital release, TheDailyBugle.net was eventually turned into a real website, complete with additional footage of J. Jonah Jameson's webshow, small news articles covering Morris Bench and "Night Monkey", and a "Blip Blog" detailing citizens' experiences during the Blip (Mr. Harrington and Coach Wilson are among the names).
• Deleted Scene: See here.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Tom Holland is already very fit, but he gained a few extra pounds of muscle and went for a slightly bulkier look than his usual appearance.
• Executive Meddling: Minor example, but according to Vanity Fair, Marvel Studios and Sony clashed over the film's release date, as Marvel felt that the movie coming so soon after Avengers: Endgame meant that its marketing would spoil the fact that Peter Parker (and by extension, the other dead heroes like Black Panther and Doctor Strange) would somehow be returned to life. Even if their resurrection was seen as a Foregone Conclusion by many, Marvel was not pleased about the air of secrecy around Endgame being partially undone like that. Sony felt that they had no choice since this was a major tentpole release and they can't under-promote it, and besides, it was Marvel's decision to include Spider-Man and others among the dusted to start with, knowing fully well that there would be a Spider-Man movie right after that.
• Fake American:
  • Tom Holland is a Brit playing Spider-Man. As he hilarious pointed out in an interview, this meant that, while Homecoming was filmed "far from home" for him, parts of Far From Home was filmed near his parents' house, making it a "homecoming."
  • Angourie Rice, Australian, as Betty Brant.
  • Remy Hii, Chinese-Australian, playing Brad Davis.
  • Cobie Smulders, Canadian, playing Maria Hill (or rather, playing the disguise of her by Soren).
• Flip-Flop of God:
  • Kevin Feige was absolutely insistent upon the fact that this was the first Marvel movie set after Avengers: Endgame prior to the release of Avengers: Infinity War. Once that movie came out and killed Spider-Man, he would say that he was not sure when it takes place, seemingly for the purpose of avoiding spoiling what happens in Avengers: Endgame.
  • Following the end of Avengers: Infinity War, the Russo Brothers claimed that Aunt May was one of the survivors of the Decimation. After the release of the first full trailer for Far From Home, director Jon Watts instead claimed that Aunt May was indeed one of the Decimation victims. In the movie proper, she tells the story of how she was snapped and then returned to an apartment that was already occupied by another family.
• Foiler Footage:
  • Scenes at the homeless shelter in the initial trailer had Spider-Man in his Starktech suit rather than the Iron Spider suit, as showing that suit would confirm that Peter was going to be revived in Avengers: Endgame. When the second trailer was released after the release of Endgame, the Iron Spider was shown.
  • In the second trailer, Nick Fury describes Mysterio as not being from "our Earth" instead of "your Earth" as in the final film, to avoid giving away the twist of Talos impersonating Fury throughout the film.
  • The scene where Peter is talking to Happy, the trailer has every trace of wounds and blood removed from Peter's face, making it look like it is an Immediate Sequel to Avengers: Endgame and Peter is just mourning Tony. In the actual movie, Peter has lost all confidence in himself after blindly trusting Beck and is heavily wounded after their first big fight and the movie takes place several months after the events of Endgame.
• God Never Said That: There was a kerfuffle in certain parts of the internet when Beck said in a trailer that he was from Earth 616 even though the official MCU designation has always been Earth 199999. No one involved in the MCU had ever said they were changing the designation but the people who were upset took Beck's words as official confirmation that they were. Turns out that Beck isn't even from another universe and that it was simply an out of context Mythology Gag.
• In Memoriam: The film is dedicated to Spider-Man's creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, who both passed away in 2018.
• Meme Acknowledgment: After the deal between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures came to a temporary stalemate in August 2019, one of the most popular jokes among fans was "Make a Night Monkey movie in the MCU instead", referencing the name Ned gave to Spidey's black suit. For the digital home video release, Sony Pictures uploaded a "Official Night Monkey Trailer".
• Missing Trailer Scene: A number of first-act scenes were excised from the final film and were later put together as a standalone short. The gist of these scenes were to show how Spider-Man managed to stop an entire criminal enterprise before heading off to Europe, alongside his other major duties. It's revealed in the Extended Cut that these also include him using a spider drone to open another station to bypass the queue for his passport, preparing for his trip and getting some Spanish lessons from Mr. Delmar's deli, selling all of his action figures to get the money needed for MJ's gift before finally cutting to him stopping the criminal enterprise. Considering all these only took a few minutes overall, people were left wondering why they were cut in the first place under the reasoning that it would lead to a Slow-Paced Beginning.
• Real Song Theme Tune: "Vacation" by The Go-Go's plays over the end credits.
• Refitted for Sequel:
  • Jon Watts originally wanted Nick Fury to appear in the first film as Peter's mentor, but Iron Man was later worked into the story instead given that the two characters had a story arc established by Captain America: Civil War. Fury is confirmed for this film instead. Although it's not actually Fury, merely Talos the Skrull posing as Fury.
  • Early drafts for Homecoming gave Aunt May a boyfriend, something that possibly comes to fruition here with her and Happy Hogan.
• Release Date Change: Pushed up just three days, from July 5th, 2019 to July 2nd, 2019; it's been theorised that Sony wanted to avoid the 4th of July affecting the midnight screenings, as well as make use of the holiday week in general.
• Role Reprise: J. Jonah Jameson is reprised by J. K. Simmons who also played the role in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man Trilogy. In order to illustrate how significant this is, consider that it's been 12 years since Raimi's trilogy ended, or that he's only the second actor ever to reprise their role in the MCU from a non-MCU Marvel work, after Lou Ferrigno's cameo and voice-over roles in The Incredible Hulk and The Avengers. This carries over with some dubs of the character, as in the Brazilian Portuguese dub, Jameson is once again voiced by José Santa Cruz, who, besides having dubbed the Simmons version of the character in Raimi's film series, has also dubbed Jameson in the redub of the 1960s cartoon, the 1978 live-action series, the original dub of the 1981 cartoon, the original dub of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, and in the post-credits scene of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; in the Latin American Spanish dub, Jameson is dubbed by Humberto Solórzano, who also dubbed the Simmons version of the character in Raimi's film series and in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; and in the European French and Canadian French dubs, Jameson is voiced by Jean Barney and Pierre Chagnon respectively, who also dubbed the Simmons version of the character in Sam Raimi's film series.
• Short Run in Peru: Was released on the weekend preceding its US debut in China to avoid the threat of competition from the Chinese would-be blockbuster war epic The Eight Hundred. Ironically, though, The Eight Hundred wound up having its release cancelled, seemingly due to Chinese censors, shortly before the debut of Far From Home.^note The Eight Hundred ultimately opened the following year, as one of the first major blockbusters as the Chinese market recovered from the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• Shrug of God: When asked whether or not Mysterio truly died at the end, Jon Watts simply said "It's Mysterio, who knows? He seemed dead."
• Streisand Effect: An odd example. In social media marketing, Marvel made an effort to push forward the idea that Mysterio isn't a villain to such a drastic degree in the hope of keeping people from being aware to Never Trust a Trailer that the fact of said information not being true for the film became a Captain Obvious Reveal.
• Spoiled by the Merchandise: The tie-in Funko Pops show MJ brandishing a mace.
• Teasing Creator:
  • Tom Holland played around with his reputation of accidentally spoiling Marvel movies while promoting them when he revealed the title on Instagram, acting as though he was unaware that he "accidentally" spoiled the movie's title.
  • Sony Pictures drove mass speculation that the first trailer for the film would be released in mid-December after they formally submitted it for a rating, but ultimately the trailer was not attached to any of 2018's Christmas season releases, with Sony instead promoting Men in Black: International. It's been subsequently suggested that the studio decided against releasing a Far From Home trailer in order to avoid marginalizing the then-newly released Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The trailer would eventually be released on January 15th, slightly over a month after the release of Spider-Verse.
• Throw It In!:
  • Mr. Dell was written specifically for J.B. Smoove in mind because director Jon Watts and writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers enjoyed his appearance in the Spider-Man: Homecoming Audi commercial, and wanted to get him in the movie itself. The fact that he made the perfect foil for Mr. Harrington means it worked like a charm.
  • Tony Revolori has stated that the driver who picked him up at the airport was originally going to be his father. He and the director decided at the last minute to do a take where it was a take where his parents didn't show up, and kept the latter one in. The text message confirming his parents are neglectful was added in post because of it.
• Uncredited Role: Ben Mendelsohn and Sharon Blynn are uncredited for their appearances as Talos and Soren in the post credits scene.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Matt Damon was approached for the part of Quentin Beck before Jake Gyllenhaal was cast. Damon previously had a cameo role in Thor: Ragnarok as an Asgardian actor portraying Loki.
    • Matt Smith, Andrew Scott and Colin Farrell were also considered for the role of Mysterio before the casting of Gyllenhaal. Smith would eventually go on to portray Milo in Morbius.
  • Sony had been developing a Mysterio standalone for their universe of movies spun off of Venom, but it appears to have been cancelled entirely after Marvel made their plans for the character clear.
  • Similar to Ant-Man at the end of Phase Two, this movie was meant to be the beginning of Phase Four, but was changed to be the final movie of Phase Three. Funnily enough, both movies are comedic Breather Episodes that came out after an Avengers movie starring a bug-themed superhero, this one a little bit more dramatic compared to Ant-Man as it involves Peter still grieving for Tony and feeling uncomfortable taking on his legacy.
  • There were briefly plans for the movie to feature the debut of Sam Wilson as the new Captain America with Anthony Mackie reprising his role, but it was decided that Peter having to save the day on his own without calling on the Avengers to help him out would fit his character arc better. This is likely why The Falcon and the Winter Soldier instead planned to have U.S. Agent as the next public Captain America (Far From Home makes it clear the general public doesn't know Steve's true fate and what he did next, and assumes he was killed during the battle).
  • New Asgard in Norway was considered as one of the destinations for Peter's field trip.
  • Jon Watts revealed that they considered Brian Braddock / Captain Britain to appear in the film, although the idea was scrapped during production.
  • Blade was also briefly considered to potentially appear in the film.
  • Co-writer Erik Sommers said that the character of Swarm was discussed as being one of the illusions used by Mysterio, back when the team wasn't named the Elementals.
  • According to the director, the post-credits reveal that Nick Fury was actually Talos would have been foreshadowed with a Continuity Nod to Captain Marvel, in which "Fury" eats diagonally-cut toast.
  • According to the writers, the Twist Ending in which Peter's identity as Spider-Man is exposed in a video made by Mysterio was going to be different with Peter publicly revealing his identity as Spider-Man during the final battle with Mysterio, an attempt to redo the earlier try during Homecoming but it was changed to make it more of a Wham Episode, as both tries for him to willingly to do, references to Civil War, fly in the face of the Peter that wears a mask to protect his loved ones.
  • Molten Man was originally going to have debris stuck in his back and three arms.
  • In an interview with Variety, writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers discussed a scrapped origin for Mysterio, that being "a guy who got all these powers because he was a thief one day at this high-tech [firm], and everyone blipped away and he was left with all of this awesome tech." Additionally, they revealed that, at one point, Kraven the Hunter was to be the villain of the film, instead of Mysterio.
  • The Nick Fury and Maria Hill who appeared in this film were initially intended to be the real deals, rather than Talos and Soren impersonating them. As mentioned below in Writing by the Seat of Your Pants however, Jon Watts hastily decided to add in the post-credit scene revealing their true identities as he realized that Fury being overly trusting of Mysterio from the get-go would be quite out-of-character. Soren referring to Talos as Nick while in a place where no one could recognize them is an indication of how last-minute this change was.
  • Concept art shows that one of Mysterio's illusions would have Spider-Man fighting an army of undead Iron Men.
• Word of God:
  • After it's revealed that Mysterio is not from the Multiverse after all, Kevin Feige stated that the Multiverse does indeed exist, pointing out its presence in Doctor Strange — which was only further established when that movie's sequel explicitly involves the Multiverse as part of its story, and includes it in the title.
  • As The Reveal of Nick Fury and Maria Hill being Skrulls wound up raising a lot of crack theories regarding how long Talos has been impersonating Nick Fury, Jon Watts had to clarify that Talos was only Nick Fury for the duration of this movie. The real Nick Fury did indeed attend Tony Stark's funeral in Avengers: Endgame.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants:
  • Jon Watts added the post-credits scene after watching Captain Marvel (2019), as Nick Fury actually being a disguised Talos ultimately made something Out of Character work - in Watts' words, "[Fury's] super power is being skeptical" yet the film needed the character "to be fooled in order to make the story work".
  • J.K. Simmons' cameo was arranged literally just one day before the scene was filmed, which is why Jameson is now bald; they didn't have time to fit Simmons for a wig.
• Writer Revolt: When Sony Pictures revealed plans to terminate their partnership with Marvel Studios, director Jon Watts — who was expected to return to the third film — began looking for other opportunities at Marvel, which is where his interests seemed to lie. Rather tellingly, Watts was revealed to be in final talks to return as a director for the third Spider-Man mere hours after it was revealed that the partnership would continue after all.
• You Look Familiar: A rather odd example — J.B. Smoove appeared in the Audi commercial promoting Spider-Man: Homecoming as Peter's driving instructor. Now, Smoove returns in a proper MCU movie, playing teacher Mr. Dell. As mentioned above, this isn't a coincidence.

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