Let’s get excited. Let’s get VERY excited!!
We’ve all seen the new trailer for the upcoming movie Spider-Man: Far From Home. This trailer looks amazing to say the least, but it also causes more questions than it answers. The last time we saw Spider-Man he was saying, “I don’t feel so good” and fading away into the ether, leaving us all broken-hearted and sobbing uncontrollably. I am not afraid to admit that that movie made me bawl like a baby. And from the louder sobs I could hear in the theater, I was not alone.
This trailer gives us hope that our friendly neighborhood hero is alive and well. It gives us hope that everything is alive and well because neither Spider-Man nor Nick Fury should exist right now! And yet there they are, right in that trailer! So, let’s take a deeper look at this.
The trailer begins with a reveal of Spider-Man’s new suit. In all reality, this suit was revealed to us months ago when Tom Holland appeared on Jimmy Kimmel this past October. So, for some of us, this wasn’t a big surprise. And even then, Jimmy asked a question that I’m going to bring up shortly. Any who, after the costume reveal, it jumps into light-hearted tones of Happy and Aunt May flirting around a little bit. When we last saw Aunt May, she had just found out the truth about Spider-Man’s identity. She seems to be taking it well.
It seems that the majority of the original cast has returned, with a few variances. Tony Stark doesn’t seem to be in the mix this time around. There was some debate about that previously when details of the movie first began to emerge, now it seems to be confirmed. This makes me ask more questions, but I’ll come back to those soon.
Jovially, the trailer shows us Peter Parker’s upcoming vacation to Europe. We have all been watching movies too long to have any hope that it would be just a vacation, so we shouldn’t have been surprised when it became clear that Spider-Man would have to answer his call of duty. We did not expect, however, for none other than Nick Fury to call him. Well…some of us did, I’m sure. But for the people just now tuning in, this was a bit of a shock.
The trailer goes from happy-go-lucky to boom, boom, pow as Spider-Man takes to his high-flying antics to fight off the bad guys and save the day. Sprinkle in a few deep and inspirational lines of dialogue amidst intense and thrilling music and you have your trailer.
Oh, but wait. I forgot to mention the bad guy. He is the master of illusion, Mysterio!
NOW, I will get into my questions. The first of which Jimmy Kimmel asked when the new suit was revealed on his show last October: what timeline is this? The easy answer would be “after Avengers Endgame,” which is set to release in April of this year with Spider-Man being released shortly afterwards in July. I mean, that’s a safe bet indeed, but not a very fun one. First off, I find it interesting that Mysterio, Nick Fury, and Spider-Man are all in a movie together. Mysterio, as I said is the master of illusion. After wondering the timeline, and realizing that Mysterio was in the trailer, I immediately wondered if this was some alternate timeline or dimension. Listen, this may seem far-fetched to some, but I’m considering all angles. I will never again have a Marvel movie catch me slipping the way Infinity War did.
So, an alternate dimension or universe. I think it’s possible given that you have Nick Fury and Spider-Man, who both faded into dust at the end of Infinity War, in this movie. And Tony Stark, who did not fade into dust, is absent. (I probably should have mentioned spoilers earlier, but if you haven’t seen Infinity War by now and are reading this, you might need to re-evaluate your life decisions). To me, it seems too coincidental that those glaring facts are present. I’m rooting for the alternate dimension or timeline where the people that Thanos snapped away are thriving. Then we all get soul-crushed at the end when Mysterio points at the screen and says, “Just kidding!”
Some have said that this movie is a prequel, that it happens before Infinity War. Jimmy Kimmel wondered this as well. That’s not a bad assessment and it would make sense. But at the same time, it doesn’t. In the cases of Captain America and Captain Marvel, they’ve been introduced with a prequel story and then they later join the current timeline. Spider-Man was already introduced, so it doesn’t make sense to give him a prequel movie unless Marvel is backtracking and trying to set us up for something that they missed. In the MCU, that doesn’t typically happen. A Spider-Man prequel doesn’t really make sense to me. The build-up for Infinity War was ten years in the making. I don’t think they would have let something get overlooked and then make a prequel movie to make up for it. Crazier things have happened, though, so I guess it’s possible. In the past, the MCU movies always tied into each other almost seamlessly and chronologically. A Spider-Man prequel might upset that, but I also understand why it being a prequel would make sense because of the simple fact that Spider-Man is alive in this trailer. He’s not “black confetti” as Jimmy Kimmel called him.
In all reality (or is it?), I’m sure this is probably just chronological from Endgame. Which is interesting still because, at the very least, this trailer confirms that our heroes bounce back from the snap. We knew they would, but with the MCU being hush on so many things relating to the Endgame movie, this is a juicy morsel into which we can sink our teeth! This is hope!
But it does give way to another lingering question I have: where is Iron-Man? Up until now, in the MCU, Spider-Man has had to depend on Iron-Man for all of his gear and tech upgrades. Spider-Man has a new suit and Iron-Man is nowhere to be seen. This is another reason why I think this might be an alternate dimension or timeline. At the same time, if this is chronological, then it might be worrisome that Tony Stark isn’t present. What if he didn’t make it in the the new Avengers movie? Of course, a simple answer could be that Nick Fury gave Spider-Man the suit because, duh, he’s Nick Fury. I’m not looking at the simple answers because…it’s too easy and simple. It’s so much more fun to think far-fetched, don’t you think?
Coming on the heels of the Endgame trailer and the Captain Marvel trailer, this one makes me super excited because it seems a lot more hopeful. Only time will tell what answers this movie will give, but I’m eagerly waiting. I’m not crazy about the saturation of movies, but I don’t make the rules. I’m sure this will all be worth it in the Endgame.
RiceBall 