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The Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer plays way differently after Endgame

The Avengers finale makes Peter Parker’s next adventure ... kinda sad

Petrana Radulovic is an entertainment reporter specializing in animation, fandom culture, theme parks, Disney, and young adult fantasy franchises.

With the finale-like Avengers: Endgame now in theaters, the next Marvel movie on the docket is July’s Spider-Man: Far From Home. The trailer came out in January, back when the only concrete information we had for Endgame were fan theories and dust in the wind. The first trailer seemed to be in the same vein as Homecoming: less destruction of the world, more lighthearted teen romps.

But in light of Endgame’s spoiler-heavy ending, a rewatch of the Far From Home trailer teases a heavier story for Peter Parker, not just a lighthearted romp around Europe.

[Ed. Note: This post contains major spoilers for Avengers: Endgame!]

Spider-Man: Far From Home - a drenched Peter Parker on a Venice rooftop Sony Pictures

First thing’s first: We’re still not entirely sure when this movie takes place in the MCU timeline, or if it even takes place in the main reality. But until presented with an official comment from Kevin Feige himself, we can only go off what’s slipped over the years of development on the sequel.

A 2017 interview by Fandom with Sony president Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige in the wake of Spider-Man: Homecoming’s release maintained that Spider-Man: Far From Home takes place after Endgame.

“What I think we should focus on is this Spider-Man who started in Civil War and then has this movie, and then will be in the Avengers movie. And we are starting now the next one which will start a few minutes after Avengers 4 wraps as a story,” Pascal said. (And at a recent event in Shanghai, Feige clarified that Far From Home is “the end of the third Phase,” which speaks to how the movie may be thematically connected to the MCU.)

If everyone’s telling the truth, we can make an assumption: Spider-Man: Far From Home takes place after the events of Endgame, in or after the year 2023, as those affected by Decimation return to normalcy. The whole notion is bleak ... but you don’t get a lot of that from the blockbuster’s first trailer.

The tease starts off with a charity celebration of some kind, hosted by Aunt May and Spider-Man. When the trailer first debuted, we noticed that the giant check from Stark Industries Happy Hogan holds sports Pepper Potts’ signature on it instead of Tony’s. Sure, CEO Pepper probably handles more of the day-to-day of the company than Tony, but now we know a little detail that now solidifies a long-gestating theory: Tony Stark is dead.

Sony Pictures

When the trailer jumps to the packing scenes, Peter’s reluctance to bring along his suit, and the insistence that all he wants to do is go on a trip with his friends, hits so much harder. Before, it seemed like typical teenage behavior: High school is ending, let’s spend some time with our friends before college!

Now we know that’s not the case. Peter was just eradicated from existence, brought back five years later in the middle of an intense battle, and watched a mentor and father figure die. That’s heavy stuff.

All the little things Peter does — the lingering look at his suit, the way he shakes his head and shuts the closet door — have an extra dimension to them. This isn’t a case of a teen shirking off responsibility in order to have a fun vacation; this is a boy who went through a deeply traumatic experience and just wants to forget it. There isn’t really anyone around him who’s going to understand the hero life, though certainly everyone’s a little shell-shocked post-Decimation.

Sony Pictures

Even Peter’s interactions with his friends are rewired by Endgame. He seems almost cautious around them, especially with his crush MJ (Zendaya). Remember that half of Peter’s classmates have aged five years and are now finishing up college. Sure, the magic of movies means that the people he’s actually friends with all got snapped with him, but that doesn’t erase the fact that this trip probably means all the more to everyone involved. While they were erased from existence, half their classmates grew up. If that’s not a call to take a trip across Europe with the friends who aren’t looking for post-graduation jobs, I don’t know what is.

Then there’s the hero stuff. If Peter is actively avoiding his duties in order to process his trauma and not just slacking off like teens do, then Nick Fury seeking him out and scolding him for not stepping up seems a bit harsh. Then again, perhaps it’s a call to action that Peter needs.

Happy Hogan’s speech to Peter, however, feels more like the gentle nudge he needs to get back in the hero game. It’s hard to say where the speech falls in the greater context of the movie, but it resonates.

“You’re all alone,” Happy Hogan tells him. “Your friends are in trouble. What are you going to do about it?”

We don’t know what role Mysterio plays in this movie, but he’s positioned initially as a hero swooping in to save the day from big, elemental monsters. With the loss of his tech-savvy mentor, it’s not a stretch to imagine that Peter would latch onto another hero — or view him with particular disdain. The side-eye that Peter gives his friend who describes Mysterio as “Iron Man and Thor rolled into one” may speak to the grief that Peter still feels. You can’t just compare this random stranger to recently deceased Iron Dad!

What was once a bouncy, quippy trailer now has a heavier weight upon it, almost like the humor is covering up Peter’s deep trauma. We’re still looking out for a second trailer and now that Endgame is out in theaters, perhaps the next glimpse of Spider-Man: Far From Home won’t shy away from the emotional impact.

Spider-Man: Far From Home is out on July 2.

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