Spider-Man: Far From Home will launch Phase 4 of the MCU, picking up wherever Avengers 4 leaves us, and forming the middle chapter of a new Spidey trilogy. So far we’ve seen Tom Holland’s gawky teen Peter Parker adjusting to his new powers in three seperate Marvel movies, but what does the future hold for him now that his origin story is fully told?
Far From Home is currently in production but details are already coming through thick and fast – with plenty of knock-on rumours about Avengers 4 and the rest of the MCU. Check back here for regular updates and any Spidey news as we get it.
Spoilers to follow for Avengers: Infinity War.
Spider-Man: Far From Home cast
Tom Holland is back as Peter Parker (obvs), but he’s not the only returning cast-member from Homecoming.
Michael Keaton is confirmed to return as Vulture, Zendaya is still MJ and Marisa Tomei is still Aunt May. Jacob Batalon is also back as Peter’s best friend, Ned, with Tony Revolori returning as Parker’s school rival, Flash.
Interestingly though, Samuel L Jackson and Cobie Smulders are also on the cast list – which means Nick Fury and Maria Hill both survive the Thanos snap at the end of Infinity War. We don’t know yet how much of the snap is going to be reversed in Avengers 4, but since at least three major characters (including Parker) make it back from the dead by the time Far From Home starts, it suggests that at least some of the loose threads in Phase 3 will be tied up before Phase 4 begins to unravel them again.
Worryingly though, rumour has is it that Robert Downey Junior will not be a part of Spider-Man: Far From Home – with another character taking his place as the Avengers link/mentor. Does this mean Iron Man stays a pile of dust in Avengers 4?
Returning Spidey director John Watts has spoken about how he’d like to see Parker getting all shy around Black Widow, and getting all pally with Captain America – so Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans could be in the mix, although Watts could equally just have been throwing ideas around.
New to the line-up is Jake Gyllenhaal as Quentin Beck – the jaded Hollywood special effects designer who becomes Spider-Man’s new helmet-headed nemesis, Mysterio. Gyllenhaal’s casting is not 100 per cent confirmed yet, but a hastily removed instagram post from actor Numan Acar (#jakegyllenhaal #mysterio) seems to confirm the many, many other rumours.
Acar (Homeland, Prison Break, In The Fade) is another interesting one. Reportedly cast as a character called “Dimitri”, the name suggests he might be playing Dimitri Smerdyakov, aka Chameleon, the super-spy master of disguise who makes a pretty worthy villain in the comics.
Also confirmed is SNL and Curb Your Enthusiasm comedian J.B. Smoove, although his role in the film is still being kept under wraps.
Spider-Man: Far From Home release date
Spider-Man: Far From Home will be released on July 5th, 2019 – which puts it fairly close to the release of Avengers 4, on May 3rd. Whatever happens at the end of Phase 3, at least we won’t have too long to wait until Phase 4 comes along.
Spider-Man: Far From Home filming
Filming on Far From Home began on July 2 under the cryptic working title “Fall Of George”, and the shoot is expected to continue until December.
The film is mostly being shot in and around London, although Numan Acar’s hushed-up Instagram post also hashtagged Berlin, Los Angeles and Istanbul.
Tom Holland has been unusally restrained on social media (don’t worry, he’s bound to spoil something soon), so the only “on-set” pics kicking around so far have been a few pap shots of Spider-Man drinking a cup of coffee between takes.
Spider-Man: Far From Home villains
If Gyllenhaal is playing Mysterio, Far From Home will have a pretty great bad guy.
Quentin Beck is special effects maestro gone wrong, using his knowledge of movie magic and pyrotechnics to become a fishbowl-headed supervillain. He hasn’t got any powers, but he still makes a pretty worthy foe in the comics – where he’s been a staple since Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s The Amazing Spider-Man #13 back in 1964. If Watts and Gyllenhaal lean into the movie making side of Beck’s backstory, the character could also make for a fun meta twist on the MCU. If nothing else, all the practical FX experts who have been put out of a job by CG-heavy movies like Spider-Man will feel his pain.
We know that Michael Keaton is back as Vulture, although with Mysterio in the mix, it’s unlikely that he’ll be leading from the front. The end credit sting in Homecoming showed Adrian Toomes/Vulture learning of Spider-Man’s true identity – but he was still in prison at the time, which is probably where he’ll be in Far From Home, potentially steering things from behind bars.
In that scene, we also caught of glimpse of Mac Garage (Scorpion in some storylines, Venom in others) although there’s no mention of him turning up in Far From Home just yet. And with the other Venom movie building up a different, parallel Spider-Man universe at the same time, the likelihood is that Mac will stay in the shadows for at least a bit longer.
Last up on the list of potential villains is Numan Acar’s rumoured Chameleon. Blessed with the power of making really, really good masks – Dmitri Smerdyakov is one of Spidey’s oldest foes (dating right back to The Amazing Spider-Man #1 in 1963). Able to impersonate anyone he wants to, Chameleon regularly makes things confusing in the comics, often used as a way to fix plot holes by having one cornered character pull off a mask to reveal Dmitri looking smug.
The rumours about Chameleon have also stirred up others about the character’s half-brother in the comics, Kraven the Hunter – another Russian supervillain who’s been regular foil for Spider-Man in print since the early days.
Spider-Man: Far From Home plot
All we really know for sure at the moment is that Far From Home will follow on directly from Avengers 4. Producer Amy Pascal confirmed to Fandom that Far From Home won’t leave much of a gap, stating that the film will start “a few minutes after Avengers 4 wraps as a story”. Whether that means we’ll pick up Peter’s story as he shares a round of beers with the other Avengers over the broken body of Thanos, or if we’ll see him still weeping over Tony Stark’s grave, we don’t know – and we probably won’t know until next summer.
What we do know is that Peter is fast becoming the most important character in the MCU – chosen to bridge Phases 3 and 4 and help us deal with whatever awful, awful things are inevitably going to happen to some of our favourite heroes.
“So much happens in [Avengers 3 and 4], as you can imagine, and so much is affected by it that we felt what better person to hold your hand and lead you into the next incarnation of the MCU, in a grounded, realistic manner, than Peter Parker?” Kevin Feige told io9.
How. The. Hell.