Peter Parker (Tom Holland) gets a new classmate in the Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer, which reveals Crazy Rich Asians star Remy Hii in an as of yet unidentified role.
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When Hii’s casting was revealed last August, TheWrap, who broke the news, reported the Marco Polo and Harrow star’s role was “being kept under wraps,” suggesting he may be playing a character of some importance.
Hii is seen in the trailer stood next to Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori) in awe of the televised superheroics of Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), remarking the apparent new superhero is “like Iron Man and Thor rolled into one.”
Hii’s unnamed character belongs to the class of big-brained Midtown School of Science and Technology students visiting Europe as part of a school trip and appears to fit in well with classmates Peter, Flash, Ned (Jacob Batalon), Betty (Angourie Rice) and MJ (Zendaya).
In March, reported character descriptions for the then-unnamed Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel, shared by That Hashtag Show, wrote the film was seeking an open ethnicity male or female actor between the ages of 30 and 45 to play a villain who has “elevated ideas,” and was also seeking to fill the open ethnicity role of a high school student with an actor possessing “leading qualities” to perform opposite Holland.
That role appears to have been filled by Hii, who proved a breakout in last summer’s hit Crazy Rich Asians.
Last May, an alleged leaker citing a “reliable source” shared supposed details on Reddit, claiming Peter would develop a rivalry with a new student, a “technology prodigy determined to upstage” Parker: Alistair Smythe, who in the Marvel Comics became the tech-based super villain known as Spider-Slayer. Smythe’s father, Spencer Smythe, was the inventor of robots specifically intended to target and eliminate Spider-Man.
The leaker further claimed the elder Smythe is an employee of Stark Industries, the company belonging to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), and that the younger Smythe is “manipulative” and works to turn Peter’s friends against him.
That same leak also claimed Jessica Drew, who in the Marvel comics was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and the costumed superhero Spider-Woman, would be an MI6 operative teaming with Spider-Man to pursue Mysterio, characterized as “an international thief and master of illusion” who has stolen a “groundbreaking” piece of Stark-created technology being sought after by a shadowy employer — a “major villain from the comics” — who would be revealed as the boss of Mac Gargan (Michael Mando).
The “leak” fails to mention Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and his recruiting Parker to help halt the elemental creatures assaulting the continent — the main thrust of Far From Home — nor does it mention Mysterio first goes public as an apparent superhero backed by Fury, as revealed by Gyllenhaal during Brazil’s Comic Con Experience.
Because the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far has freely reinterpreted Spider-Man’s supporting cast — Flash is a bully but not a jock, Betty Brant and Ned Leeds are Peter’s classmates instead of older Daily Bugle employees — Hii could be playing Harry Osborn, who in the comics wouldn’t meet Peter Parker until college.
There Harry, the son of the original Green Goblin Norman Osborn, became Peter Parker’s best friend and eventual enemy when he donned his father’s supervillain costumed identity.
Hii could also be playing Amadeus Cho, a super-genius who in the comics once operated as the Hulk. In the animated Ultimate Spider-Man, Cho was a 13-year-old genius and intellectual rival to Peter Parker who suited up in a powered exoskeleton and operated as the armored Iron Spider.
Amadeus’ comic book mother exists in the MCU as Helen Cho (Claudia Kim), the brilliant geneticist who co-created Vision (Paul Bettany) in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Spider-Man: Far From Home opens July 5.
