Spider-Man: Far From Home Writers on Avengers: Endgame Influence

As the first entry to the Marvel Cinematic Universe following Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home had no choice but to be heavily influenced by the fallout of a huge feud with Thanos. More specifically, the death of Tony Stark played a huge role in Peter Parker’s next outing after they developed close relationships through Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. In crafting Far From Home, writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers had to work closely with the previous MCU films, especially Endgame.

“It was basically in from the beginning,” McKenna said of the Tony Stark death influence in Spider-Man: Far From Home. “We knew we were coming on. We were told that there were big things that happened in Infinity War, which they were, maybe they started shooting yet when we started writing it.” McKenna and Sommers likely got a break down earlier than many involved with Far From Home, seeing as they also wrote Ant-Man and The Wasp which featured a post-credits scene directly influenced by Infinity War‘s “Snap.”

“Also though there were obviously deep repercussions from Endgame, and we knew that,” McKenna went on. “Since we heard that happened at Endgame, you can’t not react to them, the relationship that was built so far between Peter and Tony, was one that, it has to be a reaction to that. So at the same time, our mandate was, coming off of a really dark movie, we had to pave the build of Endgame, you have to make it as fun a movie as possible. So, we were given that mandate, and we tried to be true to the emotionality of responding to Endgame but also have as much fun as possible.”

Acknowledging the events of Endgame while crafting a standalone story was, as Thanos would say, inevitable. “And frankly, in a meta way, we knew, “Oh, we can have a really light and fun Spider-Man movie,’ just like Peter is trying to have a light and fun trip to Europe,” Sommers explained. “But ultimately, he’s lying to himself, and we’re lying to ourselves if we tell us, ‘Oh, we don’t really have to deal with Tony at all. It really is, the back half of this movie is really saying, you can’t run away anymore, you have to face what’s happened.’”

Regardless of the outer influences playing a role in Spider-Man: Far From Home, the film centers around Tom Holland’s titular hero. “It’s an inverse of Homecoming,” McKenna says. “In the first movie, he’s desperate to become an Avenger and step up and prove his worth to Tony. And so this one honors Endgame, it means the natural way for that character to respond would be about loss and grieving and really questioning his ability now that he no longer has his mentor and first father. So we just dig in and we really got through to the character as well as we can. And I think the fun of these movies, the Spider-Man movies, is that MCU and Sony have been making are that they really do balance what it’s like to be a teen, the reality of teenage life, and the responsibilities of inhabiting MCU as the superhero.”

“It was also really fun, as it always is, to dig into the source material of the comics, and just read a lot of those great issues that so many talented people have done, and just enjoy their take on that tension that Peter Parker always feels, trying to be a normal kid, date and whatever, but also dealing with this greater responsibility of being Spider-Man,” Sommers added.

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Spider-Man: Far From Home is now playing in theaters.