Tony Stark may have died during the events of Avengers: Endgame, but his presence is still strongly felt in Spider-Man: Far From Home and not just because of Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) grief. His technology lives on thanks to the new, advanced A.I. passed on to Peter in the film, E.D.I.T.H. For some fans, however, it’s the name of the A.I. that really sticks out, leading to the question of whether E.D.I.T.H. is actually a stealth Agent Carter reference. Now, Spider-Man: Far From Home writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers are weighing in with the answer — no.
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In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, McKenna and Sommers address a number of fan questions and theories, including the fairly popular one that the advanced A.I. is named for an ex-girlfriend of Tony’s father, Howard Stark who appeared in ABC’s Agent Carter television series. While that would be one incredible Easter Egg, one that would help tie Agent Carter a bit further to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the reality is that it’s actually just a very Tony acronym.
“If you want the real answer to that, we knew that Tony would come up with a funny acronym for the system like he does for everything,” McKenna explained. “So we came up with the most Tony version of it, and it just happened to be E.D.I.T.H.”
In Far From Home, E.D.I.T.H. stands for Even Dead I’m The Hero — and McKenna is right, that’s a very Tony Stark-style acronym and an accurate one. Tony literally saved the universe in Endgame, coming up with the mechanics of how to carry out the Time Heist, creating the gauntlet that allowed Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) to wield the stones and bring back everyone who had been lost in the Snap and then, ultimately, gave up his own life in order to snap again and eliminate Thanos and his forces as a threat. That right there is enough for Tony’s continued hero status, but it goes even further than that. His impact on Peter — and thus, Spider-Man — is also a continuation of his heroics.
Psst. A few significant spoilers from here on.
“I thought it was a nice comparison to what happened at the end of Iron Man, because for so much of Far From Home, we’re having the world ask Peter, ‘Are you going to be the next Iron Man? Are you going to step up and be the next Iron Man?’ And he makes this decision not to be the next Iron Man, but to be the first Spider-Man,” Far From Home director Jon Watts told CinemaBlend.
“And it’s Peter Parker, and nothing ever goes according to plan. So we thought, as soon as he was starting to have things figured out, we would pull the ultimate reversal on him, which is — Tony chose to reveal himself to the world. And now this time, it’s Mysterio. And it just made sense in this movie that’s all about lies and deception that Peter’s greatest secret would get revealed.”
Are you disappointed that E.D.I.T.H. isn’t a stealth Agent Carter nod? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Spider-Man: Far From Home and Avengers: Endgame are in theaters now.
