‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ Trailer Easter Egg Pays Tribute to Marvel Comics Writer

An Easter egg in the first Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer pays tribute to longtime Marvel Comics writer J.M. DeMatteis, an industry veteran of more than 40 years.

While on vacation in Venice, Italy, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and friends travel to the ‘Hotel De Matteis,’ a nod to the comic book writer.

DeMatteis penned numerous issues of Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man, and The Spectacular Spider-Man, most famously scripting the multi-issue “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” which saw famed enemy Kraven the Hunter finally win his victory over Spider-Man before committing suicide.

DeMatteis had a hand in another multi-part major Spider-Man story that culminated in The Spectacular Spider-Man #200, which pit Peter Parker against crazed best friend Harry Osborn, who usurped his late father’s identity as the Green Goblin. After rescuing a drugged Spider-Man from a building about to explode, Osborn succumbed to the unstable Goblin formula and died in his best friend’s arms.

He also scripted key issues in the long-running Clone Saga arc and created such characters Emily Osborn, Harry’s mother and wife of Norman Osborn, the masked cultists known as the Brotherhood of the Scriers, and Carolyn Trainer, who operated as Lady Octopus.

Also spotted in the Easter egg-filled trailer are nods to the first comic book appearances of Spider-Man foes Sandman, Hydro-Man, and Molten Man, who bear a resemblance to the Elementals — lesser-known Marvel Comics characters — who in Far From Home are monstrous creatures comprised of fire, earth, air and water.

Those creatures, known in the comics as Hellfire, Magnum, Zephyr, and Hydron, lead a deadly siege on Europe that causes S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to interrupt Parker’s overseas field trip and task the teenaged superhero with saving the day. Spider-Man will at first team with the apparently heroic Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), who is backed by Fury and the spy organization.

“There are these threats to the world, the Elementals, elemental creatures. And Mysterio is someone who knows about them and wants to make sure that the world is safe from them,” Gyllenhaal explained at Brazil’s CCXP in December.

“And Nick Fury asks him to come on and help because he’s the only one who really understands them. And then he teams up with friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and unfortunately has to make him become more than a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.”

Starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei, Cobie Smulders, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Samuel L. Jackson, Spider-Man: Far From Home opens July 5.