Spider-Man: Far From Home Writers Dish on Major MCU Callbacks from Iron Man and Captain America

Spider-Man: Far From Home scribes Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers have pulled back the curtain on its major Marvel Cinematic Universe callbacks, including elements pulled from Iron Man and Captain America: Civil War. Spoilers ahead.

"I think everyone at Marvel learned that the more you can lean into the actual MCU, make it organic, bring back characters, bring back plot points, the stronger it is that makes it feel," McKenna told SYFY WIRE. "As a writer, it's easier to poach and cherry-pick ideas from the MCU."

Those ideas include ties to Marvel Studios' debut movie, 2008's Iron Man, as well as a pivotal plot point that first emerged in 2016's Captain America: Civil War.

Far From Home reveals newly arrived superhero Quentin Beck, a.k.a. Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), is a fraud and a scorned ex-Stark Industries employee who has a bone to pick with late boss Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) over the holographic "BARF" technology Stark unveiled in Civil War.

One of Beck's underlings is William Ginter Riva (Peter Billingsley), the Stark Industries scientist shouted at by Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) in Iron Man over his inability to replicate technology Stark invented in a cave during his 2008 kidnapping.

Beck's crew is comprised of former Stark employees who rally behind the master illusionist, now out to supplant Iron Man as the world's most celebrated hero following what Beck believed to be the misuse of his BARF technology.

Using advanced holograms to mastermind hoaxes passing off "Avengers-level" threats halted by the heroic Mysterio, the ensuing damage and destruction is very real — and very dangerous — and only Spider-Man (Tom Holland) is around to step up and stop them.

"Once we hit on the idea of using Tony's tech against Peter and the world, it became fun to tie Quentin into Tony's life," McKenna said. "If Quentin was a part of Tony's life as an employee and actually developed the holographic technology, it would just seem really fun."

"The villain is always important, but you always want your villain to have cool minions, if you will, or a cool team," added Sommers.

"And once the decision was made that they were all going to be former employees of Stark Industries, then someone on the creative team had the idea to dig into those flashbacks."

Spider-Man: Far From Home is now playing.