Spider-Man: Far From Home Trailer Breakdown and Analysis

The Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer is finally here! As Peter quickly points out, he won’t be a “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man” in this one, as for the first time in cinematic history, a Spider-Man movie is taking Peter Parker out of the country for his adventures. Among other fun things, the trailer reveals who the high-profile Marvel Cinematic Universe guest star is in this one, and it also reveals Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio.

Before we dive in, here’s that trailer again:

First and foremost, that’s an A+ use of The Ramones. Henceforth, all Spider-Man movies must be accompanied by at least one Ramones tune. While “I Wanna Be Sedated” is an all-time classic, it would be nice to hear some more deep cuts in one of these flicks, too. Still, this is a great sign for what else we might hear in the movie. Spider-Man: Homecoming had a low-key excellent use of punk and new wave and indie tunes, and this would indicate they’ll follow that here.

In case you were wondering how Aunt May took the revelation that her nephew was Spidey at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, here’s your answer. May working for assorted homeless charities and shelters is right on the money with some of her activities in the comics over the years, once she stopped being impossibly elderly and constantly on the verge of death.

You have to love how hard these movies lean into the “Aunt May is hot now” thing, which so irritated the internet when Marisa Tomei was first cast.

Speaking of Happy, his saying “you’re all alone” later in the trailer would appear to hint that Iron Man will no longer be watching Peter Parker’s back in Spider-Man: Far From Home. That probably hints at grim things for Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame. But hey, technically Peter Parker’s dead right now, and he clearly gets better, so…

Also with Iron Man apparently gone, Spidey no longer feels the need to be so “low to the ground.” Here he is swinging by Grand Central, which also so happens to be where a major portion of the climax to the original The Avengers took place. This will be the first time Tom Holland‘s Spidey will be doing some proper Manhattanite web-slinging after staying mostly in Queens and Brooklyn in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

And if Manhattan-swinging Peter isn’t making you nostalgic, this shot feels like an intentional callback to a similar moment in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 where Peter Parker (then Tobey Maguire) considered whether to wear his Spider-Man suit underneath his civvies while going to the theater. Yeah… his time off then didn’t go exactly as planned either.

Ah, Venice! This Northerneastern Italian floating city is located on 118 islands punctuating a shallow lagoon. They began being populated in the late Roman era (although the first Doge was not elected to a city-state government until the 7th century). The building Peter and his friends are sailing toward is the Santa Maria della Salute, a church constructed in the 1600s as religious offering and monument to Venice’s survival of a seemingly apocalyptic outbreak of plague (the Black Death) in 1630. And you thought all our factoids would be solely geek-based?

Well, they sure are going full blown Peter and MJ (Zendaya) in this, and that’s just fine with us. Hopefully, they don’t rush this too much, but it’s great to see them connecting further.

Speaking of Peter and MJ, we also have this shot of Ned Leeds and Betty Brant, who comic fans know have their own complicated history (and maybe future?). Could Far From Home also be teasing this “ship?” We wouldn’t bet against it with how the shot is framed.

Go to sleep, Ned!

Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) keeping tabs on Spider-Man was a feature of the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, where Fury told young Spidey that he was essentially going to be “drafted” into SHIELD service at the age of 18. Nick’s less than friendly appearance here would seem to lean into that pretty heavily. This also again hints pretty heavily toward Tony Stark being gone, as Peter was his protegé, and Tony Stark considering Peter Parker to be Avengers material looked like a stand-in for this Ultimate Spider-Man subplot.

The red and black Spider-Man design was popular in the early ’90s and was fairly interchangeable with the traditional reds and blues. And the web wings were part of Steve Ditko’s original costume design and were a regular feature of the suit for nearly a decade, and they’ve made sporadic appearances since then.

Also it looks like Peter Parker’s Grand Tour of Europe will end in jolly ye ol’ London Towne. It’s kind of ironic considering a pivotal moment in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was “They got crime in England, right?” Looks like they do, laddie!

From the back, we wonder if the white spider is a slight nudge, nudge to the Spider-Man video game for Sony’s PlayStation 4. Also, for the record, many Americans mistake London’s Tower Bridge for “London Bridge.” But nay, that is a structure named after its proximity to the Tower of London. The London Bridge of the famed nursery rhyme has actually been located in Lake Havasu City, Arizona since 1967, because… Americans?

Wait…is that Sandman? Nahhhh…

Hey, we’re even getting a version of Spidey’s stealth suit in here! We also think it looks like it could be slightly homaging the Spider-Man: Noir look, which just went mainstream after the character was voiced by Nic Cage in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Wait…is that Hydro-Man?!? Nahhhh…

Meet Mysterio! Quentin Beck is a former movie special effects wizard, and here he is posing as a superhero. As the kids point out later in the trailer, his look here is a perfect amalgamation of assorted Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero costume elements.

We have some more info on Mysterio right here.

It’s a safe bet that this particular master of illusion is responsible for all the elemental horrors terrorizing Europe, and he’s posing as a superhero for his own ends. You can see how Mysterio in this movie could be a continuation of the theme introduced by Michael Keaton’s Vulture in the first film, about regular working folks feeling useless in the rise of superheroes. Seriously, how exciting could special effects possibly be in a world where Thor and Iron Man exist?

We wrote more about what that could mean here.

And it’s great that he goes full on “fishbowl head” when he leaps into action.

As for the rest? 

Flash Thompson idolizing Spider-Man goes all the way back to the very earliest days of the Spider-Man comics. This is a perfect updating of it and a great way to end it all on.

Spider-Man: Far From Home opens on July 5. The full schedule of upcoming Marvel movies can be found here.

Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.