Spider-Man: Far From Home

Actor Tom Holland (L) and director Jon Watts (R) were signed to return for the sequel early in development.

In June 2016, Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman stated that Sony and Marvel Studios were committed to making future Spider-Man films after Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).[42] The following month, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said if additional films were made, the company had an early idea to follow the model of the Harry Potter film series, and have the plot of each film cover a new school year,[43] with a second film intended to take place during Parker's junior year of high school.[44] By October, discussions had begun for a second film, including which villain would be featured, according to Spider-Man actor Tom Holland, who was signed for two more Spider-Man films after Homecoming.[45][46] In December, after the successful release of the first Homecoming trailer, Sony slated a sequel to the film for July 5, 2019.[47] Sony's insistence that the sequel be released in 2019 complicated Marvel's preference for secrecy regarding their plans for Spider-Man in this film and their other MCU films, since the character would die at the end of Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and would not be resurrected before Avengers: Endgame in April 2019 by which time marketing for this film would have already begun.[48]

After being able to include Iron Man for Homecoming, Sony was revealed in June 2017 to have the use of another Marvel Studios-controlled character for the sequel.[49] Feige stated that Marvel and Sony were "just starting to solidify our plans" for the film, and felt Spider-Man's appearances in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame would "launch him off into a very new cinematic universe at that point", similar to how Captain America: Civil War (2016) "informed everything in Homecoming".[50] Marvel and Sony both wanted Homecoming director Jon Watts returning for the sequel, with Feige saying "that's the intention for sure", and Watts said he was signed for another Spider-Man film.[51] Feige said the sequel would have a subtitle like Homecoming, and would not feature "2" in the title. He added that filming was expected to begin in April or May 2018.[52] As with Homecoming, Feige said the film's villain would be one that had not yet been seen in film.[53] By July, Watts was in negotiations with the studios regarding his return for the sequel,[3] and Marisa Tomei expressed interest in returning as Aunt May from the previous films.[54]

The film is set eight months after the conclusion of Avengers: Endgame.[55] Watts felt dealing with many of the unanswered questions from Endgame posed "a fun creative challenge" for the Far From Home team. They looked to "make a movie that's in that world and deals with those stories but is also still [a] fun Spider-Man movie". For example, Ned, MJ, and Flash all turned to dust during the events of Infinity War along with Parker, while some of his classmates did not and are now five years older due to the events of Endgame. Watts compared this dynamic to the film Flight of the Navigator (1986), calling the situation "really weird ... but ... also something you can have a lot of fun with".[6]

At the end of August 2017, as the film was entering pre-production,[52] Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers were in final negotiations to return from Homecoming to write the sequel.[56] In early October, Jacob Batalon confirmed he would reprise his role of Ned in the sequel.[14] Feige confirmed that Watts was returning to direct the sequel in December.[57] By February 2018, Zendaya was slated to return for the film, reprising her role as MJ.[58] Location scouting for the film began at the end of the month, as did the pre-visualisation process for the creative team to begin planning action sequences and visual effects for the film.[59] By late April, Feige stated that filming was scheduled to begin in early July 2018, and would primarily occur in London. This was a change from the first film, which was mostly produced in Atlanta. Feige explained that one of the reasons behind this change in location was because a majority of the sequel would be spent around the world, outside New York City.[60]

A month later, Jake Gyllenhaal entered negotiations to play Mysterio, while Tomei and Michael Keaton were confirmed to reprise their respective roles of May and Adrian Toomes / Vulture; Gyllenhaal's casting was confirmed a month later,[61] but Watts later stated that Keaton and Laura Harrier would not be appearing in the sequel.[11] Also in May, McKenna and Sommers were also confirmed as the film's screenwriters.[18][62] They began working on the film from a set of notes that Marvel had put together based on different influences and story ideas. This included the directive that the film would be releasing shortly after Endgame and would need to deal with the death of Stark due to the relationship between that character and Spider-Man that previous films had established. The film also needed to deal with the aftereffects of "the Blip", the five-year period between Infinity War and Endgame where half of all life disappeared. Mysterio was chosen to be the film's villain because he is one of Spider-Man's iconic villains that had yet to be featured in a film, and because his history of deception in the comics lent itself to a character who could take advantage of a Spider-Man that is mourning the death of Stark. This also allowed the writers to explore relevant modern themes such as fake news. Mysterio's plan went through several iterations, including an early suggestion that he could be an alien Skrull in disguise.[63]

The film reuses two of Spider-Man's costumes from the previous films: his main costume from Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming, and the Iron Spider suit from Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. It also introduces two new costumes: a black "stealth" costume given to Parker by Nick Fury, and a new, upgraded Spider-Man suit that Parker designs for himself at the end of the film.[64] Marvel Studios' head of visual development Ryan Meinerding explained that Watts had wanted to include a suit inspired by the Spider-Man Noir version of the character, which led to the design of the more tactical stealth suit. He added that the suit represents Parker experimenting with being a new kind of superhero. Other tactical costumes from the comic books were looked at when developing this one, but Meinerding felt they looked less practical than the more straightforward Noir inspiration. The costume includes tactical goggles that can be flipped up. For Parker's new self-designed costume, Meinerding originally designed it with the idea that it would be made from Parker's webbing since that is the strongest material he has access to.[65] Practical versions of the costumes were created by Ironhead Studio, who previously worked on The Amazing Spider-Man films. For Far From Home, Ironhead developed a skull cap for the costumes that has built-in fans to prevent the goggles from steaming up. They also developed a magnetic bellows system for connecting the goggles to the mask, so they could be easily removed but not fall off during action sequences.[66]

At the end of June 2018, Holland revealed the film's title to be Spider-Man: Far From Home.[67] Feige explained that they decided to have Holland reveal the title because they thought it was likely that it would leak after filming began anyway.[68] He compared the title to Spider-Man: Homecoming in that it is "full of alternate meaning" while continuing the use of "Home",[69] and revealed the film's premise to be Parker and his friends going to Europe on summer vacation, away from their home of New York.[70]

The set of the film in Venice, Italy

Principal photography began on location in Hertfordshire, England, on July 2, 2018,[71] under the working title Fall of George.[72] Matthew J. Lloyd served as director of photography, after previously working with Watts on Cop Car (2015). Watts had wanted to work with Lloyd on Homecoming, but the cinematographer was working on Power Rangers (2017) at the time.[73] Filming moved to London,[60] with locations including East London,[74] and at London Stansted Airport.[75] Studio work occurred at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden near Watford, England, where a Venice set was created on one of the studio's backlots.[12][32] Shortly after filming began, set photos revealed Hemky Madera would return as bodega owner Mr. Delmar,[76] while J.B. Smoove and Numan Acar joined the cast.[77][29]

By early August, Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders were confirmed to be appearing in the film, reprising their respective roles of Nick Fury and Maria Hill from previous MCU films,[5] and Remy Hii joined the cast later in the month.[31] Filming took place in Prague and Liberec in the Czech Republic in September,[78][79] and moved to Venice by the end of the month.[79] Filming moved to New York City and Newark, New Jersey in October, where it used the working title Bosco.[80][81] Locations included areas around Madison Square Garden and Penn Station,[81] and Newark Liberty International Airport.[75] Filming wrapped on October 16, 2018.[82]

Lloyd explained that the creative team had approached the film as a road-trip story, and so he wanted to maintain the distinct look and feel of each location visited. This meant giving each stop on the school trip a distinct lighting scheme and color palette. For example, Lloyd visited Venice three times during location scouting to discuss how the scenes there would be filmed, and learned that the city has a "bright, pastel feel, where the light comes through and hits a building. It bathes people in this warm, sandy light". Prague, on other hand, has a "more warm and cool mix, and the beauty of that sort of Baroque, eastern-European architecture." The production took advantage of lighting already on the buildings in Prague, which are often lit for texture in real life. Lloyd felt comfortable working within the aesthetic of the MCU after acting as director of photography on the first season of the MCU television series Daredevil and the miniseries The Defenders, as well as working on additional photography for the films Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Captain Marvel (2019).[73] Lloyd originally began planning to use the Alexa 65 cameras that Marvel usually films with, but Sony asked that they focus on optimizing the footage for their 2K releases, so the production switched to Alexa Mini cameras. This ended up being a lot easier for the camera department to use on location, and for combining live-action shooting with visual effects elements.[59]

In late October 2018, Sony Pictures reached a new multi-film agreement with IMAX Corporation to release their films in IMAX, including Far From Home.[83] At Sony's CCXP Brazil panel in December 2018, it was revealed that the Elementals—a group of characters based on the elements of water, earth, air, and fire—would appear in the film.[84] The four Elementals are modeled after different Spider-Man villains from Marvel comic books: the water Elemental borrows from Hydro-Man, the fire Elemental borrows from Molten Man, the Earth Elemental borrows from Sandman, and the air Elemental borrows from Cyclone.[85][86][87][88] The names of these other villains are not given to the characters in the film.[12][32] Martin Starr was confirmed to be reprising his role as Mr. Harrington from Homecoming the next month.[89][16] In April 2019, Sony moved the film's release date up to July 2, 2019.[90] While promoting Endgame at a fan event in Shanghai, Feige said Far From Home would be the final film of the MCU's Phase Three, rather than the start of Phase Four as some had believed.[91] Also in April, Jackson returned to do reshoots for the film.[92]

Discussing the film's mid-credits scene, Watts explained that they approached J.K. Simmons "as late as possible" before the film's release to ask him to reprise his role as J. Jonah Jameson from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy, hoping to keep the cameo a surprise for fans.[93] Watts acknowledged that there was a chance Simmons would not want to reprise the role, but stated that he never considered another actor, saying, "It's gotta be him. Like, if it wasn't him, it wasn't worth doing."[94] After being pitched the idea for the cameo, Simmons called Raimi and received the director's blessing to return to the role for the new film.[95] The MCU version of the character is brand new, not the Raimi version "from another dimension or multiverse".[96] Simmons' footage was filmed in a Disney conference room in front of a green screen.[93] Watts noted that Simmons' performance was over-the-top in Raimi's films, but now that same performance has real-world comparisons,[94] such as Alex Jones. According to Feige, the changes in the real world also meant that moving the character from a newspaper editor to a "radical right news journalist that kind of scream[s] in front of the camera" made more sense.[96] Simmons said he and Watts did not see "eye to eye" on the film's contemporary portrayal of the character versus his performance in Raimi's films.[97]

Watts described Far From Home as a "con man movie" with "so many layers of deception", and for the post-credits scene he felt that ending the film with "one last twist" was on theme. He felt that he owed the fans a more substantial post-credits scene than the jokey one at the end of Homecoming. The Far From Home scene depicts Fury on vacation, in a simulation, both of which are also themes in the film, and reveals that the Fury and Hill seen throughout the film are actually Skrulls in disguise. Watts felt this twist made sense after Fury's interactions with the Skrulls in Captain Marvel.[94] Post-production for Spider-Man: Far From Home was completed in June 2019.[98]

External video
Marvel Studios' Spider-Man: Far From Home - End Credits Main on End Title Sequence presents the film's main-on-end title sequence, YouTube video from Perception's channel

The film's visual effects were provided by Framestore, Industrial Light & Magic, Image Engine, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Luma Pictures, Rising Sun Pictures, Scanline VFX, Territory Studio, and Method Studios.[99] Janek Sirrs served as visual effects supervisor on the film, and explained that following the release of the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) the effects team looked for ways to use similarly inventive visuals in Far From Home. They ultimately did not use added effects to represent Spider-Man's Spider-sense because these did not fit within the live-action world or were too similar to previous effects, such as Daredevil's sonar vision. They did try to use Spider-Man's actions and the use of his abilities to show his growth since Homecoming, but to also show his "reach as always exceeding his grasp as he refines his superhero skills".[100] The film's main-on-end title sequence was designed by Perception.[101]

Method Studios added Spider-Man to a Venice speedboat scene, using their Spider-Man suit asset from Homecoming.[102] Image Engine created the Stark jet, drone, and satellite. The jet work included the creation of a new Spider-Man suit,[102] for which the vendor had to design the interior of the suit based on a scan of a practical costume they were given. They also made a Netherlands tulip field for a scene that was filmed in a grass field in the UK. It required around two million digital tulips.[103] Rising Sun Pictures created the holograms used by Mysterio when he first explains the Elementals to Spider-Man, which include simulations of black-holes and elements researched from real-world history and mythology. The company aimed for the holograms to have a similar quality to the ones that they had created for Captain Marvel.[102] Mysterio was designed by Ryan Meinerding, Marvel Studios' head of visual development, to look like a combination of different Marvel heroes such as Thor and Doctor Strange. His fishbowl helmet is retained from the comics. Sirrs described the character as a "larger-than-life showman at heart" and almost a superhero version of Liberace.[100] The digital model for Mysterio was created by Scanline.[104]

The Elementals consisted of animated figures, often driven by slowed-down motion-capture performances, with environmental effects layered on top. Scanline created Earth and Water, Luma created Fire, and Imageworks created the final amalgamation of the four creatures,[100] referred to as the Super Uber Elemental (SUE).[104] For the Fire Elemental, Luma created different looks and actions for the character to show Watts and Sirrs potential designs and movements for the character. This included a progression where the creature goes from being upright and humanoid to bigger and more hunched over as it consumes metal throughout the sequence. Watts responded positively to movements that looked more creature-like.[105] The final battle was created by Imageworks, and consists of over 300 visual effects shots. In addition to creating the SUE—which required extensive effect simulations for the different combined elements such as "water tentacles", rocks, lava, and lightning—the company had to create a digital model of the Tower Bridge for the fight to take place around. The company attempted to fully render only small sections of the bridge where needed, but ultimately required around 80% of the bridge to be fully detailed due to how much of it is seen throughout the fight. They made use of Image Engine's Stark jet model and Scanline's Mysterio asset for the fight, and created the drone models and new Spider-Man suit that were used by the other vendors. They started with a single drone design that featured missiles, cannons, and Gatling guns, but this became repetitive during the battle and so flamethrower and sonic blaster drones were added. Additionally, the sky and environment needed to be digitally replaced in most of the sequence.[104]

Framestore handled the "Illusion Battle" sequence in which Mysterio traps Spider-Man within a series of elaborate fear-based illusions. Based on early prototypes of the sequence from Framestore, Marvel decided to extend it to around 150 shots. It was heavily pre-visualized to define which background plates and motion-capture performances would be required; Framestore visual effects supervisor Alexis Wajsbrot compared the motion-capture process for the sequence to automated dialogue replacement, where each short section of the performance was captured individually. The company used existing digital assets from other vendors, including for the different Spider-Man suits, combined with new models such as those for statues of fallen heroes or a "Zombie Iron Man".[106][102] The effect of green smoke that is throughout the sequence was created using Houdini. Framestore took inspiration from the title sequences of the James Bond films, especially that of Spectre (2015) for the graveyard portion of the battle.[106] For the transition between the real world and the illusions, Framestore had to match a similar transition from the B.A.R.F. scene in Captain America: Civil War which Wajsbrot described as a time-consuming process for each environment in which it was required.[106][102] Sirrs compared the sequence to an elaborate Broadway production with an unlimited budget, and named several other visual influences including the Looney Tunes short Duck Amuck (1953), Paprika (2006), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and the "Pink Elephants on Parade" scene from Dumbo (1941).[100]

Spider-Man: Far From Home had its world premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on June 26, 2019.[133] The film was released on June 28, in China and Japan,[134] and in the United States on July 2,[90] in 3D and IMAX.[83] In the United States, it opened in 4,634 theaters, which was second all-time behind Avengers: Endgame.[135] It was originally scheduled to be released on July 5.[67] The film was re-released on Labor Day weekend, beginning August 29, with four minutes of extra footage.[136] Spider-Man: Far From Home was the last film released in Phase Three of the MCU.[91]

Spider-Man: Far From Home was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on digital on September 17, 2019, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on October 1.[137] The home media release features a short film titled Peter's To-Do List, which uses scenes of Parker retrieving various items for his trip that were cut from the theatrical release of the film.[138] The short also includes footage featuring Hemky Madera reprising his Homecoming role as Mr. Delmar, the owner of a local bodega, which was all cut from Far From Home.[76][138]

In April 2021, Sony signed a deal with Disney giving them access to their legacy content, including past Spider-Man films and Marvel content in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, to stream on Disney+ and Hulu and appear on Disney's linear television networks. Disney's access to Sony's titles would come following their availability on Netflix. Far From Home had previously been available on Starz and FX.[139][140] The film will become available on Disney+ in the United States on November 3, 2023.[141]

Spider-Man: Far From Home grossed $390.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $741.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.131 billion.[2] It was the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2019[142] and the 24th-highest-grossing film of all time.[143] On August 18, 2019, the film surpassed Skyfall (2012) to become Sony Pictures' highest-grossing film worldwide.[144][145] Far From Home was the first Spider-Man film to gross over $1 billion.[146] Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profit as $339 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participation, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it seventh on their list of 2019's "Most Valuable Blockbusters".[147]

Three weeks before its domestic release, official industry tracking had the film grossing around $170 million over its six-day opening frame. Some had the film reaching as high as $200 million, while others were at a conservative $165 million; Sony was predicting a $154 million debut.[148][149] By the week of release industry estimates lowered to $140 million, with the studio expecting $120 million, due to the recent underperformance of other sequels.[150] Far From Home made a Tuesday-opening record $39.3 million, including an estimated $2.8–3 million from midnight previews at about 1,000 theaters.[135] It then made $27 million on its second day, the best-ever Wednesday gross for an MCU film, and $25.1 million on the 4th of July, the second highest ever total for the holiday behind Transformers ($29 million in 2007).[151] In its opening weekend the film made $92.6 million,[152] and a total of $185.1 million over the six-day frame, topping the $180 million made by Spider-Man 2 over its six-day July 4 opening in 2004; it was the number one film for the weekend.[153] In its second weekend, the film made $45.3 million, again topping the box office with a 51% decrease from the first week; lower than Homecoming's 62% drop in its second box office weekend.[154] Far From Home grossed over $21 million in its third weekend but was dethroned by newcomer The Lion King.[155] It completed its box office run as the seventh highest-grossing film of 2019 in this region.[156]

Far From Home was projected to gross around $350 million worldwide by the end of its first week of release, and about $500 million over its first 10 days.[157][150] In China and Japan, where it was released a week prior to its U.S. debut, the film was expected to gross around a combined $90 million in its opening weekend.[158] In China, where pre-sale tickets were less than Homecoming's, the film made $35.5 million on its first day, including $3.4 million from midnight previews (the fourth-best of all time for a superhero film in the country).[159] It ended up slightly over-performing, debuting at $111 million including $98 million in China, the fourth-best-ever superhero opening in the country.[160] Far From Home ended up grossing $580.1 million worldwide over its first 10 days of release, including $238 million from international territories in its opening weekend. In China, the film had a 10-day total of $167.4 million, and its other biggest debuts were in South Korea ($33.8 million), the United Kingdom ($17.8 million), Mexico ($13.9 million) and Australia ($11.9 million).[161]

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 90%, with an average score of 7.4/10, based on 459 reviews. The website's critics' consensus reads, "A breezily unpredictable blend of teen romance and superhero action, Spider-Man: Far From Home stylishly sets the stage for the next era of the MCU."[162] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100 based on reviews from 55 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[163] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale,[164] while those at PostTrak gave it a 76% "definite recommend".[135]

Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised Holland's performance and wrote, "By the end, this Spider-Man really does find his tingle, yet coming after Into the Spider-Verse, with its swirling psychedelic imagery and identity games and trap doors of perception, Spider-Man: Far From Home touches all the bases of a conventional Marvel movie. It doesn't take you out of this world. But it's good enough to summon the kick—or maybe just the illusion—of consequence."[165] Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Richard Roeper gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, calling it "zesty, sweet and satisfying" and praised the performances of the cast.[166] Bernard Boo of PopMatters praised the film, commenting, "Spider-Man: Far From Home is technically the final film in Phase [Three] of the MCU, and it's hard to think of a better way to send off the most successful run of one of the highest grossing franchises in history."[167] Alonso Duralde of TheWrap said that the film feels like "a charming teen road-trip comedy that occasionally turns into a superhero movie", which he said was a compliment. He highlighted the cast, including the chemistry between Holland, Zendaya and Batalon, and said that Gyllenhaal "nails his character's earnestness but also clearly enjoys a few moments that let him channel every exasperated-sigh, I-just-want-to-get-this-right male diva director he's ever known."[168]

Writing for IndieWire, David Ehrlich gave the film a grade of "C" and, despite complimenting the cast, called the film an "unadventurous bit of superhero housekeeping that only exists to clean up the mess that Avengers: Endgame left behind". He criticized the character development of Spider-Man, feeling that he does not change throughout the film beyond becoming more confident. He described the action as "plastic", and felt that the film did not give enough attention to its teen elements. Ehrlich said it might be enough to satisfy fans but called it a "failure when compared to the remarkable artistry of Into the Spider-Verse or the raw pathos of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2."[169] John Anderson of The Wall Street Journal praised Holland and Zendaya's performances, but described the film as "a visually incoherent, effects-heavy superhero movie", and called the dialogue "dire".[170]