Tony Revolori's Idea For Spider-Man: Far From Home Ended Up Making The Final Cut
The MCU's Tom Holland-led "Spider-Man" trilogy is widely considered to be among the best live-action web-slinger stories. After the record-breaking "Spider-Man: No Way Home" (via Variety), it's hard to contest that standing. The three films are buoyed by a strong supporting cast; Zendaya plays Michelle "MJ" Jones and Jacob Batalon provides comic relief as Ned Leeds. But every Peter Parker needs a school bully, and Tony Revolori is more than up to the task as Flash Thompson.
While many incarnations of Flash in both comics and films are understandably one-note characters, Revolori's take is surprisingly nuanced. He can't match up to Peter academically, and his home life appears to be a lonely one. In a new interview, Revolori revealed his involvement in sculpting a new persona for Flash, and he revealed one scene he came up with that ended up making the final cut of "Spider-Man: Far From Home."
Revolori suggested a detail that highlighted Flash's absent parents
Across the three MCU "Spider-Man" films, Flash Thompson's parents are presented as mostly absent from his life. In "Spider-Man: Homecoming," Flash hosts a party without concern that they'll be around to catch him. And in a particularly heartbreaking moment toward the end of "Spider-Man: Far From Home," he returns from a pretty dangerous European school trip with his class to find that his father has sent a chauffeur to the airport rather than pick him up personally.
According to Tony Revolori, that detail was his own idea, as he explained to The Hollywood Reporter. "Flash's driver, Gerald, was actually supposed to play Flash's father," he told the publication, "but the day before, I was having a drink with one of the producers, Chris Buongiorno, and I think I said to him, 'What if his parents, after all of this, still don't show up?'"
In fact, Revolori says they explored both options, but ultimately went with his idea because it played better onscreen. " ... we shot both versions with that actor as Flash's father and Flash's driver. So the driver version ended up being the funny one, and that's the one they ended up using." Though ultimately a small detail, that brief moment provides an elucidation of why Flash might choose to bully Peter Parker, whose caring Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) fills an emotional role in the latter kid's life — a role that Flash never had anyone play for him.