How The Spider-Man: Far From Home Trailer Proves A Big Avengers: Endgame Theory
There were loads of tiny details you may have missed in the first trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home — like the boat named "ASM 212" that referenced an iconic issue of the Amazing Spider-Man comic series, or the initials "BFP" stitched into Peter's luggage, a clear nod to his late Uncle Ben. With so much happening in the footage, fans may have gotten a case of head rush or whiplash trying to keep up — which, in turn, may have made them completely miss the fact that the Far From Home trailer seemingly proves a big theory about Avengers: Endgame.
As we noted in our coverage of the trailer, the Far From Home footage doesn't in any way, shape, or form address Avengers: Infinity War or its forthcoming follow-up Avengers: Endgame. There isn't so much as a minuscule moment that goes down in the background of a scene, a piece of dialogue said in passing that can only be detected by altering the bass and treble levels of the trailer's audio, or an Easter egg hidden in a one-second shot or tucked in a corner of the Far From Home trailer credits that references the devastating events of Infinity War or what could happen in Endgame. And trust us, we've spent hours poring over the footage; if something was there, you can bet your buns we would have spotted it.
Everyone goes about their business as usual in the Far From Home trailer. Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) delivers to Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) a $500,000 check from the Stark Relief Foundation that features Pepper Potts' (Gwyneth Paltrow) signature on the bottom, an extremely not-dead Peter (Tom Holland) packs his bags to head to Europe on a summer vacation with his classmates and tries not to lose his cool over his crush on MJ (Zendaya), and an also very much alive Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) surprises Peter and recruits him for a mission to be carried out in part by Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), who's an expert on the Elemental baddies running amok in Europe. This feels pretty odd, doesn't it, especially after Infinity War saw both Peter and Nick crumble away into dust?
Mashable's Alexis Nedd had the perfect response to all this, shared in her post-trailer breakdown: "Um, does any of this seem like it takes place in a world that very recently experienced the human apocalypse?"
It doesn't, but it would easily take place in a world that never experienced Thanos' Decimation that killed half the universe's population.
A major fan theory regarding how Earth's Mightiest Heroes battle Thanos and attempt to avenge their fallen fellow heroes' deaths in Endgame suggests that the surviving characters will reverse the Snap and continue living in the existing timeline. That would mean all those murdered in the moment Thanos activated the Infinity Gauntlet and snapped his evil fingers — heroes like Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Peter and Nick, as well as billions of innocent civilians — would come back to life and go about their lives as normal. However, it also means that everyone would still have knowledge of the Decimation happening. Those who lived through it would remember grieving their loved ones and then suddenly seeing them return from the dead, those who perished would remember getting killed and then revived some time later — you get the gist.
While it's a solid idea, it doesn't explain why the world has so easily and so quickly returned to its regular state of affairs in Spider-Man: Far From Home, which will "start a few minutes after Avengers 4 wraps as a story," according to the film's producer, Amy Pascal. A Decimation reversal in Endgame would presumably leave the people of Earth pretty shaken up at the start of the Spidey sequel, and, from what we can tell, everyone looks totally unbothered in the Far From Home trailer (aside from when those watery, sandy, and fiery villains rear their weird, almost shapeless heads). A Decimation negation, though? Now we're talking.
Nedd detailed in her piece that another popular idea amongst Marvelites is that the Avengers will nullify Thanos' Snap in Endgame, altering the timeline to ensure that it never actually happened. This is the theory that the Far From Home trailer appears to confirm, given that the world is spinning on as usual and no post-Thanos panic is plaguing the planet.
Like we noted previously, there isn't even a half an hour of time between the end of Endgame and the beginning of Far From Home. Additionally, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has already established that Far From Home is set after Infinity War and Endgame and revealed that Peter will return to a "normal life" in Far From Home. If the Avengers were to reverse the Decimation rather than negate it, the world would need more than just "a few minutes" to process what happened and pick up the pieces of their lives before getting back to normal. Like Nedd argued, "Ordinary people don't seem to be laboring under the trauma that the Snapture would cause — what parent would let their child go abroad for weeks when they were very recently made aware of the fact that life can end with the snap of two big, purple fingers?"
Aunt May wouldn't be thrilled by the idea of Peter heading to Europe minutes after battling an intergalactic tyrant, dying, and then coming back to life — and Peter would be more inclined to take his Spider-Man suit with him if he remembered that happening. But in the Far From Home trailer, May is fine with Peter traveling overseas and Peter leaves his suit behind, saying that Europe doesn't need him. In the same vein, Nick Fury probably wouldn't want to organize another mission right after falling victim to Thanos — and neither would Nick's fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), who's also seen in the Far From Home trailer. And let's not forget that signature from Pepper Potts, which hints that she made it out of Infinity War and Endgame alive and that she's well enough to get back to her post as Chief Executive Officer of Stark Industries.
Spreading out all the facts and taking a good, long look at them, we can see how Avengers: Endgame might feature the surviving heroes toying with time and negating Thanos' Decimation. It's clear that Spider-Man: Far From Home isn't a prequel to either of the Avengers sequels, simply based on what Pascal and Feige have confirmed about the movie, so the Avengers will have to do something big in Endgame to rectify Thanos' horrifying actions. What goes down in the final moments of Endgame has to allow for a seamless transition to the opening of Far From Home, and there can't be any threads left dangling. The theory that the Avengers negate the Snappening is looking more and more like it could end up coming true, with the Far From Home trailer providing the most significant evidence yet.
It's still unclear just how Earth's Mightiest Heroes will deal with the aftermath of Infinity War in Endgame so that Peter can swing around Europe, Aunt May can make heart-eyes at Happy, and Nick can potentially vet Spider-Man to become a part of the new generation of Avengers, but fans will figure it all out soon enough. Endgame opens in theaters on April 26, with Far From Home following on July 5.