SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME Director Jon Watts Addresses Uncle Ben's Status In The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Spider-Man: Far From Home director Jon Watts has confirmed that Peter Parker's Uncle Ben does exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but is he hinting that he could still be alive? Read on for details...

By JoshWilding - Jul 05, 2019 12:07 PM EST

Filed Under: Far From Home

Uncle Ben's existence has definitely been alluded to in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but despite a noteworthy Easter Egg in Spider-Man: Far From Home, he's never been directly mentioned.

During a recent interview, director Jon Watts was asked what the deal is with Ben Parker and confirmed that he does exist. "Yes. Definitely," he said. "Did you notice his initials on Peter’s suitcase?" That's the Easter Egg we mentioned above, and Watts went on to address why Ben's role in the web-slinger's life has been put on the backburner.

"We knew we weren’t going to tell an origin story, so we just avoided talking about that in too much detail," the filmmaker explained. "I didn’t want to reveal too much. It was a lot more sensitive of an issue to not be doing an origin story when we were talking about Homecoming ... back then, people were saying ‘Why are you making another Spider-Man movie?’ The focus was on showing people things that they had never seen before, not retelling that origin."

Here's where things get a little weird, though.

After noting that "We never specifically say anything about him. So whether or not he’s around or not," Watts was asked if there's a chance Uncle Ben could still be alive in the MCU. "Yeah. Everything’s on the table, is how I like to say it." Honestly, that would be a huge blunder on Marvel's part, and rather than confirming that he's alive, it's more likely Watts just doesn't want to give anything away.

After all, Ben's death could easily factor into a future story, so we'll just have to wait and see how things play out.

What do you guys think about these comments from Watts about Ben's MCU status?

Hit the "View List" button for more details about
Spider-Man: Far From Home from the movie's writers!

Why Plans For A Captain America Cameo Were Abandoned

We recently learned that the Sam Wilson version of Captain America was going to make a cameo appearance at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, but was he ever actually in the script?

"Not an outline," McKenna confirms, "but as we were building toward the end of this movie, we were thinking about [who we could bring in]. It's always great to draw on MCU characters and bring them into the fold. Happy [Jon Favreau] and Nick Fury are such great characters. ... It could have been a day or less of going, "Hey, can we bring in someone like Falcon in to the third act?" and Peter sort of teaming up and sort of being a team leader and stepping up in that sort of way."

"So, it was discussed," he concluded, revealing what could have been in the Marvel Studios movie.

The Origin Of One Of The Movie's Best Lines

Nick Fury's "Bitch, please. You've been to space," line was particularly memorable and stood out in the trailers. So, where did it come from? "That was one of our first jokes," McKenna confirmed. "I think it was Erik who pitched that one early on when we were first coming up with the storyline. It got a big laugh in the room. Everyone knew that's going to be in the trailer."

"It's funny how those work," Sommers added. "Jokes pop up and end up in the movie at all stages. That's just one of those jokes that popped up really early and just stuck with it the whole time."

When Was Mysterio Chosen As The Movie's Villain?

"The school trip came up quite early," Sommers revealed when asked about choosing Mysterio to face Spider-Man. "Identifying who the exact villain was going to be didn't come up as early, but we did know that was a villain we were going to want to use, and it was just a matter of trying to find how he would fit in with that story and the themes we wanted to get across."

"He's an iconic character we could turn on his head," McKenna added referencing his apparent heroic turn. "We were kicking around these classic villains like Hydro-Man and Molten Man and figuring out how to use those as these Elemental creatures. We were trying to figure out a way to use these iconic characters from Spider-Man comics and put a modern MCU spin on them."

There Were Never Any Plans For The Vulture

At the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Vulture was confronted by Mac Gargan and it appeared as if Marvel Studios might be teasing the return of those villains in the sequel. Well, there's no sign of either of them, but with the trades reporting at one time that Michael Keaton would be back, is there a version of the screenplay that included the villainous Adrian Toomes' return?

"I recall maybe that was floated," McKenna says, "but I don't think there was ever any serious consideration about that for this movie." So, that officially puts an end to those rumours.

How Avengers: Infinity War Changed The Sequel

At the end of Infinity War, Tom Holland delivered an incredible performance which saw him die in the arms of Tony Stark. Did seeing that change their approach to writing Peter Parker?

Here's what McKenna said about the impact that scene had on Spider-Man: Far From Home:

"We all knew he was great, but that ending in Infinity War, it really shook me. It was an emotional, devastating moment. So much of this, we are being told plot points [as we write our films]. "Oh, this thing happens in Infinity War, and this other thing happens in Far From Home." We're not reading the scripts. We didn't even see Endgame until the premiere. But we did know that coming off of Infinity War, there's going to be an emotional bill to pay. That emotional moment [Peter's death], you know the reverse of that is going to be at the end of Endgame. It's going to be something we're going to have to deal with.

"Peter just wants to have fun. As much as we're being told to have fun with it, we're like Peter. We want to avoid all that [dark] stuff, but ultimately, it's his avoiding all the darkness of Endgame that gets him into hot water in this movie."

Did A Previous Version The Movie Delve Deeper Into The Snap?

Spider-Man: Far From Home only briefly touches on the ramifications of The Snap, but it does pick up a whole eight months after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Asked if there was ever a version of the movie that devoted more time to this, Sommers explained why they approached the fallout in a somewhat comical manner.

"There was an agreement among the whole creative team that we needed to address those things, but we needed to do it as efficiently and economically as possible so we could move past it and start enjoying the story of the movie," the writer explains.

"Early on, the idea was floated using the school news to do that, and that was just one of those key ideas that someone on the creative team had, and we all quickly saw how well that would work and allow us to do what we wanted, and it was really fun to do."

Why They Chose To Include Brad Davis

Spider-Man: Far From Home introduces Brad Davis as a romantic rival to Peter Parker, and it's revealed during the course of the movie that he wasn't among the dusted, hence why he's now the same age as Peter, MJ, Ned, Betty, and Flash Thompson. So, why exactly was he included in the movie?

"Jon is very cognizant of drawing from the MCU," McKenna says. "Once we came up with the idea of that kid [Brad Davis], Jon immediately turned to one of the Marvel people and said "Can you get us the names of kids we can name this character after?" There's definitely an attempt to always draw on the Marvel universe when you can."

In the comics, Brad was a football player who dated MJ for a time so this lines up.

Many thanks to The Hollywood Reporter for the quotes used in this post.

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105 Comments

1 2 3

tmp3 - 7/5/2019, 12:32 PM

The lack of Uncle Ben never bothered me like it does other people, and I'm not even the biggest fan of Homecoming. Spider-Verse handled the Ben thing perfectly. In fact, it kind of handled the whole "origin story in a reboot" thing so perfectly.

WakandanQueen - 7/5/2019, 12:34 PM

Chewtoy - 7/5/2019, 12:37 PM

Uncle Ben’s place in the myths is secure... I don’t really need him brought up constantly.

That said, the next one has a wide open door to address what happened to him, considering that the ending of this one put Aunt May and everyone he knows in danger.

Mrcool210 - 7/5/2019, 12:37 PM

Honestly I totally get not putting focus on Uncle Ben, there has been enough in the MCU to show he did exist, but clearly Tony has made just as big an impact on Peter due to how much he has helped Peter in being a superhero. Unlce Ben may have been the catalyst still but the other heroes and especially Iron Man have helped Peter learn responsibility.

I have no doubt in the next film uncle Ben will be mentioned, once we've moved far away enough from the last couple times we did him. And I bet they will get a great actor to play him, they always do.

XelCorp - 7/5/2019, 12:40 PM

@Mrcool210 - I still miss him

MyCoolYoung - 7/5/2019, 1:09 PM

@Mrcool210 - I have no doubt about this. I said it in another thread. It'll be enough time since Tony died and the fact that his identity is out and everyone is in danger I can see some uncle Ben flashbacks coming

Reeds2Much - 7/5/2019, 12:38 PM

Feralwookiee - 7/5/2019, 1:00 PM

@Reeds2Much - Classic.

🤣

XelCorp - 7/5/2019, 12:39 PM

Peter - “And with everything that’s happened to her” (referring to aunt May)

Look May had a husband/long term boyfriend named Ben which was Pete’s uncle. The dude must’ve died. That’s it.

Origame - 7/5/2019, 2:36 PM

@XelCorp - and we only hear how it effects may.

XelCorp - 7/5/2019, 4:16 PM

@Origame - wanna see it a third time? Go back and watch it xD

Origame - 7/5/2019, 5:23 PM

@XelCorp - you dont even need that. Maybe after stark takes his suit ned asks why he's spiderman and peter mentions he cant let anyone else's uncle die. Then ned comforts him. We dont see it and we get everything we need from it. Or better yet, look how into the spiderverse handled it. He's never shown but you get the full impact.

MrCamw1 - 7/5/2019, 12:40 PM

I'm fine with no Uncle Ben. What would they do, have Peter at Gwen Stacys grave with his dad looming over him in the background? (I know that was a deleted scene for Anazing Spiderman 2 but I couldn't unsee it).

XelCorp - 7/5/2019, 12:45 PM

@MrCamw1 - jeez tasm series is a nightmare.

0mega140 - 7/7/2019, 8:23 PM

@XelCorp - TaSM is much better than the version of iron biy jr

Nightwing1015 - 7/5/2019, 12:43 PM

Another Spider-Man movie where they completely ignore Uncle Ben. Was pretty annoyed there wasn't at least a mention of him. I actually hope we get to see Peter's MCU origin in flashbacks one day

ODanil - 7/5/2019, 12:44 PM

"he dead" said the director.

XelCorp - 7/5/2019, 12:45 PM

Has there been a spoiler discussion thread for this movie yet?

Mrcool210 - 7/5/2019, 12:51 PM

@XelCorp - On Josh's spoiler filled what worked and what didn't work. People talked lots of spoilers there.

MUTO123 - 7/5/2019, 12:48 PM

Off-topic: Stranger Things 3 is SOOOOOOOOO [frick]ing good! Probably my favorite season so far (also, I need a Steve/Robin spinoff NOW).

1 2 3

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SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME Director Jon Watts Addresses Uncle Ben's Status In The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Spider-Man: Far From Home director Jon Watts has confirmed that Peter Parker's Uncle Ben does exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but is he hinting that he could still be alive? Read on for details...

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