MCU: 10 Things You Might Not Know About SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME

People need to believe. And nowadays, Geek Dave'll believe anything.

1. The 23rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the final chapter of Phase 3, Spider-Man: Far From Home followed the record breaking Avengers: Endgame, a movie that, among its many records, is currently the highest grossing one of all time. Although Far From Home was never likely to trouble that record, it did blow another of Endgame's away.

Avengers: Endgame had a total promotional marketing value of just over $200 million, thanks to all its many partnership deals with everyone from McDonalds to Coco-Cola, Geico to General Mills getting in on the action. Spider-Man: Far From home toppled this record, and not just slightly! A whopping $288 in promotional deals was made, shattering all industry records as United Airlines, Audi, Doritos, Papa Jones, Dr Pepper, Burger King and Dunkin Donuts all partnered for some web-slinging action. Not bad for a boy from Queens eh?

2. Although part of the MCU, Sony still own the cinematic rights to Spider-Man and their rather complex deal with Marvel sees them control many aspects of film production. One of which is scheduling release dates, originally slating this sequel for July 5th 2019 much to Marvel's initial concern.

Marvel wanted a gap in production for any of the characters that would be disintegrating as part of Thanos' snap at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. The logic being, audiences would be able to guess that they would survive the climax if they already had a film in production before Avengers: Endgame resolved the situation. Sony felt otherwise, wanting to capitalise on the success of Spider-Man: Homecoming with no more than a two year gap between releases, and insisted that the sequel be released in 2019 complicating Marvel's preference for secrecy.

A compromise was made for the promotion of the film by neither mentioning "the Blip" or giving a timescale for when the film was set in any of the early trailers or promotional material, so when the first trailer debuted on December 8th 2018 the footage did not acknowledge the events of Infinity War or Endgame and was solely a continuation of the Spider-Man universe only.

3. All this secrecy surrounding the events of of both Infinity War and Endgame meant that most of the cast of Spider-Man: Far From Home, even those with headline billing for the film, were only supplied brief sections of the script. Zendaya claims that she only received her lines along with a partial understanding of the story outside of her scenes.

4. There are many references to the Spider-Man comics hidden throughout Far From Home, and just as Aunt May's license plate in Homecoming was a direct reference to the Spider-Man comic books, many of the vehicle license plates in Far From Home do the same thing.

The car driven by Fury and Maria Hill is MTU83779, which references Marvel Team Up issue 83 from July 1979, called "Spider-Man and Nick Fury".
A boat sign reads "ASM212" during the water Elemental attack. The water villain Hydro-Man (Morris Bench) made his debut in "Amazing Spider-Man #212" (January 1981).
A car bears a license plate reading "463" during the earth Elemental attack. The earth villain Sandman (Flint Marko) made his debut in "Amazing Spider-Man #4," September 1963.
A car bears a license plate reading "2865 SEP" during the fire Elemental attack. The fire villain Molten Man (Mark Raxton) made his debut in "Amazing Spider-Man #28," September 1965.
A car bears a license plate reading "TASM 143" during the final Elemental (incorporating all of the elements into a "Voltron" Elemental) attack. The air villain Cyclone (André Gerard) made his debut in "Amazing Spider-Man #143," April 1975, and it's also the comic book which saw Peter and MJ share their first kiss, just as they did in this film.
Finally, there is a car license plate near the end of the film that reads "AMF 1562" and suggests the comic book title "Amazing Fantasy," specifically Amazing Fantasy #15, from August of 1962, which features the debut of Spider-Man.

5. And if they didn't make that reference clear enough, Peter Parker's passport lists August 10th as his birthday. Spider-Man's first appearance, in Amazing Fantasy #15, was released August 10th, 1962.

6. In a blink and you'll miss it moment, as Spider-Man is seen swinging throughout New York City, there is a statue located in the heart of the city that is actually an Avengers memorial in honour of The Battle in New York, when The Avengers saved the day in their first cinematic outing.

7. J. K. Simmons appears as J. Jonah Jameson in the mid-credits scene, marking the first time an actor has reprised a non-MCU role in an MCU film after Simmons portrayed a different incarnation of Jameson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy.

Discussing the film's mid-credits scene, director Jon Watts explained that they approached J.K. Simmons "as late as possible" before the film's release in a bid to keep the cameo a surprise for fans. 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."

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. Still wanting to keep it as low key as possible, Simmons' footage was filmed in a Disney conference room in front of a green screen, and even the star of the film himself, Tom Holland, had no idea Simmons had shot the cameo until seeing the completed film for the first time.

8. In something of a surprise twist, Ben Mendelsohn and Sharon Blynn make uncredited cameo appearances in the post-credits scene as the Skrulls Talos and Soren, reprising their roles from Captain Marvel; this scene reveals that they have been posing as Fury and Hill during the film, with deleted footage of Jackson and Smulders, originally intended for the opening scene, used in the reveal.

However, there were many clues throughout, not least of which the first word of dialogue spoken is Hill addressing Fury as "Nick", yet as established in Captain Marvel, everyone calls him "Fury".

Not everyone caught on to it during production though as Colbie Smulders, who plays Agent Maria Hill, only learned about the twist from producer Kevin Feige shortly before the film's release.

9. After Spider-Man: Far From Home's release, Sony created a real version of the fictional TheDailyBugle.net website as part of a viral marketing campaign to promote the film. Inspired by real-world "conspiracy-pushing" websites such as that of Alex Jones, the website features Simmons reprising his role as Jameson in a video where he speaks out against Spider-Man and in support of Mysterio, before adding,

"Thanks for watching. Don't forget to like and subscribe!"

The website includes testimonials from supposed victims of "the Blip", including one complaining that they disappeared in a dangerous situation and were seriously injured when they reappeared. This contradicts a statement by Feige saying that anyone in such a situation would have reappeared safely. Several days after this was pointed out, the website was updated to say this story was faked for an insurance claim.