Spider-Man Director on Mysterio Spoilers & Iron Man 1

How do you follow the greatest cartoon movie of all time? To do things staff.

With Spider-Man: far from home, director Jon Watts has drawn the right balance between the neighborhood action of his critical praise Spider-Man: Homecoming and the upsetting drama of May's Avengers: End of the game. To succeed, it was necessary to associate Peter Parker (Tom Holland) with a down-to-earth opposite, that Watts found in … the superhero Mysterio.

It's more than that, but like everyone who sees Far from home know, it's a scathing film full of twists and revelations. So, to get a complete and unhindered story, Polygon briefly talked to Watts about all the things that bothered him, including how he remixed the legendary Mysterio for blockbuster purposes and incorporated reminders of characters worthy of Iron Man.

[[[[Ed. Note: this post contains major spoilers for Far from home]

How much effect has your process had on War of Infinity and End of Game to have?

I was one of the few elected officials who knew what was going to happen in War of Infinity and End of Game. We developed this film while these were filmed and edited. So yes, I always knew what was going to happen and I knew that I was going to be the person who would take care of the fallout from these movies.

Did your film design begin with the death of Tony or Mysterio as a new character?

We have developed a story around three types of construction. One obviously focused on the events of Endgame and Tony's death. The second was just the idea of ​​European holidays. Then the third was Mysterio. So these are the three things we knew we would incorporate in this movie. The trick was simply to find a way to integrate them all together.

Why Mysterio?

I think that very early everyone was already on board with Mysterio. The opportunity to make stunning graphics interested me a lot. The question was right: how were we going to reinvent it for this film while remaining true to the character?

Marvel Studios / Sony Photos

The "powers" of Mysterio look like a director's sandbox …

A sandbox, but also quicksand. When you are in this world and literally everything is possible visually, it is dangerous and you risk losing yourself. So for me, it really was to focus on a particular story point and an emotional entry point for Peter and Mysterio, to help direct that sequence and to generate these visuals.

Is there a particular image with which you started? That you had to be on the screen?

I remember that I did this as a miniature sketch of a little spider-man surrounded by fragments of broken glass that show various versions of his reflection with the giant Mysterio above him. This is where we started for this sequence. In a black void. There is a very similar cartoon cover with a tiny Spider-Man. He's in an amusement park with a mysterious giant threatening him because he tricked Spiderman into believing he was tiny.

How did the "Peter Tingle" become a key part of Peter's arc in this movie?

We did not want to be too specific about Spidey Sense rules, but it was pretty simple for Peter to get hit by that banana at the beginning of the movie to let you know that he usually has This thing we've seen in previous movies does not work as well as it should. The simple reason is that he needs a break. He lies to himself somehow about his feelings about Tony; he's worn out. I mean, since Back homehe went to space! He was ripped off and comes back. He saw his mentor die. He went through a lot of things. So, if his Spidey Sense / Peter Tingle is not working at his optimal level, think this is understandable.

How did you conceive of a threat that would occur in aEnd of Game world, but would still be defeated by a solitary Spider-Man?

I had a little cheat by having a bunch of bad guys for the first half of the movie to get him defeated and get him "defeated", to be then brought home by Mysterio. What scares Mysterio is his ability to shape reality, to control the truth and to make sure people do not know what's real and what's not. It's a terrifying idea.

Marvel Studios

How did you manage to connect Mysterio with Stark? I did not expect to see Peter Billingsley from Iron Man go back to the MCU!

Whenever I really watch a movie, I look at the main story they are trying to tell, but whenever there were actors as secondary or tertiary characters in the background, I always thought: What are they doing? Like, what happened to them? They are still there, right? So what are they preparing? When we started to break this idea of ​​Mysterio's story and his connection with Tony, it seemed to us just to dig into Marvel's universe and find out who could be part of his team. It's a memorable moment on the part of Iron Man 1it seemed right to bring him back.

I found the reveal to have a nice connection to Back home. Vulture was a blue-collar guy who cleaned up debris after the Battle of New York. Mysterio is a former employee of Stark Industries, burned by an egomaniac.

I always try to use Spider-Man to explore the basic level of this crazy universe. If Adrian Toomes was the type on the field to clean up the aftermath of these insane events at the Avengers level, you know, Quentin Beck is the head of middle management. He is the guy behind the scenes making sure all the technology works. People only notice people at the forefront and people on the covers of magazines and on television. But the reality is that there are so many people working all the time behind the scenes to make our world go round. They can be forgotten in the mix. I thought it was logical that Beck was one of those guys.