Now that Spider-Man: Far From Home is finally upon us, MCU fans are flocking to their local movie theater to check out the friendly neighborhood web-slinger’s latest adventure. In the months leading up to the movie’s release, especially since the pre-Endgame trailers had to remain scarce on plot details to avoid giving anything away, fans came up with a lot of theories about where Peter Parker’s European vacation would take him.
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Here are 7 Spider-Man: Far From Home fan theories that were wrong (and three that were right). It probably goes without saying, but SPOILERS will follow for Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Wrong: The multiverse would introduce the X-Men and the Fantastic Four
This was a big one. Not only did the multiverse not introduce the X-Men and the Fantastic Four into the MCU following the Disney/Fox merger; it turned out not to exist at all. The Elementals and the multiverse turned out to be part of Quentin Beck’s wider ruse to become a beloved superhero. Since the Elementals were entirely holographic, the multiverse and the “Earth-833” reality Beck came from were imaginary. Marvel Studios execs have said that the characters they just acquired from Fox won’t be joining the MCU until at least 2021, and as it turns out, they weren’t lying.
Right: Mysterio would turn out to be a villain
This one was kind of a no-brainer. In the comics, Mysterio is one of Spider-Man’s most iconic foes and a member of the Sinister Six, the supervillain organization dedicated to destroying Spidey. When the Spider-Man: Far From Home trailers depicted him as an ally of Spider-Man, comic book readers were dubious. Since Mysterio’s powers are all to do with illusion and spectacle (in the comics, this comes from a background in special effects), it seemed as though it was all a trick. And as it turns out, that fan theory was one of the few that was right on the money.
Wrong: Stealth suit Spidey was from a different dimension
When Spider-Man was seen swinging around Czech architecture in a black suit – described by the producers as a “stealth suit” – some fans expected this to be a different version of Spidey that emerged from the multiverse (or, worse yet, a second crack at the symbiote storyline). Since there is no multiverse (at least not portrayed in the movie), there’s nothing in Far From Home that comes from an alternate reality – not even Mysterio and the Elementals. The stealth suit is provided by Nick Fury (well, the person we think is Nick Fury) before Spidey’s confrontation with Molten Man in Prague.
Wrong: Dimitri would turn out to be the Chameleon
Although “too many villains” is a common problem with Spider-Man movies, some fans expected there to be more villains in Far From Home than meets the eye in the trailers. As soon as Numan Acar was cast to play a character named Dimitri – an associate of Nick Fury and Maria Hill – it was assumed that the character’s full name would be revealed to be Dmitri Smerdyakov.
Smerdyakov is better known as the Chameleon, a villain who can disguise himself as anyone due to advanced face-changing technology and method acting techniques. As it turns out, he was just playing a guy who happened to be called Dimitri.
Right: Nick Fury wasn’t really Nick Fury
This fan theory was sort of correct. There was a school of thought that it seemed too convenient for Nick Fury to enlist Spider-Man to deal with the multiverse as opposed to someone more equipped like Doctor Strange, so a theory went that Fury would be revealed to be the Chameleon working in cahoots with Mysterio to trap Spidey. While this wasn’t true, the part where Fury wasn’t really Fury was entirely true. The post-credits scene revealed that the real Fury had been chillaxing on a spaceship with some Skrulls in the middle of outer space the whole time. Talos and Soren, two of the major Skrull characters from Captain Marvel, had been pretending to be Fury and Maria Hill the whole time.
Wrong: Quentin Beck was really Earth-833’s Peter Parker
In the trailers for Spider-Man: Far From Home, Quentin Beck claimed he was from an alternate reality where there is no Spider-Man. Some fans expected the big twist to be that there’s no Spider-Man in Beck’s reality because Beck himself is Peter Parker. This turned out to be untrue, because Beck wasn’t even from another reality. He was a disgruntled former Stark Industries employee who was given the shaft by Tony Stark. This makes him the second Spidey villain in the MCU to have a personal vendetta against Tony Stark. The Vulture lost business to Stark’s Damage Control venture, while Beck was fired for objecting to how Stark used his tech.
Wrong: The Sinister Six would form in a post-credits scene
Spider-Man doesn’t kill people (unless they’re mindless Outriders and he has the Infinity Gauntlet, so he has no choice but to activate the Iron Spider armor’s “Insta-Kill” function), which means that once he’s battled his foes, they tend to live to tell the tale.
The Vulture was alive and well in prison at the end of Homecoming, and it stood to reason that Mysterio would survive Far From Home. Some fans thought this would lead to the formation of the Sinister Six, despite the producers promising that this wasn’t the case. In the end, that wasn’t the case. Mysterio died and the Vulture didn’t make an appearance.
Wrong: Nick Fury’s phone call was a warning about Mysterio
This fan theory was a little far-fetched, to be fair (not as far-fetched as that theory about Ant-Man going up Thanos’ butt, but pretty far-fetched). It proposed that the phone call from Nick Fury that Peter Parker “ghosted” early in the movie was a warning that Mysterio was coming for him, and then after he ignored the call, everything else would be an elaborate trick by Mysterio. Some scenes in the movie turned out to be illusions created by Mysterio, leaving a lot of fans’ heads spinning, but the movie itself – for the most part – happened as it was depicted.
Right: The Elementals were an illusion created by Mysterio
Since Mysterio’s powers revolve around creating illusions and not flying, and the Elementals aren’t really villains in the Spider-Man comics (they’re simply drawn from C-list villains like Sandman and Molten Man for inspiration), some fans theorized that the Elementals would be revealed to be non-existent. Instead of the real threat in the sequel, they would merely be a show put on by Mysterio. As it turns out, those fans were exactly right. Fury and Hill couldn’t shoot the Elementals and Spidey’s webs had no impact on them because they were never really there. Mysterio was simply projecting them with drones.
Wrong: Oscorp Tower would replace Stark Tower
With Thanos out of the way, the MCU is in need of a new big bad. Since a Spider-Man movie was being used as the bridge between the Infinity Saga and the new chapter of the MCU, some fans theorized that Norman Osborn would be introduced as the franchise’s next big villain. The Green Goblin wasn’t expected to appear in Far From Home, but since Homecoming ended with Stark Tower being relocated upstate, it would’ve been an exciting tease for Osborn to buy the place to use as Oscorp Tower. Alas, that did not happen and the next big bad remains unclear.