Nick Fury is a very different kind of mentor to Peter Parker than Tony Stark was, Spider-Man: Far From Home director Jon Watts and producer Eric Carroll explain. Picking up shortly after the events of Avengers: Endgame, the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel will deal with the aftermath of the Thanos battle leading to the death of Parker's mentor and father-figure while saving the universe. But with Fury roping him into a new mission, the young hero finds himself with a new mentor, albeit quite dissimilar from what he's used to.
Marvel Studios effectively developed the relationship between Parker and Stark since the time they met in Captain America: Civil War and was further explored in Homecoming so that by the time Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame rolled around, the public was fully invested in their bond. The movie leans on Parker's grief after his mentor's death as highlighted in the latest Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer for the film. But there's no better person to help him get back on his feet than Fury, who was the one to recruit Stark to become an Avenger.
During Screen Rant's visit to Far From Home's set last summer, Watts explained the mindset behind the decision to partner up Spider-Man with Fury. According to the filmmaker, they wanted to see how the young hero fares with a more worldly superior. Watts said:
I always wanted to put our idealistic teenage hero Peter Parker against a jaded world weary super spy like Nick Fury. I always thought that would be such a great combination of conflict and relationship to explore. That was something that was in my very, very, very first pitch and my very first meeting at Marvel. I was like, "I want to see this kid go up against this bad motherf-cker." You know? And Tony Stark is like the cool, supportive rich uncle. Nick Fury is more like the mean, new stepdad. And I just thought it would be really fun to see those two worlds collide.
Carroll backed up Watts' sentiments, adding that Parker spending time with Fury allows him to see how someone who's been dealing with superheroes and world threats for the longest time operates because in the real world, situations are far more complex than simply good vs. evil. Carroll said:
One of the themes we wanted to play with was youth. It's the timeless theme of these coming of age movies. Why do adults operate in the grey? Spider-Man is like, "this is easy. Let's just do the right thing" or "let's just tell people what's going on and everyone will be okay" and Nick Fury's like, "that's not how the world works, kid." So, he just gets wrapped up in this sort of spy adventure, being driven by Fury and getting more-and-more caught between how he wants to operate and how he's being told he should operate.
As previously mentioned, it was Fury who kickstarted The Avengers Initiative following his initial encounter with Captain Marvel, but it was only after Stark outed himself as Iron Man in 2008 when he actively worked on the project, leading to Earth's Mightiest Heroes assembling in Joss Whedon's The Avengers. But not only did he recruit Stark to become an Avenger, he also acted as an unofficial mentor to him, evidenced by their interactions in Iron Man 2 and their farmhouse conversation in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Having seen Stark's own journey from being the egotistical industrialist to the selfless hero that he was in Endgame, Fury's in a great position to share these anecdotes with Parker as he struggles to become a hero in the aftermath of Iron Man's death.
It'll be interesting to see Parker's dynamic with Fury develop throughout Spider-Man: Far From Home, especially with the latter being the one to bring in Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), who is a manipulative villain in the comic books and is also likely to be the same on the big screen. The big question here is how a veteran like Fury possibly got sucked into Quentin Beck's ploy, and what will be the fallout of that after Parker realizes they were all being played by their supposed new ally? Regardless, this sounds like a great learning experience for Spider-Man as he continues to become the hero that he's supposed to be in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
