Note: contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.
So, the Black Cat's out of the bag: Spider-Man: Far From Home isn't a prequel telling the story of how Peter Parker came to be on a bus getting goosebumps on that fateful day in New York.
Nor is it a sequel featuring a large pile of dust battling his nemesis ‘Hoover Man'. It's a direct sequel to Endgame, with Parker having been resurrected during the fantastic finale of that film.
We also now know why the Russo brothers lifted their fabled 'spoiler ban' – they knew this trailer was coming and that Sony were going to sell the hell out of their connection to the biggest movie of all time. That connection is exciting – but not for the reasons we were expecting.
Sure, the Far From Home trailer reveals Parker's going to be grieving for Tony Stark, just like we all are, and we're certain that'll move us to tears in the multiplex.
But the big surprise came when it's revealed the Snap-back (as we're now calling it) opened up all sorts of portals to other realities, officially confirming the Multiverse in the MCU.
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It's a major reveal that's delivered so casually in this trailer that we can’t help but wonder if it's even actually true. After all, the information comes from Mysterio, a Spider-Man supervillain whose literal MO is lying (we go into more detail on that here).
What we're saying is, of all the characters we want delivering us the information that the MCU is part of a Multiverse, Mysterio would be right at the bottom of the list. And we know this film needs a villain, as Vulture isn't returning.
If it is a trick, we'll be more disappointed than Uncle Ben after apprehending a criminal. The Multiverse is such a brilliant concept that it would be a massive shame if they threw it away on a con-man's trick.
That's because, as anyone who's seen Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse will tell you, the storytelling possibilities a Multiverse opens up are basically infinite.
You want to bring fan-favourite Miles Morales into the MCU? There's a Multiverse for that. You want to recast Iron Man without the pressure of directly replacing RDJ? There's a Multiverse for that. You want the X-Men in the MCU? There's definitely a Multiverse for that. You want to do a movie where all of our heroes were actually villains? There's even a Multiverse for that.
And the concept was explicitly set up in Endgame – with the Ancient One's explanation of how time travel can open up different realities working as a pretty great beginner's guide to how a bunch of different existences could be operating in parallel to the main MCU.
A recent interview by Fandango with director Jon Watts answered some of our questions, including the most direct of them all: does Far From Home introduce the Multiverse to the MCU?
"Well, I mean, yeah. We had to look at it in terms of the scope of what happened at the end of Endgame. Seeing all the crazy things that they did and all the questions that raises. So we're definitely trying to answer one of the big ones – alternate timelines. So many possibilities opened up at the end of Endgame, and Peter Parker is one of the few people on the ground dealing with them."
However, when pressed on if he'd be introducing the rules of the Multiverse to the MCU, Watts deflected with a joke: "I wouldn't dare! I'll let Nick Fury do that."
It gets worse. When asked if Mysterio and the Elementals were from the same universe, Watts replied: "Yes, exactly. Exactly. They're both from the same sort of parallel dimension, yeah."
Hmmm. Sound to us like our initial instincts were correct, Mysterio is connected to the Elementals and Watts is protecting a plot twist here.
We'll find out when the movie's released in the UK on July 2, but if this really is the MCU's Multiverse, it had better not be Jake Gyllenhaal using a scientific concept to cover up bank robberies or whatever.
Of course, it could be both: Mysterio could be lying, only for the film to reveal that there is actually a Multiverse in a post-credit scene.
The details are certainly solid - a recent TV spot gave some comic-canon details about the situation.
"There are multiple realities, Peter," he explains. "This is Earth-616. I'm from Earth-833. We share identical physical constance, Level Four symmetry."
We'll basically take anything that doesn't throw away one of the best comic-book concepts in Marvel's history, so thanks in advance Sony!
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Freelancer writer
Sam is an entertainment writer with NCTJ accreditation and a twenty-year career as a film journalist.
Starting out as a staff writer at Total Film, moving up to Deputy Online Editor, Sam was responsible for Total Film’s YouTube channel, where he revolutionised the magazine’s approach to video junkets, creating influential formats that spread to other outlets.
He’s interviewed a wide range of film icons, including directors such as David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Ridley Scott, Michael Bay and Sam Raimi, as well as actors such as Meryl Streep, Nic Cage, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Anne Hathaway, Margot Robbie, Natalie Portman, Kermit the Frog, all of the Avengers and many more.
Sam has also interviewed several comic creators, including Stan Lee, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and he has a zombie cameo in The Walking Dead comic.
In 2014, Sam went freelance, working directly for film studios including Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and Disney, as well as covering red carpet events for film marketing company PMA Productions.
Sam is the co-host, producer and editor of the Arrow Video podcast, which has seen year-on-year growth since its creation in 2017, gaining over half a million listens in that time.
His byline has appeared in outlets such as Yahoo, MTV, Dazed, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Good Housekeeping among others.
In 2012, Sam made it to the final of the Leicester Square Theatre New Comedian of the Year competition, and went on to become a filmmaker himself, directing three features that have all played major festivals, and secured distribution – starring in two of them.
Jim Carrey once mistook Sam for Johnny Cash, and John Carpenter told him to ‘Keep up the good work.’ He promises to try his best.
