To call the MCU "cagey" about protecting its secrets and reveals would be putting it lightly. Since the superhero boom, the people at Marvel Studios have been doing everything they can to obfuscate and deflect the truth about their movies from the general public before their release--and sometimes, even from the actors themselves. Most recently, some of Avengers: Endgame's biggest stars opened up about being told they were "filming a wedding" rather than a funeral for Tony Stark in the final moments of the movie. Other cast members have spoken up about only being given parts of scenes or "dummy" scripts, and the directors themselves have sparked social media campaigns begging fans not to spoil the movie's secrets.
Of course, some of these claims may just be for show, or at the very least be playfully exaggerated--especially in the case of "notorious" spoiler-ers like Mark Ruffalo and Tom Holland who have made names for themselves by unintentionally (or, sometimes, very intentionally) letting secrets about their various movies slip well before they're supposed to. Marvel's secrecy has become a meme unto itself, which really begs the question: How do you make a movie like Spider-Man: Far From Home that deals directly with the fallout of the most secretive Marvel movie of all time if you don't actually know what happens in the most secretive Marvel movie of all time?
The answer: You don't, apparently. For all that Endgame has garnered a reputation for being kept under complete lock-and-key from just about everyone, it turns out the cast and crew of Spider-Man: Far From Home was in on the whole thing from the very beginning. Yes, even infamous secret-spiller Tom Holland.
GameSpot sat down with Ned Leeds himself, Jacob Batalon, and Far From Home director Jon Watts to talk about the secret keeping of a post-Endgame movie--and it turns out, security on spoilers was way less strict than we could have anticipated.
"We read the full thing. We read the full script. Nothing was redacted or anything like that. That was like a big secret that we couldn't talk about ever," Batalon admitted. "Even, for some reason, while we were filming we were pretending like it never happened. [...] We made sure that no one ever brought it up. I mean, we'd bring it up as far as story-wise goes, as far as making the scenes and everything, but it was never really a thing discussed. It wasn't a big deal."
And somehow, miraculously, that approach seemed to be successful--at least, so far. Endgame may have avoided major leaks by keeping the actors as in the dark as possible, but Tom Holland would have been in the loop thanks to Far From Home's filming schedule--and it all worked out!
Nice work, Tom!
Watts confirmed--and added that, despite knowing the secrets of Endgame well in advance, Marvel Studios took a relatively hands-off approach to Far From Home's story. "I was one of the lucky few who knew the secret a long, long, long time ago," Watts laughed. "It was more just with that in mind, we were cut loose to develop our movie and to answer a lot of those unanswered questions in Endgame and figure out a way to use that as a jumping-off point."
Watts continued, "It was just like we know where those movies end, and that's where you start, and then where are you going to go from there."
So, where do they go from there? You can find out when Spider-Man: Far From Home hits theaters on July 2 to officially wrap up Phase 3 and to kick off the mysterious Phase 4.
