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'Spider-Man: Far From Home' writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommars join Heat Vision Breakdown to explain the origins of The Blip and address rumors about a Kree sleeper cell and EDITH’s secret origins.
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00:00Hello friends, this week on Heat Vision Breakdown, we are joined by very special
00:03guests Chris McKenna and Eric Summers, the writers of Spider- Far From Home,
00:07which is in theaters right now.
00:08We're gonna talk all about Spidey.
00:10Thank you so much for joining me.
00:11Thanks for having us.
00:16All right, one of the things that this film does is it officially names the snap
00:22that Thanos wiped off half of the life in the universe with, and they call it the blip.
00:27That is a name that I wasn't expecting for it.
00:30Where did that word come from, and how did you guys come up with the blip?
00:34It's funny, we spent a lot of time in a windowless room with the creative team, Marvel and John
00:39Watts and Amy Pascal, and someone, I think, on the Marvel team called it the blip, and
00:46then we just adopted that.
00:47Yeah, I think John and the team had come up with calling it the blip very early, and so
00:53just as soon as we started talking about everything, they were calling it the blip, and we weren't
00:56sure that that was...
00:57We were talking about the same thing, or...
00:59But...
01:00Because they only told us a little bit about what happened at Endgame, so maybe we're like,
01:03oh, is this something else?
01:04Additional thing?
01:05How bad is this Thanos guy?
01:06Yeah, it's funny.
01:07We were working on this for a long time, and we only had little bits and pieces of what
01:11happened in Infinity and Endgame to go off of.
01:14And that was one of the things with the snap.
01:15Yeah.
01:16I guess if you weren't there, you wouldn't really know that he snapped his fingers.
01:18Exactly.
01:19Yeah, yeah.
01:20As Chris said, it's kind of cool that people who weren't there would give it a different name.
01:23Right.
01:24Because it would have lots of different names.
01:25It raised a lot of questions, and one of the questions that keeps coming up is, if
01:29you're on an airplane and somebody snapped you, when you snap back in, are you still in
01:34midair?
01:35We asked that exact question.
01:36Okay.
01:37It was explained to us, if you haven't seen Endgame, Bruce, in the form of the Hulk,
01:44snaps everyone back.
01:46But Bruce, in making that snap back, made sure to think about bringing back everyone safe
01:53and safe.
01:54So people are not falling 35,000 feet out of the sky.
01:57That would be a bummer.
01:58Yeah.
01:59That would have been a great, that would have been a great, though, epilogue, though,
02:01at Endgame.
02:02Sure, just how all those people just die anyway.
02:04It's an additional tragedy to happen on top of the other huge tragedy.
02:09I'm also curious about the things that snap back with you, like your clothes come back
02:13with you when those get snapped out.
02:15If you were holding a cell phone, I guess your cell phone comes back with you.
02:17If you were eating a banana, you'd still have a banana.
02:19Yes.
02:20Yes.
02:21We had lots of conversation.
02:22We did.
02:23So you know the rules.
02:24Establish rules, then, for the snap.
02:25I think so, yeah.
02:26Well, we definitely, I mean, I think that's part of the fun with Far From Home was we
02:31really wanted to play with the nitty gritty of this crazy cosmic event that happened and
02:35then it was reversed.
02:36That's why in the opening you get to see, I guess, you know, Bruce didn't account for
02:40marching bands and basketball teams who then collide.
02:44We talked about animals.
02:45I mean, it's all, it's half of all life on the planet.
02:48So, I mean, in the universe.
02:50One of the great things about Spider-Man and Spider-Man stories is they happen a little bit
02:53more on the ground level, a little bit removed from sort of the grander, more epic things.
02:59And so we always wanted to deal with what is the more ground level repercussions of the
03:03snap.
03:04And so we talked extensively about all that kind of stuff.
03:08They didn't go for half the E.coli in your system getting blipped away and then blipping
03:14back and how everyone would have digestive problems throughout the movie.
03:18Right.
03:19Well, that was my main answer.
03:20They didn't like that.
03:21They didn't want to go down that route.
03:22They went real deep with it.
03:23Yeah.
03:24In this film, we also find out that Maria Hill and Nick Fury were Skrulls the entire time.
03:28John Watts has said that there was a line in the movie about Nick Fury cutting his toes
03:32diagonally, which would have been a hint that he is a Skrull.
03:35Were there other little pieces that you guys put in there to kind of signal to the audience
03:39that these are not actually the characters, but Skrull versions of the characters?
03:42I think if you watch the movie, we're careful to have them always be in public when they're
03:50talking to each other so that we're protecting the idea that if they were just alone by themselves,
03:55they wouldn't be just talking to the Skrulls.
03:58But I don't know if there was anything else specific that was dropped in there.
04:01Well, speaking of that, there is a line in there where they say, I thought the Kree
04:05sleeper cells were supposed to be a secret is what Nick Fury and Maria Hill say to each
04:08other.
04:09And I think they're in private when they say that line.
04:11But they're outside of, they're in Berlin and they're outside so they wouldn't be scrolling
04:15around.
04:16Yeah.
04:17You never know if anyone's like, no, there's a Skrulls over there.
04:19They're in disguise.
04:20But that line itself is, there's a lot to that line.
04:23It's not just a throwaway line.
04:24At least it doesn't feel like a line that way.
04:26When you write something like that, is that hinting at something farther down the line?
04:30Was that something omissive that came from above that like, well, we need to put that line
04:33in there?
04:34Is that something you guys came up with?
04:35We could lie and say, yes.
04:38But honestly, it was one of those things where we needed a downbeat with Maria and Nick
04:43talking in their disguises outside of the Berlin headquarters.
04:48This is before even Captain Marvel came out.
04:51So we would be asking plot points and they would be giving us little things here and there.
04:54And that was one of those things that they felt like, oh, yeah, they could be talking about
04:57the Kree.
04:59It's that boring of a story.
05:03Keeping on the subject of Skrulls, Edith can't pick up Skrulls, apparently, because when Peter is
05:07wearing Edith, it doesn't say that Nick Fury is not Nick Fury when he's wearing it.
05:11Is that accurate?
05:13Or Nick Fury is clever enough that he knows sort of an Enron around Edith.
05:18Maybe he's part of the network.
05:20I don't know.
05:21We'll see.
05:22But if Edith couldn't recognize Skrulls, I would give Edith a break for that because
05:26has Edith seen Skrulls?
05:28Has Edith had any exposure to Skrulls?
05:30Can Skrulls even know that Skrulls exist?
05:31Can Skrulls copy DNA down to, like, the blood level that you'd be able to pick up?
05:36If it scanned you, you would still be you, even though it's a Skrull copy of you?
05:39That's a good question.
05:40I think, you know, it goes to the question of, did Tony, who designed the system, know
05:46about Skrulls?
05:47If he did, was he working in League with Nick with them so that he'd want to protect Skrull
05:53identity?
05:54These are all things that I'm sure the writers of the next Spider-Man movie are gonna
05:58get into those guys.
05:59We're gonna knock it out of the park.
06:01Finally, get one.
06:02We gave him a roadmap.
06:03Yeah.
06:04The name Edith, it stands for Even Dead, I'm the Hero that Tony Stark came up with.
06:08But fans have noticed that it is also the name of a woman that Tony's father dated in
06:13the show Agent Carter.
06:14Is there a deeper meaning to the name Edith?
06:16Yes, they found it.
06:17That was it.
06:18They discovered it, yeah.
06:19They win.
06:20They win a million dollars.
06:21And they'll know where it's buried.
06:24That's hidden in the movie, too.
06:26All right.
06:27I mean, if you want a real answer for that, it was, we just knew that Tony-
06:31Oh, so people aren't getting a million dollars.
06:32I'm gonna be-
06:33Yeah.
06:34Oh boy, now we're in trouble.
06:35We knew that Tony would come up with a funny name for the system like he does for
06:40everything.
06:41So we came up with the most Tony version of it, and it just happened to be Edith.
06:46Oh, so it was just a coincidence?
06:47With the woman that Howard Stark used to date?
06:50Yes.
06:51Okay.
06:52And there's no million dollar prize.
06:53If they find it, it's theirs.
06:54All right.
06:55That's fair.
06:56That's fair.
06:57Look closely.
06:58Onto the multiverse.
06:59The multiverse was something that the trailers kind of teased that this might have been a
07:03multiverse, the opening of the multiverse in the MCU.
07:05However, it was found out that Mysterio was lying about it.
07:08We did find out from Endgame that Tilda Swinton's The Ancient One character has talked about
07:13the multiverse, and Feige has said that she's a bit more of a trustworthy source than somebody like Mysterio.
07:17What's your take on the multiverse?
07:18Is there a multiverse?
07:19Yes.
07:20In the comic books, there are multiverses, obviously.
07:24We were doing a con artist movie, and we wanted the most believable cover story for Quentin
07:30Beck.
07:31Or it seemed like not making him part of this universe, but of another universe seemed like
07:36the best cover story.
07:37Whether actually there is a multiverse in the MCU, I think remains to be seen.
07:43Yeah, as Chris said, when you're doing a con or some sort of big deception or something,
07:48just a lot of time and effort goes into protecting it and setting it up, and someone on the creative
07:53team pitched the multiverse idea.
07:55I don't remember whom, but immediately we all thought, yes, that would be a great way.
08:00People will ask fewer questions.
08:01There are so many questions they could ask that simply can't be answered, because you
08:05can just say, well, I'm from another multiverse.
08:08And so it just seemed like a great way for Beck to accomplish, to help Beck accomplish his goal,
08:13and help us get one over on the audience.
08:15Because the audience, they want there to be a multiverse, and so you're playing off of
08:19their love and manipulating them.
08:20Yeah, in a very meta way, you conned us as well.
08:22So frankly, I have issues with you guys.
08:24Yeah, I don't blame you.
08:26Speaking of Mysterio, a lot of people think that he might still be alive, and that maybe
08:31at the end, he was pulling one last con, and he's not actually dead.
08:34Is Mysterio no more?
08:36Great question.
08:37That's a good question.
08:39I would like an answer to that.
08:42No, you wouldn't.
08:44You don't want an answer.
08:46You're slippery.
08:48You're both very slippery.
08:49Revealing that certain characters are Skrulls kind of opens up a Pandora's box in the MCU,
08:54and it means that lots of other people could possibly be Skrulls as well.
08:58Do you think it's possible that there are other people who are Skrulls that we haven't
09:01discovered yet?
09:02And if so, did you kind of write clues in there that people could pick up if we dissect them?
09:07I think it's certainly possible.
09:09We didn't write anything in specifically, and we have not personally planned anything
09:14out, but I think it certainly opens up a world of possibilities that's very exciting.
09:19I don't know if you're conning me or not.
09:22See, this is the door that you guys have opened up.
09:24Is that a face of enough?
09:25Frankly, Marvel tells us very little.
09:27So they might, I mean, we don't know.
09:29The idea that there were Skrulls in this movie was an idea that was floated around very early
09:34in the story breaking and worked out, I think, in a fun way, particularly since the movie is
09:40all about how many lies are being told.
09:42And, you know, so up until the final tag, there's still another lie to be revealed.
09:47But Marvel, they are very good at keeping secrets.
09:50Mysteries on mysteries.
09:51I think our first priority was just to think about the movie itself and let's do what's
09:56the most satisfying and pays off the best in the movie.
10:00Nothing was ever mandated.
10:01Like, hey, we want you to do this and put these Skrulls in.
10:04It was all about just trying to make the best movie we could.
10:06And then now, fortunately, we've got these great things at the end that are really going
10:11to promise all kinds of cool stuff in the future, which is really exciting.
10:15I think one of the other great reveals in this film and one that people really went crazy
10:19for in all the screens that I've been in is J.K. Simmons returning as J. Jonah Jameson.
10:24Was that originally written with him in mind or were you going to do it with or without
10:28him in the script?
10:29Was it originally written for J.K., we have to have J.K. for this?
10:32They were talking about bringing back J.K. pretty early in the process.
10:35And that was an exciting idea for all of us.
10:37And then the new idea at some point was, well, let's change up the Daily Bugle.
10:42And if we're going to bring him back, are we going to bring him back in the exact same capacity?
10:46Or do we want to try to spin it in some way, change it in some way, perhaps to reflect the
10:50way the media landscape has changed and maybe in keeping with the themes of the movie?
10:54And so then the idea was pitched by someone on the team to have the Daily Bugle now be this
11:00internet kind of thing and have him be more of an Alex Jones kind of character.
11:04And we all like that idea. So that's what we went with.
11:07It's similar to last year's iteration of him in the Marvel Spider-Man video game on the
11:12PlayStation 4.
11:13That's where we stole it.
11:14Okay, that was my question, man.
11:15So your themes.
11:17No, it's funny.
11:18We were far down the road with that idea, that incarnation of J. Jonah, and then the game
11:22came out.
11:23And then we're like, oh.
11:24Everyone was like, oh, okay, well.
11:26But we still liked the idea enough that we, but yeah, we were like, hey, good idea,
11:30guys.
11:31It's a bummer we...
11:32We've seen with all the Iron Man villains in every single one of his films are kind of
11:36people who were scorned by Tony Stark or his family at some point.
11:38We've also now seen that in the Spider-Man films with Vulture last film and now with
11:43Mysterio in this film.
11:44Is that something that is a mandate for the character that this is the type of villains
11:49that Spider-Man is going to be going against the same as Iron Man was going against because
11:52he's kind of taking up that mantle?
11:53Or is it just whatever works best for the story?
11:56This is the way that we want to develop.
11:57I think it's the latter.
11:58I mean, for us, the backstory of Vulture was just something that evolved from the team
12:03talking about what would be a good motivation and talking about keeping it personal to Peter
12:08and things like that.
12:09And then the backstory of Beck was similar.
12:12We were just talking a lot about this villain and his relation to Peter and what he does.
12:17What does this villain do?
12:18What is his nature?
12:19These tricks and this and that.
12:21And ultimately we landed on that being the backstory and that felt like the best for this movie.
12:26But it certainly wasn't part of an overall mandate.
12:29Right.
12:30Because we were trying to figure out the technology he'd be using to pull off the illusions.
12:35Then someone referenced the BARF technology from Civil War that Tony was using as a self-help
12:43mechanism, as he referred to it.
12:45And in all these Marvel movies, from our experience, it seems so great when you can draw upon stuff
12:49that's already been established.
12:50And so drawing on that gave him an instant tie to Tony.
12:53And it just sort of went from there.
12:55It seemed like, oh, personalizing this villain with this tech and with Tony, who's the surrogate
13:00father of Peter, who may have also had sort of a personal grudge that, you know, that he
13:04worked for Tony but didn't get the recognition that he felt he deserved.
13:08And then you have this, like, teenage kid who's getting not only the attention of Tony but is being crowned a hero by him.
13:16It all just seemed to fall into place.
13:18But I think, you know, two movies now, personal grudges against Tony, work pretty well.
13:23I guess they should do that for the next one.
13:25Though I would say at this point hopefully there's, you know, a situation that was teed up at the end of this movie will organically lead to all kinds of new stuff.
13:34Yeah.
13:35The most important question I have for you guys, and I saved it to the end, where did Peter Tingle come from?
13:40We were just kicking around the room with the team, with Watts, and I think we were like, well, we can't, let's not just call it spider sense.
13:47Let's try to, like, with everything we try to do, like, let's try to bend it a little or subvert it.
13:53And then I think Watts, like, we were, like, somehow the word tingle came up, I don't know, spider tingle.
13:59And then Watts said Peter tingle.
14:01I'm like, that's horrible.
14:02Yeah, so we have to use that.
14:04That's super embarrassing.
14:05That's just the kind of thing your aunt would call it.
14:08Like, it would embarrass you.
14:10And then just as soon as it was pitched, we thought it was perfect for it.
14:13That's what a high school kid does not want his superpower to be called.
14:17So, of course, then her aunt's boyfriend is going to call it that.
14:20And then someone sent me a tweet, like, right after the movie came out last week.
14:24I think there was a bar in New York that suddenly, like, Peter tingle was on their cocktail menu.
14:30It sounds like a cocktail.
14:31Yeah, exactly.
14:32Maybe not one I want to order.
14:33No.
14:34But if somebody gave it to me, I would like it.
14:36All right, thank you very much to Chris McKenna and Eric Summers, the writers of Spider-Man Far From Home,
14:40which is in theaters right now.
14:42If you're one of the only people who haven't seen this movie, go and see it right now.
14:44If you have seen it, go see it again.
14:45Thank you so much, you guys.
14:46Absolutely.
14:47Thanks.
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