After so many films, Marvel fans around the world know full well to stay in their seats to catch whatever comes after the credits. And though Avengers: Endgame might’ve bucked the trend, Spider-Man: Far From Home certainly did not, offering up two very fun surprises for viewers.
In fact, what played during and after the credits has been sending fans into a frenzy over on Twitter and now, director Jon Watts has opened up on perhaps the most intriguing of the two stingers. Of course, we’re talking about the one that involves the Skrulls.
As we previously reported, the final sequence shows us that Nick Fury and Maria Hill (or at least, the versions in the film) are, in fact, Skrulls. These shape-shifting aliens (who we first met in Captain Marvel) can easily impersonate any human and that’s exactly what they did here, with Talos and Soren masquerading as the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents while they’re off on a highly-advanced ship in outer space.
Speaking to ComicBook.com recently, Watts explained the twist by saying that the Fury we saw in Endgame was the real one:
“First of all, to clarify the timeline, that’s real Nick Fury at Tony’s funeral at the end of [Avengers: Endgame]. So it’s not like he’s been a Skrull forever or like, it’s not like he’s been a Skrull since Captain Marvel.”
In fact, there was originally going to be a scene that revealed Fury as a Skrull earlier on in the film, with Watts saying:
“We were going to have him eat diagonal toast cut diagonally,” he said, referencing the Captain Marvel dialogue in which Fury says he never cut his toast diagonally. “You know that one? That would’ve given it away.”
Of course, it’s not really clear what Nick Fury’s doing off in space, but many seem to think that the studio is laying the foundation to introduce S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation and Response Department). Watts wouldn’t confirm that of course, but did say the following:
“There’s such a history of Nick Fury and the Skrulls, especially now that people have seen Captain Marvel and they’ve seen what is happening with those stories in the MCU,” Watts explained. “But to me it was always just this fundamental question of how could [Mysterio] actually fool Nick Fury? Because Nick Fury’s super power is being suspicious, you know?”
“It always sort of bothered me even though we knew that that’s what we wanted the story to be, that Nick Fury could get duped even though he’s been gone for five years and he’s on his back foot,” Watts said. “I wanted to come up with one last little reveal that could explain that unanswered question. And when you’re making a con man movie, it just feels like the right thing to do to have one last little twist that makes you look at everything slightly differently.”
Meanwhile, in a separate interview with UPROXX, Watts said that the twist was important to the story because again, he had to find a way to trick Fury and make it believable.
“I mean, it was always this idea of how are you really going to trick Nick Fury because his superpower is suspicion. He’s suspicious of everyone. And then once I saw Captain Marvel, it all just sort of clicked. But I didn’t want to make that a part of the main body of the story. So it always really made sense as a tag and you’re making a conman movie in a lot of ways. So why not have just that one last little reversal that makes you think about everything differently. If you go back and watch the movie again now knowing that, there are some funny little nods.”
And finally, talking to the LA Times, Watts confirmed that Fury’s indeed on some kind of mission, but couldn’t say what it involved.
“It’s definitely a Skrull spaceship. But I don’t know if I can specifically say where they are. They’re in space. He’s on a mission, but he got to take a very brief vacation on this little relaxation pod.”
Unfortunately, though interesting, none of this makes it any clearer what exactly Marvel’s teasing with the Fury twist at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home. And with Phase 4 still a long ways away, the fans are going to have to deal with just having speculation and theories for a little while longer.
