The post Avengers: End Game world looks as if it returned to normalcy.

Sort of.

Spider-Man: Far From Home is the final film of Marvel’s phase three films, which is the story arc of Thanos and the Infinity Stones. In this film, it immediately takes place after everyone returns from the dreaded snap.

Director Jon Watts returned to helm the sequel after the highly successful and lovable Spider-Man: Homecoming. Peter Parker & company returns in a European high school trip with comedy and romance—only to be disrupted by enigmatic Mysterio.

The cast includes Tom Holland, Samuel L. Jackson, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Tony Revolori, Angourie Rice and with Jake Gyllenhaal as Quentin Beck/Mysterio.

LRM Online spoke over the phone with director Jon Watts about Spider-Man: Far From Home ranging from the post-Snap to develop Mysterio as the villain on screen.

Spider-Man: For From Home is playing in theaters everywhere today.

Read the full interview below.

LRM: I’ve heard you are a very big Spiderman fan. Could you talk on why you’re such a big Spider-Man fan?

Jon Watts: [Laughs] I’ve been a Spider=Man fan since I was a kid. For me, I felt like he was the most relatable of all superheroes. He didn’t ask for any of this. All this sort of happens to him. He just had terrible luck. [Laughs] I think it’s something about that that just is so enduring and ingratiating that really draw me towards the character.

LRM: In this Spider-Man film, you actually did kind of answered a lot of questions from that post Avengers: End Game movie. How did you manage to pull that off? Did they reveal you the entire script End Game beforehand for you to develop this script? How did you manage to answer that good old question of the snap of high school students still existing five years later?

Jon Watts: [Laughs] I was one of the fortunate few who knew what was going to happen in Avengers: End Game. They kept me in on all of that so that we can develop this movie. It would mesh with that film and can work in tandem, like the sequel to End Game. That was the challenge is how like there are a lot of unanswered questions at the end of End Game. It’s how do we answer those while still maintaining the very specific tone that we able to establish with Spider-Man: Homecoming.

LRM: What was your initial reaction to audiences to Avengers: End game with the Peter Parker scene went back to high school and a lot of people thought that was a huge plot hole?

Jon Watts: I don’t understand why people saw that as a plothole. Even if it was just the two of them seeing each other for the first time, that would be a big deal. I don’t understand why with the problem.

LRM: People thought it was very confusing that all the high school friends just coincidentally died in the snap and came back coincidentally. That’s why.

Jon Watts: I mean statistically 50% of the world’s population, but that doesn’t mean it would be 50% of each high school class. It could go either way. It’s just math like Betty [Brant] said in the movie.

LRM: Absolutely. One of the things that you did was definitely chose Mysterio as the villain for this film. How did that came about and why? Why did you make a certain type of significant changes to his background?

Jon Watts: One of the things we knew early on was that we wanted Mysterio to be the villain, because he is such an iconic Spider-Man villain. It just having him really opens up the door to a pretty unique visual case and opportunity. Like with any character that was developed in 1965, you have to figure out a way to update him in a way to making relevant to the story that you’re telling. Being an ex-stuntman who has springs in his shoes and throws a lot of small bombs didn’t really translate in the right way. [Laughs] We just have to figure out a way to sort of re-interpret him and bring them up to date.

LRM: One of the things I do love is his costume looked very, very much very similar to the original comics. Why did you keep that the same?

Jon Watts: That was a funny development process where that was the very first concept that we did. What would it look like if it was really true to form and to the original design for Mysterio? We explored other ways of reinterpreting suit and making that be more modern. In one design, we tried looked more like a spacesuit saying he’s from another dimension. At the end of the day, we just came all the way around back to the very first concept that was most true to the original design. That was Mysterio. There was no way around it.

LRM: And Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio. He was probably the least expected for me to imagine him playing a comic book character. How was did it come that selection and why was he perfect to play Mysterio?

Jon Watts: As we developed the movie and figured out what we wanted this character to be, we needed someone who could play a hero essentially for the first half of the movie that you would believe as a new Avenger, almost like a replacement for Tony Stark. For the second half of the movie, he has to be this manipulative, narcissistic villain. This character has to be these two extremes. Jake’s name shot right to the top of the pile. Very few actors could pull that off in a way like Jake did.

LRM: I also was not expecting was for you to take this movie international. How was that overall experience? Did they just write you a big fat check and you just said, “You know what? I’m going to take this as a big long vacation.”

Jon Watts: [Laughs] No, it was hard. When you’re actually out shooting on location, evidently a lot more difficult than to be a stage in Atlanta like we were for of Spider-Man: Homecoming. It was great to be on location, but it definitely is hard going from city to city and working with new crews. It was especially in Venice with the amounts of production of this scale, using boats as your only transportation is really tricky. It was not just an everyday vacation. [Laughs]

LRM: What was the best location in your experience?

Jon Watts: I really loved shooting in Venice. As worried as I was going to be about shooting there, when we were there it went off beautifully. A city like that, there’s no bad angles. Anything you shoot looked amazing, because the whole city so beautiful. I really enjoyed shooting Venice. But, everywhere was great.

LRM: One of the things that fans are going to notice is that there are three different spider suits in this film. Talk about these lovely Spidey suits.

Jon Watts: There’s always the temptation to put many different suits in the movie, because it’s so fun to design them and build them. It had to develop organically from the story. These three [suits] made sense for us for the story that we were telling. It was still fun to design them and watch them in the final film.

LRM: I’m starting to wrap things up here. Could you talk about the overall tone of the film, which appears to be like a teen comedy romance? There’s so much romance in this film that you inputted?

Jon Watts: That’s always the trick on how would you balance all the different elements and it feel like one cohesive film. On what was really important to me was bringing the romance to the forefront in a way that we didn’t really do in the last film. It’s the whole thing that drives Peter’s trip. The only reason why he wanted go on this trip was to tell MJ on how he feels. It was really nice to explore the awkwardness of their young love and to feel all the pitfalls of Peter encounters on the way.

LRM: One last question, I know you can’t really say much, but do you already have something in mind for third Spider-Man film in your head?

Jon Watts: I mean I like to think of these movies just one at a time. To me, it’s not really done until it’s out in the theaters. For me, that’s the next big thing and then we’ll start thinking about where we go from there.

LRM: Great answer. Hey, thank you very much. I really appreciate this conversation and have fun in London.

Jon Watts: Oh, thanks a lot. I’m so glad you liked the movie.

Spider-Man: For From Home is playing in theaters everywhere today.

Source: LRM Online Exclusive