CS Interview: Jon Watts Talks Spider-Man: Far From Home

Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment provided ComingSoon.net with the chance to speak 1:1 with director Jon Watts about returning to direct Spider-Man: Far From Home after the success of Homecoming. Check out the interview below, and check out the movie now playing in theaters!

Spider-Man: Far From Home is in theaters now! Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man must step up to take on new threats in a world that has been forever changed.

Spider-Man: Far From Home stars Tom Holland as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, plus Zendaya as “MJ,” Jacob Batalon as Ned, with Marisa Tomei as Aunt May. Jake Gyllenhaal will play Mysterio. New additions include comedian J.B. Smoove, as well as Numan Acar (Aladdin) as Dimitri. MCU veterans Samuel L. Jackson (Captain Marvel) and Cobie Smulders will also appear as Nick Fury and Maria Hill respectively. See what the fuss is about by purchasing Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Spider-Man: Far From Home is directed by Jon Watts and written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, all returning from first film Spider-Man: Homecoming.

ComingSoon.net: The list of Spiderman villains that haven’t been done yet get shorter and shorter all the time. Mysterio turned out to be a fantastic choice. Were there others discussed before settling on Quentin?

Jon Watts: First of all, I’m glad you liked Mysterio. He was always the first choice. When you look at the iconic Spiderman villains, you’ve got to go to Mysterio next. It just opens up so many visual possibilities and it just felt like the right villain for this time in this story. And he has a fishbowl head.

CS: Yes, he does. And it dovetails very nicely with his background, it dovetails very nicely with the “people will believe whatever they see” thematics of the film as well.

Watts: Yes.

CS: Doing “The Trip to Europe” is something a lot of TV shows did back in the ’80s and ’90s.

Watts: Oh yeah, like the special wedding episode in Hawaii of “Growing Pains.”

CS: Yes! And there are films obviously like “European Vacation” and “Euro Trip” and “Bon Voyage Charlie Brown,” even “Hostel.” Were there any specific films you watched?

Watts: I just watched “Bon Voyage Charlie Brown” recently, and it’s really good and a lot stranger than I remembered.

CS: It’s amazing to watch these tiny children just touring through Europe, driving cards, going to the airport, all by themselves. We’ll let the dog drive the car. It’s so good.

Watts: So good.

CS: But were there any specific films that you guys were looking at before you got started production to get the vibe you wanted?

Watts: Weirdly, I thought there were more American high school kids on a trip through Europe films. In my mind, that was a genre. But it’s not. And I tried to watch as many as I could and did some deep dives, but there weren’t as many as I had anticipated, so I watched “Gotcha.” Have you ever seen “Gotcha”?

CS: With Anthony Edwards? Yes.

Watts: Yes. It’s not a genre, is what I realized. I just thought it was, so I was in uncharted territory.

CS: I remember Michael Keaton was announced at some point to return. Was that just a rumor or was that an initial idea that got scrapped?

Watts: No, that was just a rumor, which is always fun, when you’re making a movie and you see some sort of alert on Twitter about Michael Keaton being in your movie. I was like, “that’s news to me. Did I miss an email or something?”

CS: When Tom Hardy was doing “Dark Knight Rises” I remember he famously compared working on superhero movies to working at Starbucks. How have you kept your experience from becoming that?

Watts: What did he mean exactly? It became a job?

CS: Yeah.

Watts: Well, I don’t know. I haven’t had that experience at all. If anything, working at Marvel is really sort of thrilling and crazy because you’re encouraged to do something unexpected. I’ve had a lot of fun. Very often, I can’t believe what we’re doing and getting away with. I’m always waiting for someone to stop me and say, ‘you can’t do that.’ But that hasn’t happened yet.

CS: Sam Raimi felt a little bit tortured when he was doing his third Spiderman film. If you were to do a third one, do you think that it would be a different experience for you? Do you think there’s an avenue for you to approach a third movie, where it wouldn’t become a job?

Watts: I would hope so, otherwise, I wouldn’t do it. I mean it’s all about one movie at a time for me, but I feel there’s still a lot of great Peter Parker stories to tell.

CS: Both these Spiderman films, I think they’ve been the most actor-oriented in the MCU because they’re driven more by humor and character than action. But the action sequences are incredible. The third act of this is amazing. I just wanted to get your perspective on this. There’s an idea that has sort of leaked out through various sources that Marvel lets the directors deal with the actors, while they focus on things like pre-vis and set pieces. Obviously, you can’t speak for others, but I want to know, from your perspective, is that how it works? Or is this all you?

Watts: From my perspective, no, not at all. I think that quote might’ve got a little bit misinterpreted, which is that they’ll give you all the tools that you need to do whatever you need to do. So if you want to be a big part of designing these action sequences, you can. But if you don’t, there’s also an infrastructure in place to make that stuff really work. But I like doing all of it. I was hands-on for the design of every element of the movie, especially the action sequences, which I was particularly excited about for this movie. But no, I was responsible for blowing up so many things in this film. And it felt really good.

CS: I do know what you’re saying. I think Shane Black told me that Joss Whedon told him, “just trust the machine.” But I guess when it’s someone like you, who really wants to dig in and get into those sequences, they just let you go full bore?

Watts: Yeah. You do have a really good support team in place, though. They make sure you feel you’re backed up by the very best craft people in the world. So the sky’s the limit.

CS: And Victoria Alonso is responsible for a lot of that element?

Watts: Yeah, Victoria is the head of post. So she’s in there with you every day, which is awesome.

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)