Development In June 2016,
Sony Pictures chairman
Tom Rothman stated that Sony and
Marvel Studios were committed to making future
Spider-Man films after
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).
Filming Principal photography began
on location in
Hertfordshire, England, on July 2, 2018, under the
working title Fall of George. Matthew J. Lloyd served as
director of photography, after previously working with Watts on
Cop Car (2015). Watts had wanted to work with Lloyd on
Homecoming, but the cinematographer was working on
Power Rangers (2017) at the time. Filming moved to London, with locations including
East London, and at
London Stansted Airport. Studio work occurred at
Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden near
Watford, England, where a
Venice set was created on one of the studio's
backlots. Shortly after filming began, set photos revealed
Hemky Madera would return as bodega owner Mr. Delmar, while
J.B. Smoove and
Numan Acar joined the cast. By early August,
Samuel L. Jackson and
Cobie Smulders were confirmed to be appearing in the film, reprising their respective roles of Nick Fury and
Maria Hill from previous MCU films, and
Remy Hii joined the cast later in the month. Filming took place in
Prague and
Liberec in the Czech Republic in September, and moved to Venice by the end of the month. Filming moved to New York City and
Newark, New Jersey in October, where it used the working title
Bosco. Locations included areas around
Madison Square Garden and
Penn Station, and
Newark Liberty International Airport. An uncredited actor was originally cast as Flash Thompson's father for the airport scene, but
Tony Revolori had
pitched to producer Chris Buongiorno about having Flash's butler Gerald show up at the airport instead as a "funnier" option, so the crew shot the scene twice, one version with the actor playing Flash's father and the other one with the butler respectively, with the latter being chosen. Filming
wrapped on October 16, 2018. Lloyd explained that the creative team had approached the film as a road-trip story, and so he wanted to maintain the distinct look and feel of each location visited. This meant giving each stop on the school trip a distinct lighting scheme and color palette. For example, Lloyd visited Venice three times during location scouting to discuss how the scenes there would be filmed, and learned that the city has a "bright, pastel feel, where the light comes through and hits a building. It bathes people in this warm, sandy light". Prague, on other hand, has a "more warm and cool mix, and the beauty of that sort of Baroque, eastern-European architecture." The production took advantage of lighting already on the buildings in Prague, which are often lit for texture in real life. Lloyd felt comfortable working within the aesthetic of the MCU after acting as director of photography on the
first season of the
Marvel Television series
Daredevil (2015–2018) and the miniseries
The Defenders (2017), as well as working on additional photography for the films
Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and
Captain Marvel (2019). Lloyd originally began planning to use the
Alexa 65 cameras that Marvel usually films with, but Sony asked that they focus on optimizing the footage for their 2K releases, so the production switched to
Alexa Mini cameras. This ended up being a lot easier for the camera department to use on location, and for combining live-action shooting with visual effects elements.
Post-production In late October 2018, Sony Pictures reached a new multi-film agreement with
IMAX Corporation to release their films in IMAX, including
Far From Home. At Sony's
CCXP Brazil panel in December 2018, it was revealed that the
Elementals—a group of characters based on the elements of water, earth, air, and fire—would appear in the film. The four
Elementals are modeled after different
Spider-Man villains from Marvel comic books: the water Elemental borrows from
Hydro-Man, the fire Elemental borrows from
Molten Man, the Earth Elemental borrows from
Sandman, and the air Elemental borrows from
Cyclone. The names of these other villains are not given to the characters in the film, albeit Hydro-Man's public identity as Morris Bench is mentioned at one point. In addition to these characters, there were also discussions about using the villain
Swarm as a model for a potential fifth Elemental in the film.
Martin Starr was confirmed to be reprising his role as
Roger Harrington from
Homecoming the next month. Following up Revolori's pitch for Flash's family life, the filmmakers added during the E.D.I.T.H. scene the text of Flash texting his parents. In April 2019, Sony moved the film's release date up to July 2, 2019. While promoting
Endgame at a fan event in Shanghai, Feige said
Far From Home would be the final film of the MCU's
Phase Three, rather than the start of
Phase Four as some had believed. Also in April, Jackson returned to do reshoots for the film. Discussing the film's mid-credits scene, Watts explained that they approached
J.K. Simmons "as late as possible" before the film's release to ask him to reprise his role as
J. Jonah Jameson from
Sam Raimi's
Spider-Man film trilogy (2002–2007), hoping to keep the cameo a surprise for fans. Watts acknowledged that there was a chance Simmons would not want to reprise the role, but stated that he never considered another actor, saying, "It's gotta be him. Like, if it wasn't him, it wasn't worth doing." After being pitched the idea for the cameo, Simmons called Raimi and received the director's blessing to return to the role for the new film. The MCU version of the character is brand new, not the Raimi version "from another dimension or multiverse". Simmons' footage was filmed in a Disney conference room in front of a green screen. Watts noted that Simmons' performance was over-the-top in Raimi's films, but now that same performance has real-world comparisons, such as
Alex Jones. According to Feige, the changes in the real world also meant that moving the character from a newspaper editor to a "radical right news journalist that kind of scream[s] in front of the camera" made more sense. Simmons said he and Watts did not see "eye to eye" on the film's contemporary portrayal of the character versus his performance in Raimi's films. Watts described
Far From Home as a "con man movie" with "so many layers of deception", and for the post-credits scene he felt that ending the film with "one last twist" was on theme. He felt that he owed the fans a more substantial post-credits scene than the jokey one at the end of
Homecoming. The
Far From Home scene depicts Fury on vacation, in a simulation, both of which are also themes in the film, and reveals that the Fury and Hill seen throughout the film are actually the Skrulls
Talos and
Soren in disguise, with
Ben Mendelsohn and
Sharon Blynn reprising their roles from
Captain Marvel, respectively. Watts felt this twist made sense after Fury's interactions with the Skrulls in
Captain Marvel. Footage of Jackson and Smulders originally intended for the film's opening scene was used in the reveal. Smulders learned about the twist from Feige shortly before the film's release. Post-production for
Far From Home was completed in June 2019.
Visual effects The film's visual effects were provided by
Framestore,
Industrial Light & Magic,
Image Engine,
Sony Pictures Imageworks,
Luma Pictures,
Rising Sun Pictures,
Scanline VFX,
Territory Studio, and
Method Studios.
Janek Sirrs served as visual effects supervisor on the film, and explained that following the release of the animated film
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) the effects team looked for ways to use similarly inventive visuals in
Far From Home. They ultimately did not use added effects to represent Spider-Man's Spider-sense because these did not fit within the live-action world or were too similar to previous effects, such as
Daredevil's sonar vision. They did try to use Spider-Man's actions and the use of his abilities to show his growth since
Homecoming, but to also show his "reach as always exceeding his grasp as he refines his superhero skills". The film's main-on-end title sequence was designed by
Perception. Method Studios added Spider-Man to a Venice speedboat scene, using their Spider-Man suit asset from
Homecoming. Image Engine created the Stark jet, drone, and satellite. The jet work included the creation of a new Spider-Man suit, for which the vendor had to design the interior of the suit based on a scan of a practical costume they were given. They also made a Netherlands tulip field for a scene that was filmed in a grass field in the UK. It required around two million digital tulips. Rising Sun Pictures created the holograms used by Mysterio when he first explains the Elementals to Spider-Man, which include simulations of black-holes and elements researched from real-world history and mythology. The company aimed for the holograms to have a similar quality to the ones that they had created for
Captain Marvel. Mysterio was designed by Ryan Meinerding, Marvel Studios' head of visual development, to look like a combination of different Marvel heroes such as
Thor and
Doctor Strange. His fishbowl helmet is retained from the comics. Sirrs described the character as a "larger-than-life showman at heart" and almost a superhero version of
Liberace. The digital model for Mysterio was created by Scanline. The Elementals consisted of animated figures, often driven by slowed-down motion-capture performances, with environmental effects layered on top. Scanline created Earth and Water, Luma created Fire, and Imageworks created the final amalgamation of the four creatures, referred to as the Super Uber Elemental (SUE). For the Fire Elemental, Luma created different looks and actions for the character to show Watts and Sirrs potential designs and movements for the character. This included a progression where the creature goes from being upright and humanoid to bigger and more hunched over as it consumes metal throughout the sequence. Watts responded positively to movements that looked more creature-like. The final battle was created by Imageworks, and consists of over 300 visual effects shots. In addition to creating the SUE—which required extensive effect simulations for the different combined elements such as "water tentacles", rocks, lava, and lightning—the company had to create a digital model of the
Tower Bridge for the fight to take place around. The company attempted to fully render only small sections of the bridge where needed, but ultimately required around 80% of the bridge to be fully detailed due to how much of it is seen throughout the fight. They made use of Image Engine's Stark jet model and Scanline's Mysterio asset for the fight, and created the drone models and new Spider-Man suit that were used by the other vendors. They started with a single drone design that featured missiles, cannons, and Gatling guns, but this became repetitive during the battle and so flamethrower and sonic blaster drones were added. Additionally, the sky and environment needed to be digitally replaced in most of the sequence. Framestore handled the "Illusion Battle" sequence in which Mysterio traps Spider-Man within a series of elaborate fear-based illusions. Based on early prototypes of the sequence from Framestore, Marvel decided to extend it to around 150 shots. It was heavily pre-visualized to define which background plates and motion-capture performances would be required; Framestore visual effects supervisor Alexis Wajsbrot compared the motion-capture process for the sequence to
automated dialogue replacement, where each short section of the performance was captured individually. The company used existing digital assets from other vendors, including for the different Spider-Man suits, combined with new models such as those for statues of fallen heroes or a "Zombie Iron Man". The effect of green smoke that is throughout the sequence was created using
Houdini. Framestore took inspiration from the title sequences of the
James Bond films, especially that of
Spectre (2015) for the graveyard portion of the battle. For the transition between the real world and the illusions, Framestore had to match a similar transition from the B.A.R.F. scene in
Civil War which Wajsbrot described as a time-consuming process for each environment in which it was required. Sirrs compared the sequence to an elaborate Broadway production with an unlimited budget, and named several other visual influences including the
Looney Tunes short
Duck Amuck (1953),
Paprika (2006),
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and the "
Pink Elephants on Parade" scene from
Dumbo (1941). == Music ==