The Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t been shy about changing certain comic book aspects of characters, especially when it comes to characters we’re already familiar with. Take Tom Holland’s version of Spider-Man for instance, who when we first meet in Civil War has already lost his uncle and acquired his powers. In Spider-Man: Homecoming, we learned that Zendaya’s character Michelle goes by the nickname MJ, as opposed to her comic book counterpart, Mary Jane.
This trend continues in Spider-Man: Far From Home, in which Spidey’s iconic Spider-Sense was now being called — wait for it — the ‘Peter Tingle.’ In an interview with The Wrap, writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers discussed why exactly they decided to make this change to one of Peter Parker’s most notable abilities.
Mckenna: We were always struggling to be a little more nuanced about it or a little sideways about this special power of his without being on the nose and calling it ‘Spider-Sense,’
Sommers: Well do we call it nothing? What do we call it? Do we go for something that’s more of a joke name? And I assure you, we went around and around and tried all different kind of things.
The writers then added that calling it the ‘Peter Tingle’ in the manner in which they did, just made it feel more authentic.
“We definitely had some scenes where Happy (Jon Favreau) was stumbling through different descriptions of trying to think of a thing to call it himself. We liked Peter Tingle because it’s like your aunt calls it something, and that’s the last thing you want it called, so then, of course, she doubled down and that’s what she’s calling it, and she tells someone else, and that’s what they’re calling it. It’s very authentic teen life.”
As mentioned in my Far From Home review, the film felt very true to McKenna and Sommers’ style of writing. The duo previously penned The Lego Batman Movie which successfully poked fun at but also celebrated decades worth of Batman’s history. These guys are hardcore comic book nerds through and through, so it makes all the sense in the world that they would make fun of a concept like the Spider-Sense.
Spider-Man: Far From Home is currently playing in cinemas.
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