‘Far From Home’ Means Peter Parker’s ‘Star Wars’ Movies Have Different Actors. Right?

Sadly, Spider-Man: Far From Home does not outright confirm the existence of a multiverse, even though it teases at one a little bit with the return of a certain angry newspaperman. Having said that, the latest Spidey flick does seem to lowkey confirm a crazy fan theory you haven’t even considered: In Peter Parker’s world, the Star Wars movies must have different actors. Or, at the very least, the character of Mace Windu is not played by Samuel L. Jackson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of Star Wars movies. Think about it.

Oh, spoilers ahead!

In Far From Home, Spider-Man meets Nick Fury for the first time in the MCU. (Though technically, they did meet at Tony Stark’s funeral in Endgame, which is addressed in the movie, but whatever.) The point is, this is the first movie in which Tom Holland’s Peter Parker has a lot of contact with Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury. And in one of their best scenes, Fury makes a Star Wars joke.

Fury says: “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” which, is a reference to Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part II. Fury knows that Peter won’t get it and tells him Tony Stark told him that he wouldn’t get it because “it wasn’t a Star Wars reference.” This is funny because since 2016 Peter Parker has been depicted as a huge Star Wars fan, starting with his reference to The Empire Strikes Back in Captain America: Civil War. But, it’s also hilarious because Samuel L. Jackson is a walking Star Wars reference who is talking about a Star Wars reference.

Famously, Jackson played Jedi Master Mace Windu in all three of the Star Wars prequel films from 1999-2005. So, if Peter Parker is a high school kid in roughly 2016-2019 (let’s not think about the Thanos “blip” okay?) then that means he was totally a little kid when the Star Wars prequels came out. If he’s a huge fan, how does he not know that Mace Windu looks exactly like Nick Fury?

Answer: Because in the MCU, Mace Windu isn’t played by Samuel L. Jackson, and maybe, just maybe, the crime boss Dryden Vos from Solo isn’t played by Paul Bettany either, because Peter might recognize him as Vision.

Or, stranger still, does Peter Parker exist in a world without the Star Wars prequels? Peter has a lot of Star Wars toys, but does he have any prequel toys? So far, it seems like Parker is a fan of classic ’70s and ’80s sci-fi, including Star Wars, but also, famously in Avengers: Endgame, the movie Aliens, too. Do the prequels even exist in the MCU? By the time of Captain America: Winter Soldier in 2014, we know that in the MCU that both Star Wars and Star Trek are a big enough deal that Steve Rogers has both franchises on his list of stuff to catch up on since he was frozen in the 1940s. But, at this point, it seems like we can maybe assume that these movies aren’t the same movies we’ve seen in our universe.

At the very least, if the MCU does decide to open up a multiverse at some point, maybe we can get an idea for all the alternate casting of Star Wars actors in the universe that spawned the Avengers. Because if a badass like Samuel L. Jackson didn’t play Mace Windu, who knows what other weaker casting decisions happened in this bizzaro world of superheroes. Hell, maybe because Star Wars wasn’t as cool in the MCU, that’s why they needed superheroes in the first place.

Spider-Man: Far From Home is out now in theaters everywhere.