By the time Spider-Man: Homecoming came along, audiences were pretty tired of seeing the character’s origin story endlessly retold. Having seen it in Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Studios made the sensible decision to assume that folks were familiar enough with how Peter Parker got his powers and a desire to fight crime and skipped over it. But that’s not to say that Spidey’s origin – and the tragic death of Uncle Ben – didn’t happen.
Now, courtesy of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detail in the Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer, we actually have our first official mention of the MCU’s Uncle Ben. This comes near the beginning of the preview, when we see Peter Parker preparing for his European trip. He pulls an old suitcase out of the closet, which is marked with the initials BFP, which is clearly a reference to Ben Parker (though I don’t know what the ‘F’ stands for). It’s a subtle, but welcome acknowledgement that Peter and Aunt May still miss Ben and keep his possessions around their apartment.
It’s nice that Uncle Ben is getting a direct reference, too, as a mention of him was cut from the last film. This was planned to be in the scene where Peter Parker’s preparing for his homecoming and is choosing an outfit. Aunt May would’ve given him some of Ben’s old clothes to wear, but sadly, the scene was removed.
Here’s writer John Francis Daley on why they took it out:
“We did talk about there being a scene where [May] references him directly. It was when [Peter] was getting ready for homecoming and the wardrobe she was giving Peter was all Uncle Ben’s clothes. It was a nice moment, but we also knew that it veered away from his arc. If you’re going to talk about someone’s death, you don’t want it to be a throwaway.”
While it doesn’t look like Spider-Man: Far From Home is going to delve too deep into what happened to Uncle Ben, it’s still nice to get a concrete confirmation of his presence in the MCU regardless, and we look forward to seeing if there are any other nods to him when the film hits theaters this July.