‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ Writers Explain Why Hero’s ‘Spider Sense’ Is Now the ‘Peter Tingle’

“I assure you, we went around and around and tried all different kind of things,” co-screenwriter Erik Sommers tells TheWrap

Spider-Man Far From Home Peter Tingle Spider Sense
Sony Pictures

Marvel threw fans a curveball after a recent “Spider-Man: Far From Home” TV spot no longer referred to Peter Parker’s ability to sense impending danger as his “Spider Sense” — instead, calling it the “Peter Tingle.”

It’s a term Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) comes up with, not to mention one Peter (Tom Holland) is none too happy about. And one of the film’s running jokes is that eventually the new term sticks. The writers of “Far From Home,” Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, along with Marvel knew the superpower would factor into the movie in a big way, but they “never wanted to explicitly call it ‘Spider Sense.’”

“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,’” McKenna told TheWrap.

“Well do we call it nothing? What do we call it? Do we go for something that’s more of a joke name?” Sommers posed. “And I assure you, we went around and around and tried all different kind of things.”

Though it’s been hinted that Spider-Man has the “Spidey Sense” in previous films — most notably in “Avengers: Infinity War” when the hair stands on his arm as he senses Thanos’s spaceship entering the atmosphere — it had never been named out loud. “Far From Home” gave the writers an opportunity to introduce a new phrase and do so organically.

“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,” Sommers said. “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.”

The Peter Tingle isn’t the only thing renamed in the MCU history. “Far From Home” also opens with Peter’s high school classmates referring to the cataclysmic events of “Endgame” as “The Blip,” not “The Snap” as many fans had called it in the wake of “Infinity War.”

McKenna and Sommers said “The Blip” was a phrase even the Marvel guys had been calling it for some time, and in following up the events of “Endgame,” they were given the specific mandate to make “Far From Home” feel fun and lighthearted. “The Blip” not only accomplishes that, but McKenna says it also makes the universe feel more grounded.

“I like that it doesn’t follow, it’s not a clean one-to-one with the snapping of Thanos’s fingers,” McKenna said. “I liked that the world would come up with a name for this weird thing they all experienced. It feels like it’s a nice, specific difference that makes it all feel more real in a way.”

“Spider-Man: Far From Home” is in theaters now.

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