SPOILER ALERT: If you still haven’t seen ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ there may be mild SPOILERS below, so proceed with caution.
It’s sometimes easy to forget that Tom Holland‘s Spider-Man is still a newbie, because Spider-Man the character has been around longer than most of us have been alive, and we’re now on the second decade of cinematic Web-Head adventures, and the THIRD actor in the role. But technically, Holland’s Peter has only been operating as a hero for a couple of years, tops, (minus 5) and as such, is still figuring some of his powers out. And none of his abilities is as mysterious as what we know as his Spider-Sense.
This ability first appeared in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, when the hair on Peter’s arm stood up as Thanos’ spaceship entered Earth’s atmosphere. Things got… busy after that, so he probably didn’t have time to ponder this new ability or come up with a snappy name for it.
RELATED: Tom Holland Walks Us Through His 4 Suits For ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’
Cut to events of ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’, and things seem to be settling down, and Peter is back to operating as Spider-Man, with his Aunt May’s blessing. And like it or not, with her interference as well. As we soon learn, it seems as though Peter has been unable to come up with a name for his sixth sense, so May did it for him– The Peter Tingle.
It’s a name Peter HATES, but that surfaces to comedic effect throughout the movie.
The film’s writers, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers spoke to The Wrap and discussed the creation of the “Peter Tingle”:
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… 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.”
The biggest problem with calling it the “Peter Tingle” is it includes his real name, which could give away his… secret… identity… oh.
Do you hope the Peter Tingle sticks, or are you looking forward to him calling it the Spider-Sense in the future?
