'Spider-Man: Far From Home' Almost Included a Donald Glover Cameo

Following a lengthy campaign to play Spider-Man in 2010, comedian and rapper Donald Glover inched closer to the role with an appearance in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Notably, however, Glover was absent from this month’s sequel, Far From Home--and this week, the film’s screenwriters shared that the film nearly included a cameo from the star.

Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, who wrote not only Far From Home but also Homecoming and Ant-Man and the Wasp, said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that they “loved” Glover’s character, Aaron Davis, but that “some ideas you just have to give up.”

“We went down that road a little bit, then [Far From Home] really spent such little time in Queens and gets to Europe pretty quickly,” McKenna said, with Sommers adding that, “We wanted to do it, but we just wanted to get out of New York and get on the trip as soon as possible. There were several things we would have loved to do in New York before he left, but we just didn't have time.”

In the same interview, they mentioned other elements that were cut from the film for similar reasons, including an investigation of MJ (Zendaya)’s backstory and a cameo by Robert Downey Jr. as the voice of the EDITH artificial intelligence. Star Tom Holland has alluded to another cut scene, an action sequence taking place before the departure for Europe--that, like Glover’s cameo, was cut so that they characters could go on the trip.

While we can understand the desire to get the film’s characters into the action as soon as possible, we have to say that we’re bummed that Glover couldn’t reappear in the film. Perhaps he’ll have a future in the inevitable next Spider-Man film.