Massive spoilers ahead for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a doozy so far, with both TV and movie projects greatly changing the massive franchise. Jon Watts’ record-breaking Spider-Man: No Way Home is no exception, especially as it ripped open the multiverse and featured an emotional twist ending. And it turns out that No Way Home’s writers went down a rabbit hole about Peter Parker’s ending, recently explaining why they went with the finale we got.
The wild crossover events of Spider-Man: No Way Home came as a result of Peter Parker messing up Doctor Strange’s spell. The finale saw that spell actually work, with the entire MCU forgetting the identity of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker– including MJ and Ned. But writers Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna had a number of conversations about how to visually show the spell working. As they recently explained,
"McKenna: We were like, do we do a Back to the Future kind of thing where you see him fading out of photos?. Does he still have a driver’s license or a passport? It just led to more questions.
Sommers: We decided, let’s try to do it in the most satisfying way and just focus on the emotion of it. And then if people have questions about some of those details that didn’t get answered here, we’ll answer them hopefully in another movie somewhere down the line.
McKenna: Obviously, some sort of magical redaction has occurred. At the end of all this, we didn’t want a lot of people trying to do magical math in their head."
Well, there you have it. It looks like Spider-Man: No Way Home nearly took a page from the beloved Back to the Future franchise when it came to Peter Parker being forgotten by the entire MCU. In the end they decided against this, but it’s fun to imagine what this would have looked like on the big screen.
Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna’s comments to Variety show what it’s really like working on a massive blockbuster like Spider-Man: No Way Home. While the movie continues to break the internet as well as box office records, it’s ultimately made by individual artists. And along the way some tough decisions have to be made– especially when it comes to something like this universe-changing twist.
Rather than physically showing that Peter Parker was disappearing from the main MCU timeline, Spider-Man: No Way Home hammered down the tragedy of the moment by giving Tom Holland a few emotional scenes with his co-stars like Zendaya and Jon Favreau. Peter’s loved ones no longer recognize him, showing how much he sacrificed throughout the course of the movie.
It should be interesting to see what comes next if/when Tom Holland’s Spider-Man returns to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Narratively it seems like the story could go anywhere, especially with the multiverse in play. A credits scene also teased that Venom would finally be joining the MCU, after Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock was brought back to his world… leaving a bit of symbiote behind.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is in theaters now. Be sure to check out the 2022 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
