The following story is going to dig into a pretty big spoiler scene for Spider-Man: No Way Home, so stop reading now if you still haven’t seen the movie, and have somehow made it this far without ruining the movie’s biggest surprises.
Tom Holland can’t stop giving away hints and secrets that could reveal major spoilers for the new movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home. In his defense, the new movie is packed to the gills with surprises, so going on a global publicity tour and answering journalist questions without giving away the best scenes waiting for audience members has to be a real challenge.
This is why it’s fun to go back over Tom Holland’s answers in No Way Home interviews, knowing how the movie plays out, and see what he has revealed. Sometimes it’s just an off the cuff reference that didn’t mean much until we knew more about the movie. And sometimes, it’s the loose-lipped Holland giving away specific information, that we now can use to deduce a spoiler. Like, the fact that he wasn’t on set for the scene where his Peter Parker is trying to catch a falling MJ, played by Zendaya. BBC film reporter Ali Plumb asked the Spider-Man: No Way Home trio to react to the trailer, and when they discussed the degree of difficulty that came with pulling off that falling stunt, Holland said to Zendaya:
It was really fun. Well, I wasn't there. It looked really fun.
OK, so, how unusual is this? Yes, in big-budget blockbusters that often are filmed out of sequence, there are moments that one actor films while the rest of the cast is absent. So Tom Holland might have been off set while Jon Watts was capturing Zendaya and Jacob Batalon falling from the scaffolding that was surrounding the Statue of Liberty. But we also know that it was Andrew Garfield’s version of Peter Parker who eventually dives into action and saves MJ, achieving redemption for not being able to save Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) in his own The Amazing Spider-Man 2. When Holland said he “wasn’t there,” was he revealing that it was because Garfield was there in his place?
The way that the finale was filmed, though, I’m willing to bet that Jon Watts pieced it together with bits filmed in front of green screens for weeks/months as actors were made available. So the moment when Zendaya is falling, and she ends up in Andrew Garfield’s arms, probably was filmed at different times, with Holland there (and not there) at opposing times. So yeah, I think Holland did tip his hand to a reveal in the movie that he should have been keeping closer to the vest. But also, as I mentioned above, it’s gotta be impossible to do so much press for Spider-Man: No Way Home and protect ALL of the secrets. Holland has to just be thrilled that the movie is finally out, and doing so well.
Have you seen Spider-Man: No Way Home yet? It really is an impossible movie, given all that it accomplishes. And it’s waiting for you in theaters as we speak.
