The leadup to Spider-Man: No Way Home has been like few other films in the superhero landscape, with only Avengers: Endgame matching the levels of hype generated by Tom Holland’s last solo Spider-Man adventure. However, after seeing No Way Home, few would believe this will actually be the case.
Rather than it just being a theory, Sony producers had claimed the studio has no intentions of letting its precious Spider-Man walk away from the role that easily with future plans hinting at another trilogy starring Holland. Nevertheless, it’s truly astonishing how No Way Home manages to leave both the studio and actor with equally good options for what to do next.
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In all fairness, those clamoring for a Holland’s Uncle Ben moment, his origin story, definitely got what they wanted as No Way Home makes a dying Aunt May deliver her husband’s pivotal lesson to Peter. Nevertheless, No Way Home could be argued to work more like the closing chapter of what has been a trilogy’s worth of origin story background for Peter, all of which makes him an even more captivating character if a new series of films were to come.
In his time as Spider-Man Holland has been through it all, he’s grown from the teenager taking the Vulture’s daughter to the school’s Homecoming dance to someone who has pretty much lost it all right before Doctor Strange’s final memory spell takes effect, and he’s even help save the universe in between all that. When Garfield and Maguire are perplexed at the mere mention of the Avengers or him going to space, it helps illustrate the scope of what this particular Spider-Man has done before graduating high school.
To make matters even worse, this young Peter is now living in a world where he is literally a nobody, basically taking the ultimate sacrifice to save reality and having nothing to show for after it. No Way Home sees Peter walk away from his best friend and girlfriend as an onlooker, broke, living in a modest apartment he probably can’t afford, trying to get a GED, and even making his own costume, instead of being able to rely on the fancy Stark tech he’s had all this time.
Now that the film is out there, No Way Home’s title seems like an even more fitting name for the story as not only were the movie’s villains and other Spider-Mans misplaced in a world they don’t belong in, but it perfectly captures the movie’s bitter ending. Overall, this can even be considered one of the MCU’s darker films given the state Peter’s life is in right now, May’s death, and the heart-wrenching final scene with MJ and Ned.
Luckily, as Marvel fans surely know, there’s still plenty of upside to Peter’s new life given the number of characters that never quite made it to the MCU or previous Spider-Man films. This is obvious when the army of variants is attempting to cross over, nevertheless, there’s also a certain bright side to it that opens the door for characters like Gwen Stacy and Felicia Hardy becoming a part of his new surroundings; or, if things are to turn darker, then there’s already an orphaned symbiote lying somewhere in Mexico too.
A huge component of what makes Holland’s Spider-Man movies unique was how they played into his teen side even more than with Maguire or Garfield, even despite this Peter arguably being tasked with far greater responsibility and power than his predecessors. This great Spider-Man reset will see him become the friendly neighborhood vigilante discovered by Tony Stark once more, especially now that he’s trying to get his life together.
The theme will hardly be out of place because a struggling Peter is the type of superhero that most people have grown to love for many years, and he’ll undoubtedly have to keep juggling his personal life with Spider-Man’s, only now armed with wisdom that far exceeds his age. After all, there’s probably a Daily Bugle position waiting for someone who has access to unique photos of J.Jonah Jameson’s number one smear target.
While all signs may point to yes right now, regardless of whether Holland resigns to keep playing Spider-Man or not, and the prospects look far too tempting for him not to, No Way Home is truly the culmination of his era. The actors may have not fancied the idea of being a 30-year-old Spider-Man, but considering how fast Sony worked on this trilogy, he could theoretically retire from the role before hitting that age and still make more movies now featuring a more mature Peter, something the other two actors barely got a chance at.
No Way Home is similar to Endgame because it marks both the end of an era and the beginning of a new stage, although Spider-Man’s elite status as Marvel’s best weapon confers him the right for that story to keep going. The storytelling potential is there with the likes of Venom, Kraven the Hunter, Scorpion, Daredevil, Kingpin, Black Cat, Fantastic Four, and X-Men and all sitting on the sidelines waiting to encounter Spider-Man.
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