Summary
- Spider-Man: No Way Home could have included nostalgic references to classic Sam Raimi Spider-Man scenes, like the iconic upside-down kissing scene, but they did not make the final cut.
- Spider-Man: No Way Home was a huge success, earning over $1.9 billion worldwide, and standing out as a clear winner among other 2021 releases, despite the challenges of the Covid pandemic.
- The MCU is taking a break after the release of The Marvels, with just one movie set for release in 2024, but is planning a comeback with several highly anticipated projects in 2025, including Fantastic Four, Blade, Thunderbolts, and Captain America: New World Order.
We all know that there were many ideas for Spider-Man: No Way Home that did not make the final cut – or even the extended cut – of the biggest MCU outing for Tom Holland’s web-slinging hero. However, one fan’s piece of concept art shared on Instagram by artist Josh Nizzi suggests that things could have been very strange for the young Avenger if the movie had chosen to revisit some classic Sam Raimi Spider-Man scenes.
With the multiverse fully in play in No Way Home, allowing several prominent villains from previous Spider-Man movies to return to take on Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland’s respective Spider-Men, there were many ways that the movie could have delved even further into the universes of Spider-Man’s past. Nizzi’s concept art, which also includes Doctor Strange being caught on the runaway train of Maguire’s original Spider-Man appearance, has come up with a unique revisiting of the iconic upside-down kissing scene.
Rather than featuring Maguire and Kirsten Dunst out in the rain, the concept would have seen Benedict Cumberbatch’s Strange being suspended upside down, with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker standing in front of him. While this would have been a hilarious, nostalgic call back to the original scene, it seems that it was not something the production team came up with, and is something that we will never, unfortunately, see become a reality.
Spider-Man: No Way Home Was One of the Last Great MCU Movies
There is a reason why Sony Pictures has no intention of returning Spider-Man to Disney and Marvel Studios anytime soon, and that is because the character is one of the biggest icons of Marvel Comics and continues to show in his movie appearances.
From the moment Tobey Maguire became the first actor to portray Peter Parker on the big screen, Spider-Man has become a box office hit time and time again. Although Sony has been struggling to get the same kind of success from their “Universe of Spider-Man Characters,” the hero’s appearance in several MCU movies has continued to bring in huge audiences, and No Way Home became his most successful ever, taking over $1.9 billion worldwide in 2021.
Spider-Man 3 / Spider-Man: No Way Home
- Release Date
- December 17, 2021
- Cast
- Angourie Rice , Tom Holland , Zendaya Coleman , Marisa Tomei , J.K. Simmons , Benedict Cumberbatch , Willem Dafoe , Jamie Foxx , Alfred Molina , Tobey Maguire , Andrew Garfield
- Rating
- PG-13
- Runtime
- 2hr 28min
Arriving in the final stages of the Covid pandemic, when cinemas were struggling to pull in large audiences and many movies were still being released on streaming platforms, No Way Home stood out as a clear winner, taking almost as much as the next three movies in the top ten combined. While the previous MCU releases that year, including Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, failed to generate the same amount of interest, No Way Home’s success seemed certain to boost the Marvel franchise’s future projects and the multiverse saga. However, as we now know, this was not exactly the case.
Now, the MCU is taking a bit of a break in order to try and recapture the magic that made it the biggest franchise in the world during its first 10 years. Following the release of The Marvels back in November, to reasonably good reviews but the lowest ever MCU box office, 2024 will see just one movie released; Deadpool 3. Subsequently, Marvel Studios will be hoping to get back on track with Fantastic Four, Blade, Thunderbolts and Captain America: New World Order all set for release in 2025.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is currently streaming on Netflix and VOD platforms.
