MASSIVE spoiler warning for the article ahead. (If you haven’t seen this movie yet, what are you really doing with your life?)
No Way Home premiered on Dec. 17, 2021, with a preview day on Dec. 16. It’s made more than $1 billion dollars worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of the pandemic era. It also became the eighth highest-grossing film, ever.
The film sees the return of MCU stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong, Marisa Tomei, and Jon Favreau.
This movie serves as the theatrical debut of the MCU’s “Multiverse,” which was first introduced in the last episode of the Loki series.
Netflix’s Daredevil actor Charlie Cox makes his MCU debut in this film as Matt Murdock/Daredevil. Even though it’s a quick cameo, it establishes him as an important character in the franchise going forward.
Cox said that if anyone else was to be cast as Matt Murdock in the MCU, he would “go down into (his) basement. I would find my Daredevil mask (and then) hunt them down. I’d make them fight me for it.”
Alfred Molina, Willem Dafoe, Jamie Foxx, Thomas Haden, and Rhys Ifans all make returns as their Spider-Man villains from Tobey Maguire’s trilogy and Andrew Garfield’s movies.
“I just was concerned about how contrived it was or whether it was just like a power cameo. I really was worried that I wouldn’t have something to do,” said Dafoe in an interview with Sony Pictures.
He continued, saying, “To do this physical stuff was important to me. One of the first things I said to Jon (Watts) and Amy, basically when they pitched it to me, before there was even a script, was, ‘Listen, I don’t want to just pop in there as a cameo or just fill in in close-ups. I want to do the action because that’s fun for me.”
The crown jewel was appearances from Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire themselves.
“In fact, I was also with Tobey, me and Tobey snuck into a theatre together and no one knew we were there. It was just a really beautiful thing to share together,” said Garfield. He continued, saying, “The fact that I get to be one of those people wearing the suit next to my actual Spider-Man hero, Tobey Maguire, and the brilliant, incredibly talented, heartfelt, funny, good, sweet, perfect Spider-Man of Tom Holland, and I get to be the middle brother, and I get to be in awe of my older brother and in full longing to protect my younger brother.
The movie had two post-credit scenes, the first consisting of Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock/Venom sitting at a bar talking to a bartender in Mexico about the infamous “Snap” (look it up if you don’t know what that means, I’m not explaining it). The second was a trailer for Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is tentatively set to be released on May 6.
This movie is the perfect end to Holland’s trilogy in the MCU. Many complain about how Holland’s Spidey is “Iron Boy Jr.” and how he never really had an origin story movie. This trilogy IS the origin story. It shows him going from an awkward young teen struggling to deal with his secret identity to an older teen (all be it, still awkward) having dealt with extreme loss and a mountain of character development.
While the future of Holland’s current contract is a little sketchy, there is literally a second trilogy in the works, so fans do not have anything to worry about. He isn’t going anywhere.
This movie serves as the 27th installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
