Spider-Man: No Way Home was shrouded in mystery before being released in theaters, but it was no secret that the pandemic likely resulted in significant changes to whatever Marvel Studios originally had planned. For starters, it was supposed to be released before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but what would that have actually meant for both movies?
We'll likely never fully know, but some concept art from the wall-crawler's latest adventure recently revealed that America Chavez was once considered for what looked like a key role.
Based on what little we've seen, it seems she would have been one of Peter Parker's classmates and helped him fight back against the Sinister Six using the Book of Vishanti. It even looked like America would be responsible for bringing the other Spider-Men into the MCU before that honour went to Ned Leeds.
We're not sure how far along Marvel Studios got with the idea before changing course, but when we spoke to America Chavez actor Xochitl Gomez this week, we wondered if a role in Spider-Man: No Way Home was ever offered to her before everything changed.
"It was all changed by the time I joined the [Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness], yeah," she confirms in the video below. "I mean, it was never-ending constant changing because when you have new projects that are coming out, fans react to things, and so they feel like they need to change it."
"They do lots of screen tests for the movie over and over again so Marvel knows what's working and what's not. If the fans aren't loving something, they just change it," Gomez said of Marvel Studios' approach to storytelling. "The reshoots were addressing some of things that came out from testing that people didn't like or they thought needed more of this and stuff."
We know reshoots are the norm for the MCU, of course, but couldn't help but wonder if additional photography resulted in any particularly memorable moments being left on the cutting room floor. As it turns out, Defender Strange once looked set to play a very different, far more heroic role in the proceedings.
"There was a little scene that America had where she got to mourn over Defender Strange's death and this was prior to...it was a secret that Defenders Strange was going to kill me and take my power. It wasn't that before, it was that he was saving me," she reveals. "There was this whole other turn where she got to mourn over his death and have this grieving moment"
"It was really special, but that didn't end up getting used because they changed it and decided to make it that differentiating journey to take her power. I think that actually worked better because you got to see that mistrust and see her walls go up. Slowly, as movie goes, we see her take those down and then at the end, she's in Kamar Taj and has a safe home."
It's always fun to think about what might have been, but Marvel Studios usually has a good reason for making changes like these. Defender Strange was still an important part of the movie, though we're guessing this is why that conversation between America, Doctor Strange, and Wong moved from the alleyway we saw in an official still to the nearby rooftop.
As for America's scrapped role in Spider-Man: No Way Home, it's a real shame, but there's always a chance the two characters will cross paths elsewhere in The Multiverse Saga.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now available on Digital and will be released on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD July 26.