SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME Writers Break Down The Ending And Whether It's A Conclusion Or New Beginning

SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME Writers Break Down The Ending And Whether It's A Conclusion Or New Beginning

Spider-Man: No Way Home writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers have broken down the movie's ending, explaining what it potentially means for Peter Parker. They also better explain Doctor Strange's spell...

By JoshWilding - Dec 30, 2021 12:12 PM EST
Filed Under: No Way Home

By the time the credits roll on Spider-Man: No Way Home, the world has forgotten that Peter Parker exists and the wall-crawler is living by himself in a New York City apartment. We see that Peter is studying to get his GED, and with no more Stark Tech, he's created a classic red and blue costume to swing into action with (we're betting he was inspired by those other Spider-Men). 

With that, the character has been brought more in line with his comic book counterpart than ever before. However, the way the movie concludes feels like it could just as easily be the end of Spider-Man's time in the MCU or a new beginning that sets the stage for another trilogy starring Tom Holland. 

Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, co-writer Erik Sommers shared his thoughts on the movie's final shots. "It’s ended in a place where it could feel like a satisfying to this particular Spider-Man, or it definitely could keep going," he acknowledges. "[Each] one of these movies has had a big thing from the previous to react to. To be a story engine. If there were to be another one, we have this big change at the end that would be a huge story engine to what comes next. I think it could be a satisfying conclusion or just another really fun, inciting incident for another story."

Fellow co-writer Chris McKenna describes it as "a fitting ending if it had to end this way," and explained that despite Peter's sacrifice and loss, he doesn't see him heading down the same dark route Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man did in the wake of Gwen Stacy's death in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

"Andrew Garfield went into bitterness and darkness. I don’t see that for this one. He’s hopeful. He has chosen this life. He could spill the beans and get MJ and Ned back and he could convince them of everything and have everything he wanted when he walked into Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. He could get it, but now he has a choice and he doesn’t make that choice because he knows ultimately there’s a sacrifice that has to be made if he’s going to be the person that May raised him to be."

"This is the responsibility that he now has to live with. In a lot of ways, this is the other two [Spider-Men] helping him get to a place where maybe they got to before he did. This is the great sacrifice," McKenna continues. "The death of May is the turning point in his life and really turns what it means to be Peter Parker and Spider-Man into a different place for him."

In a separate interview with Variety, the writers were asked what sort of problems Peter will face after the world forgets him. Does he vanish from photos? Does he no longer have a social security number? "We were like, do we do a ‘Back to the Future’ kind of thing where you see him fading out of photos?" Sommers recalls. "Does he still have a driver’s license or a passport?"

"It just led to more questions. We decided, let’s try to do it in the most satisfying way and just focus on the emotion of it. And then if people have questions about some of those details that didn’t get answered here, we’ll answer them hopefully in another movie somewhere down the line." McKenna adds: "Obviously, some sort of magical redaction has occurred. At the end of all this, we didn’t want a lot of people trying to do magical math in their head. People had these experiences, but they start forgetting the person they knew, but they were still affected by the events that happened."

There's a lot of ground for future movies to delve into Spider-Man's new status quo, though only time will tell whether Marvel Studios decides to fully explore the ramifications of Peter Parker being forgotten. In the comic books, unmasking was enough to restore someone's memories of who Spider-Man really is, but as far as even his closest friends are concerned, Peter doesn't exist now!

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bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 12/30/2021, 12:04 PM
So in short, regarding the repercussions of people forgetting Peter Parker:

MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 12/30/2021, 12:06 PM
@bkmeijer - I will say, as I've been assuming, this was a far more impressive movie than the two previous and likely why Watts was hired for The Fantastic 4. But we'll find that out in due time.
DannyDischarge
DannyDischarge - 12/30/2021, 12:28 PM
@bkmeijer - Also, the spell wiped everyone’s memories of knowing who Peter is or that he was ever Spider-Man, but what about those recordings everyone took of Peter on their cellphones? Or what about the segment where J.K. Simmons revealed Peter’s identity as Spider-Man? Did that get erased? This movie was fun, but also dumb.
Killuminatic
Killuminatic - 12/30/2021, 12:51 PM
@HorseWengh - You could presume even the digital traces like that were also erased as part of the spell. Pretty sure Dr. Strange was smart enough this time round so as to make Peter's new existence not that much of a hassle after the spell even if it is still a great sacrifice.

That's the sort of specifics the writers were addressing in the interview. Certain things were erased, and certain weren't. It'll probably get into specifics in the fourth film, though we can easily presume what did and didn't remain.
HeeroG
HeeroG - 12/30/2021, 1:04 PM
@Killuminatic - I was reading an unproduced script some weeks ago, thta was basically this story about these creatures that feed of humans and live among us, people see them attack and walk around, etc, but thanks to their nature, the human brain just ignore that saw them, and people keep with their day as if nothing wrong is happening.
Could be a similar situation, in that every evidence about Peter existing is still there, people look at it, but their brains just ignore it, like they have not seen it, thanks to the spell.
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 12/30/2021, 2:37 PM
@MosquitoFarmer - even with Homecoming and Far From Home I thought he managed to capture the dynamics and chemistry really well between the leads, so I kinda hope he also brings that over to F4
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 12/30/2021, 2:38 PM
@HeeroG - that might just be the best take on the whole thing. Better atleast than actually removing him from everything
MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 12/30/2021, 12:04 PM
Conclusion or new beginning? Same coin?

Doomsday8888
Doomsday8888 - 12/30/2021, 12:08 PM
Can we also have an official look of that new suit?
Cause i think i really like it but F*CK, Watts barely gave us an iconic shot a la TASM 1 ending or TASM 2 begginin.
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 12/30/2021, 12:20 PM
@Doomsday8888 - What upsets me is that Marvel shows these new suits at the end and the character wears something different their next appearance.
DarkDetective
DarkDetective - 12/30/2021, 12:26 PM
@Doomsday8888 - well probably get a better look at it in the coming months when they release some sort of concept art, but a real look at it will not happen until spiderman's next appearence because the suit is likely entirely CGI and a physical one hasnt been made yet. Kinda like what happened with the Civil War and Homecoming suit
DarkDetective
DarkDetective - 12/30/2021, 12:29 PM
@SonOfAGif - god, i hope not. Ive been waiting Spidey's entire MCU run for him to wear something as classic and iconic as this suit. It was literally perfection.
NinnesMBC
NinnesMBC - 12/30/2021, 12:10 PM
Conclusion to the high school Home theme trilogy and the beginning of one focused on him starting college life.
Feralwookiee
Feralwookiee - 12/30/2021, 12:11 PM
At this point I can't remember if it's eluded to in the movie at all, but why would Peter have to be taking the GED now?

So, are they saying his school records are wiped out and he never attended high school, forget about getting into MIT? Were his birth certificate and social security number also wiped out? That Peter Parker "luck" strikes again.
KWilly
KWilly - 12/30/2021, 12:15 PM
@Feralwookiee - Yeah, that's the part they're gonna have to explain in the next one.

If his records were wiped completely, then he shouldn't have been able to get that apartment lol. As far as the world is concerned, he was never born.

He really should just join the Men In Black
Feralwookiee
Feralwookiee - 12/30/2021, 12:19 PM
@KWilly - I'm just imagining after going through all that miserable awkward teenage bullshit and be so close to graduating, then having to do it all over but be years older. Damn. Lol
Itwasme
Itwasme - 12/30/2021, 12:32 PM
@KWilly - to be fair people without those things get apartments all the time... they just aren't very nice.
DarkDetective
DarkDetective - 12/30/2021, 12:33 PM
@KWilly - fun fact: Men in Black were published by Marvel Comics

Another fun fact: Sony also has the Men in Black film rights
MarvelDCAllDay
MarvelDCAllDay - 12/30/2021, 12:37 PM
@Feralwookiee - I think he didn’t graduate high school
KWilly
KWilly - 12/30/2021, 12:45 PM
@DarkDetective - Funner fact: Would not mind if Sony just made a Peter Parker movie about him getting recruited by the MIB. It's so off the walls, it just might work.
HulkisHoly
HulkisHoly - 12/30/2021, 1:14 PM
@Feralwookiee -

Nothing was wiped by people’s memory of him.

All of his identification still exists.

They didn’t reverse time. This isn’t Its a Wonderful Life where he never existed.

People in the government just won’t remember issuing him a SSN at birth or a birth certificate. That’s all.
HulkisHoly
HulkisHoly - 12/30/2021, 1:17 PM
@HulkisHorny -

*but
FinnishDude
FinnishDude - 12/30/2021, 12:11 PM
The answer they gave to the second question is probably the best one they could have given. It's important for your story's inner-logic to make sense, but the audience is willing to overlook a lot, if you nail the emotional aspect, especially since high-concept fantasy/sci-fi set-ups like this can rarely, if ever, be completely airtight.
WakandanQueen
WakandanQueen - 12/30/2021, 12:15 PM
I really dig how retroactively, his MCU appearances up to No Way Home can be seen as a large origin story. At this rate, by the end Holland's Peter will probably have the largest character arc a film superhero has ever had.
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 12/30/2021, 12:26 PM
How about just letting a Spider-Man movie be a Spider-Man movie?
How's that for a "Story Engine"?

The material is already really good. It's strong enough, just trust that. Raimi did and he made a great trilogy.

Spider-Man is not broken. You don't have to keep "fixing" it with every movie.
suitekid
suitekid - 12/30/2021, 1:02 PM
@GwenLantern - What does their quote have to do with not letting a Spider-Man movie be a Spider-Man movie? They’re just talking about ending a movie with something that allows them a jumping off point for the next movie. Also they’reall Spider-Man movies.
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 12/30/2021, 2:07 PM
@suitekid - Like Civil War, the Blip, everyone knows Spider-Man's secret identity, Peter Parker has been written out of reality, Aunt Mays' dead and none of his friends remember him.

Those kinds of jumping off points I can do without.

How about we start a Spider-Man movie where te jumping off point is the typical Spider-Man status quo and then have an inciting incident? Is that so hard?
TheWalkingCuban
TheWalkingCuban - 12/30/2021, 12:31 PM
Having strange and yes Tony in the movies is far better than tying villains to Tony. Dude live in the world, don’t leech off it. Leach? Not if you’re from Leeds. Which is where Ned’s family is from.
Phango
Phango - 12/30/2021, 12:34 PM
I just want to know what happened to MCU Uncle Ben if Aunt May ended up serving as his big Uncle Ben moment. Poor Tom really had to have both of them die to really drill in the great responsibility speech into his head
RuffianForever
RuffianForever - 12/30/2021, 12:35 PM
After watching it all i could think was that this is spiderman out of the mcu

its also like a little reboot. they can go literally anywhere next

seriously, they can just do what they want going forward


still wanna see this universes version of goblin and doc ock eventually.
inkniron
inkniron - 12/30/2021, 12:48 PM
The spell as a solution is a muddled mess with too many questions. Maybe they figured people would have a good enough time that they wouldn't dig passed the surface of why or how it works. I guess they forgot the Steve Rogers Endgame fiasco.
plasticman
plasticman - 12/30/2021, 12:52 PM
Who's Peter Parker and why do I have a Lego Death Star as his contact pic on my phone!?
-Ned (possibly)

I dunno, who's this Steve Ditko guy that's been putting graffiti on our rooftop hangout?
-MJ (possibly)

Who's Plastic Man?
-Everyone (Because Dr. Strange already did that spell on y'all.)
incredibleTalk
incredibleTalk - 12/30/2021, 1:02 PM
I don't think the spell worked because I still know Peter Parker is Spiderman...what?

ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 12/30/2021, 1:43 PM
I mean it was a great way to start a college years focused trilogy. Especially after how many people complained about how good Parker had it with the Stark tech.
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