SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME Writers Explain Why First Meeting Of Three Spider-Men Was Rewritten TEN Times

SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME Writers Explain Why First Meeting Of Three Spider-Men Was Rewritten TEN Times

The writers of Spider-Man: No Way Home have explained why they had to constantly rewrite the first meeting between the three Peter Parker Variants in order to get the returning Spider-Men right on screen.

By JoshWilding - Feb 22, 2022 09:02 AM EST
Filed Under: No Way Home
Source: IGN

By now, it's no longer a secret that Spider-Man: No Way Home features the return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker Variants. However, perfecting the scene where they meet the MCU's Spider-Man for the first time proved to be no easy task for writers Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna. In fact, it demanded multiple rewrites.

Confirming to IGN that it took them "at least ten times" to get it right, Sommers said the biggest challenge was figuring out what sort of mindset Maguire and Garfield's Spideys would be in by this point in their lives. "When [the Spider-Men] got pulled into this movie, what condition were they in? What were they doing? What was their mindset?"

"The end of the last Amazing Spider-Man had this really nice speech from Gwen about staying hopeful and everything," he continued. "And immediately it became interesting to us. Well, what if Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man, if his Peter Parker couldn't do it, he couldn't keep that hope. He was too hurt by what happened. And so, that led us to the attitude that we found for him."

We also had to think long and hard about where Tobey's Spider-Man would be in," Sommers added. "And that was a more difficult question 'cause more time has gone by."

According to McKenna, everyone understandably had an opinion on how the returning characters should be portrayed, including the actors, director Jon Watts, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, and producer Amy Pascal. "It took a lot of work by everyone - Kevin, Jon, Amy, all of us - to really just work out all that. And then we brought in the actors and they then had all their own ideas. Making a movie like this is a big collaborative experience."

This and every other scene with the three Spider-Men in Spider-Man: No Way Home worked amazingly well, and the pep talk from Peter's fellow wall-crawlers helped set him back on the right track. The hope among fans is that Maguire and Garfield will get to reprise these roles again, though if this was all we get, then we'd argue Sommers, McKenna, and everyone else involve absolutely nailed it.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is still playing in theaters (there's still no Digital/Blu-ray release date).

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HOTSHOT
HOTSHOT - 2/22/2022, 9:28 AM
I love the direction they chose to go with all 3 Spider-Men. The alternate Peters ended up serving as mirrors from different points in life to the main Peter rather than just making them mentors.

All 3 had something that the others appreciated. Plus, it's great that they didn't take away focus from Peter's arc and actually contributed to it.

This is the first time I actually liked Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man, but MCU Spidey is still my personal favorite because he's the most well-rounded version of the character in the films so far.
IronSpider101
IronSpider101 - 2/22/2022, 10:14 AM
@HOTSHOT - I like that it all validated them as Peter Parker/Spider-Man too. Like rather than having to do this fanboy ideal of "Let's get one actor to do 900 movies and literally do every villain and major storyline from the comics" which is just never going to happen. This movie goes "Look, Tobey's Ock, Sandman and Goblin? Those are THE movie versions. Andrew's Lizard and Electro? Those are THE movie versions." Like there's no need to retread those characters or stories. And the movie at no point ever tried to downplay or prop up any of the Spider-Men over the others. Basically anyone can have their favourite and this movie just kind of celebrates and validates the whole cinematic history of the character.

My personal favourite is Tobey. Not the least of which is because Spider-Man 2, is still in my opinion the absolute peak of the genre.
HOTSHOT
HOTSHOT - 2/23/2022, 6:50 AM
@IronSpider101 - Agreed. They showed that all 3 Spider-Men have value and are great and different takes on this iconic character.

I love Tobey too, and while I think Spider-Man 2 is absolutely phenomenal and better directed, I place No Way Home just slightly above because of how ambitious and innovative it is.

I'm hyped to see what's next for Peter in the MCU.
SheepishOne
SheepishOne - 2/22/2022, 10:05 AM
You know, I liked what we got well enough. They could have butchered it, but I was ultimately satisfied. Garfield's Spidey was pretty perfect.

That said, I would have liked Tobey's Peter to have taken a bit more of a vocal mentor role (not just to Holland, but to Garfield as well), and I wish he had retained a bit more of his dorkiness.

But what I wanted probably would have taken 3.5 hours to do. For as much story as they fit in, I thought it was handled really well.

CARNAVALcarnage
CARNAVALcarnage - 2/22/2022, 10:50 AM
Saw the movie three times already. Nostalgia is one hell of a drug.

LOL still can't believe that instead of introducing two popular characters that were literally created to fit the multiverse - Spider Gwen and Miles Morales - they instead went with two more white men who were pretty much the same version as the main character. 😆

Now when's the digital release?
thereeljoefish
thereeljoefish - 2/22/2022, 11:39 AM
@CARNAVALcarnage - yeah and then most people are like who the hell are these guys? Regardless of the character you have to build some familiarity, and we’re very familiar with both of those characters to now set up a multiverse where spider Gwen and miles aren’t just there just because. Now they can get a proper set up. Also remember Marvel is JUST getting to their side and less popular characters.
HulkisHoly
HulkisHoly - 2/22/2022, 12:57 PM
@CARNAVALcarnage -

Why does this have to be about race?

They haven’t sidelined Miles. They even hinted at him and had his uncle in Homecoming.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 2/22/2022, 2:01 PM
@CARNAVALcarnage - So you want them to directly rip-off Spider-Verse by using Gwen and Miles because both Andrew and Tobey's versions were white??

What does their race even have to do with it? They were in it because people have more emotional attatchment to their versions than they would to newly introduced Spider-varients.
OmegaDaGrodd
OmegaDaGrodd - 2/22/2022, 11:19 AM
The moment of Holland's Peter looking up in confusion at the shadow's of the other 2 was so damn awesome. Them endearing themselves to him through shared grief seems like low hanging fruit but it's the exact sort of thing that works because of that. I feel like the main reason so many of the big team up Marvel movies sing the way they do is because Marvel are often willing to avoid overcomplicating things, which seems like an instinct that runs counter to how convoluted Hollywood likes to make stuff like this
Deklipz
Deklipz - 2/22/2022, 12:08 PM
@OmegaDaGrodd - Its not necessarily simpler but they seem to weave complex things together in a more relatable way. Familiarity is everything, making a character or situation relatable even though it’s fantastical makes complex things easier to understand. They’ve been able to make their characters infinitely relatable for audiences.
Lokiwasright
Lokiwasright - 2/22/2022, 12:47 PM
They needed something corny.
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