We had been told to expect an emotional rollercoaster with Spider-Man: No Way Home, and that proved to be no exaggeration. Many fans wiped away tears of joy upon witnessing all three Spider-Man swing into action together, but the movie also included some bittersweet and outright heartbreaking moments that had audiences reaching for the tissues for very different reasons.
At we move into the final act, May Parker (Marisa Tomei) is killed by one of the very villains Peter (Tom Holland) was trying to save, which sends the young hero down a very dark path.
While speaking to Variety, writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers explained why they felt a major death, or "sacrifice," was necessary at this point in the movie.
"We were at a point where we felt like there needed to be a loss, a sacrifice, that Peter needed to pay a real price for this decision to try to save the villains," Sommers said. "I think it became pretty clear to a lot of us that losing Aunt May was the thing that would really drive home the point we were trying to make: making this the movie where Peter Parker experiences the loss that the other ones did in their first movies."
"He was trying to do what May taught him and that made the sacrifice that much more difficult because it blew up in his face and it got her killed," McKenna added. "Then he started questioning that morality in a way that he never really questioned because he hasn’t been put to the test in that way."
In the end, Peter doesn't enact his revenge by killing The Green Goblin - but only because Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man stops him! Will this factor in to the character's development when we see him again? Either way, we know Holland's wall-crawler is going to be a very different hero next time he swings onto our screens.
What did you guys make of May's death? Did you see it coming, or where you surprised the character was killed-off after a relatively short span in The MCU?