Spider-Man: No Way Home was a critical and commercial hit, grossing a massive $1.9 billion at the worldwide box office. However, as much as we all love the movie, it's hard to deny that there are some flaws.
Those primarily stem from the impact COVID-19 had on the threequel; neither Rhys Ifans nor Thomas Haden Church were able to visit the movie's set, for example, leading to footage from The Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man 3 being recycled. There was also a lot of green screen.
Tom Holland quite rightly remains proud of what they achieved with the 2021 blockbuster but reveals in a new interview that COVID negatively impacted his experience and presented many unwanted challenges.
"One of the unfortunate things about Spider-Man[: No Way Home] was we shot it in peak COVID times," he recalls. "We shot everything in a studio which meant, I think in the process of making that film, I might have done three days on location. You can feel it in the film, I think."
"When we're walking through New York, they sent a crew to New York to shoot the streets with a motion camera jib. Then they brought that piece of kit back to Atlanta and then they would make on the floor, 'There's an extra here. There's a dog here. There's a sidewalk here.' Then I'd have to map out what I was going to do in a pre-existing shot."
Holland added, "This is going to make me sound really difficult but I got over it and we figured it out. The camera was moving way slower than Peter Parker would usually walk. Peter Parker's very bubbly, very quick. Everything is about getting from A to B as quickly as possible without thinking and this shot that they had was this really slow, meandering camera angle through New York."
"Peter is supposed to be in a rush to get to Doctor Strange to ask him this question, and I found it really difficult to portray, 'I'm stressed and in a rush...but walking really slowly,' I actually think that shot isn't in the film because it didn't work."
It's easy enough to understand Holland's frustrations, particularly when it lessened his experience of playing Spider-Man. Both Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home spent a great deal more time on location, with filming taking place in New York City for some scenes.
We'd imagine one of Holland's conditions for Spider-Man 4 is that history doesn't repeat itself, something which shouldn't be an issue now COVID restrictions are no longer in place.
You can check out the full interview with Holland in the player below.