Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Original Story Didn’t Involve the Multiverse

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home

The original story for Spider-Man: No Way Home didn’t involve the multiverse. Marvel Studios and Sony’s latest collaboration almost didn’t happen after a brief conflict that threatened to pull out Tom Holland’s wall-crawler out of the MCU. Luckily they were able to find a middle ground; otherwise, the record-breaking Jon Watts-directed film wouldn’t have happened.

Peter Parker went through his biggest adventure thus far in Spider-Man: No Way Home, which also required him the biggest personal sacrifice. Following Mysterio’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) malicious confession at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, the young hero had to deal with his secret superhero identity being revealed to the public. Aside from that, Peter also fought various villains from other universes. Despite Doctor Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) attempt to help with his predicament, the sorcerer’s tampered spell inadvertently exposed Earth to multiversal threats. This led to the appearance of various characters from previous Spider-Man franchises, including Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprising their respective versions of the hero.

But, before all of this, Spider-Man: No Way Home apparently didn’t feature the multiverse at all. According to McKenna and Sommers in a new interview with Variety, they discussed various narratives for the threequel, but none tackled the existence of other dimensions as extensively as they did in the new MCU film. Instead, they were only planning on teasing it at the end of the blockbuster, but they realized that it’s much better to actually make it a central element in their plot. Read McKenna’s comment below:

“We had gone down a couple different roads with different story ideas that were not [the multiverse] that would then tease something like this at the end of it. Why tease the multiverse when you can just do it?”

Sommers and McKenna didn’t delve into the storylines they were plotting for the threequel, which is understandable in case any of them are revisited in Holland’s next Spider-Man trilogy. It’s no secret that Spider-Man: Far From Home set up a very different sequel than what Spider-Man: No Way Home ultimately became. With Peter’s secret superhero identity out in the open, many presumed that Kraven the Hunter would be the next villain for the wall-crawler, which made sense. Frankly, it’s also a match-up that many would want to see and something that Marvel Studios and Sony could consider moving forward. Admittedly, not everyone was happy when it was announced that Spider-Man: No Way Home was actually going to tackle the multiverse as some feared that it would take away the focus from the main character. Luckily, that wasn’t the case.

However, it all worked for the best as Spider-Man: No Way Home fully delved into the concept of the multiverse, effectively priming viewers for what comes next. After his involvement in Peter’s adventure, Doctor Strange will deal with the ramifications of his actions in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. After that, Marvel Studios will continue to build the multiverse in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania where Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) is confirmed to appear.

Source: Variety

About The Author