In a world where demigods and supernatural entities enter regular showdowns against multi-millionaires decked out in military tech, there’s something incredibly refreshing about “your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man” and his civilian-life counterpart, Peter Parker. When compared to many of his super-powered colleagues, Peter has always brought a sense of levity and youthful joy to the Marvel Universe, especially in the recent MCU series starring Tom Holland. However, based on recent comments Holland made to GamesRadar (via ComicBook) about the upcoming Spider-Man movie, No Way Home, it seems like all that could soon change.
While fans have been speculating about what will happen in Spider-Man: No Way Home for months (Will there be appearances by Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire? Could Daredevil be making his return?), according to Holland, absolutely no one is prepared for what’s actually going to happen in the film — or how dark it’s going to be:
“What people will be really surprised about is that it’s not fun, this film. It’s dark and it’s sad, and it’s going to be really affecting. You’re going to see characters that you love go through things that you would never wish for them to go through. And I was just really excited to kind of lean into that side of Peter Parker .. Peter Parker is always someone who’s looking up. He’s always really positive. He’s always like, ‘I can fix this. I can do this.’ Whereas in this film, he feels like he’s met his match. He’s like, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ That was an aspect of the character that I’d never seen before, and I was really, really excited to try to tackle.”
Based on his comments, the footage and promotional material we’ve seen, and bearing in mind how absolutely brutal Marvel can be with its characters — especially when the multiverse is involved — it seems likely we’re in for a pretty heartbreaking story in which Tom Holland’s Spider-Man teams up with variant versions of himself and takes on a multiverse-sprawling Sinister Six featuring classic Maguire foe Doc Oc (Alfred Molina) and Garfield’s iteration of Electro (Jamie Foxx). Honestly, if this is the route they go, it wouldn’t be shocking if this ultimately spells out the end for the variant Spideys, offering them a devastating but somewhat cathartic ending.
Holland said that while he hasn’t seen the finished film yet, he already believes it’s the best work he and the team have done, and will ultimately be his greatest Spider-Man film. Until we can make that call for ourselves when Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into theaters on December 17, it looks like we’ll have to take Holland’s word on it and attempt to brace ourselves for what’s going to happen to our favorite heroes.
“I haven’t seen the film yet but I’ve seen pieces of the film, and it’s the best work we’ve ever done. It’s the best Spider-Man film that we’ve ever made. I really don’t think fans are at all ready for what they’ve put together. I know that I’m not ready, and I know that it’s going to be brutal.”