‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ wraps a bow around 20 years of Spidey movies

There’s no doubt about it. Spider-Man: No Way Home is the most ambitious Spidey movie we’ve ever had. As the trailers have made clear, it’s set to finally open the doors to the Spider-Verse in live-action by bringing back a bunch of villains from previous iterations of the franchise, including the Raimiverse Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) and the Webbverse Electro (Jamie Foxx). In that way, you could call it the culmination of the webhead’s cinematic journey.

While speaking to Fandango, Sony producer Amy Pascal was asked if No Way Home “wraps a bow” around 20 years of Spider-Man on the big screen. Pascal stressed that the movie mostly serves as the conclusion to the Homecoming trilogy and the character arc of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. But, at the same time, she conceded that it could be said to bring things full circle since 2002’s Spider-Man.

“Well, here’s what I would say,” Pascal began. “I would say that it’s the culmination of the Homecoming trilogy, of the story of Tom Holland becoming the Spider-Man that we’ve all been waiting for him to be. It certainly tells that story and it does… and as you know from seeing the trailers, it does bring some of the characters from the early movies together. And yes, wrapping a bow around it sounds nice.”

At the very least, No Way Home is certainly a celebration of Spidey’s big-screen history. The cool thing is that every non-MCU entry in the franchise is represented through the five villains that are reappearing for the threequel. There’s Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, Doc Ock and Thomas Haden Church’s Sandman from the Tobey Maguire trilogy and Rhys Ifans’ Lizard and Electro from the Andrew Garfield duology.

But it sounds like the film will still focus on Holland’s hero and find room to further his story satisfyingly. Pascal’s promise that he’ll finally become the Spider-Man that we’ve been “waiting for him to be” is extremely exciting, as it hints that NWH will address complaints of Holland’s Peter being too reliant on Iron Man and his legacy in the past. Despite Doctor Strange’s presence, it seems the wall-crawler will be more independent this time around.

Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into theaters from this Dec. 17.