The writing process for Spider-Man: No Way Home must have been something akin to fan fiction, with scribes Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers able to pluck a cavalcade of multiversal villains from the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb back catalogues, all while getting to play in the Marvel Cinematic Universe sandbox.
In the end, the duo settled on Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus, Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, Jamie Foxx’s Electro, Thomas Haden Church’s Sandman and Rhys Ifans’ Lizard, but there’s always going to be lingering questions as to whether there was anybody else that didn’t make the cut or get approval from Sony or Marvel.
However, McKenna and Sommers admitted to Variety that they managed to get every single legacy favorite that was on their wish-list, and based on how fans have been reacting to No Way Home so far, the ambitious screenplay has done its job and then some.
“We were taking meetings about it, and going, ‘Well, what would this movie be if it wasn’t in the MCU?… It was like any time you have a limitation thrown on you. Then it creates possibilities and spurs all sorts of creative discussions. Fortunately, they came to their agreement before we were too far down any road, and we were able to jump right in with the old team.”
To be fair, the only Raimi and Webb bad guys that don’t appear are James Franco’s Harry Osborn, Topher Grace’s Venom, Dane DeHaan’s Green Goblin and Paul Giamatti’s Rhino, so Spider-Man: No Way Home covered its bases pretty well when it came to drawing antagonistic inspiration from the past and parachuting them into the MCU.
