Tom Holland reveals Spider-Man and Doctor Strange clash as he explains the No Way Home’s dark theme
As the premiere of Spider-Man: No Way Home trickles down to a couple of weeks, Tom Holland, – who doubles as both Marvel’s web-slinging neighbourhood hero and the main media hype-man for the movie – has revealed new, surprising information about No Way Home’s plot. Speaking recently to Entertainment Weekly & Games Radar, Holland referred to the third part of the Spider-Man trilogy as “Brutal”.
It’s not fun, this film, It’s dark and it’s sad
Holland, who has a knack for “mistakenly” dropping hints in the past, spoke about the mind-blowing dynamics of what they were about to attempt in No Way Home. Based on information from the trailers, the movie’s plot will see Peter Parker and Doctor Strange attempt to clear Peter’s name through some pretty dangerous ‘universe tampering’ scheme.
Old Villains In A New Guise
Past Spider-Man villains from previous franchises have been revealed in the trailers and posters for No Way Home confirming that something indeed goes wrong with the Sorcerer Supreme’s plan. Alfred Molina is returning to play Doctor Octopus and has confirmed that the events of the movie will pick up from where we saw him last in Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man 2.
Jamie Foxx also returns as Electro and new posters confirmed that the green goblin and Sandman are also joining the party. With such a healthy and motivated lineup of villains – which could be hinting towards the introduction of the Sinister Six – Parker and Strange are certainly going to have their hands full.
“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.” Holland said.
New Father Figure For Peter
Holland also revealed how much the events of the movie would strain his relationship with Doctor Strange. At this point in the MCU canon, with Peter Parker now considered a major member of the Avengers, his relationship with the rest of the team – and Dr Strange in particular – is quite different. Holland described it as more of a working relationship – between Parker and Strange, rather than the ‘father-son type he had with Tony Stark.
“Spider-Man always wants to please everyone. He always wants everyone to be happy. And then, in this instance, that’s not the case. It’s an interesting relationship. It’s very, very different from the one of Tony and Peter. But it’s a fun one.”
With so many mistakes to fix in this dark threequel, it doesn’t seem right that Parker would only have help from Dr Strange. But Holland and the entire crew continue to deny rumours that past Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield will be tagging along in No Way Home.
Even though it might still end up being a badly kept secret, Holland has reassured fans that the emotional journey of the movie’s characters will be on a level never seen before. It’ll be interesting to watch Holland’s Peter Parker morph into a more grown-up version of the character – dealing with more responsibilities and repercussions.
Of Farewell and New Beginings
Holland, who reveals that this is his final solo appearance as Marvel’s Spider-Man, spoke on how it feels to leave his stamp on such a significant title in such a grand way.
“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.”
Watch: Tom Holland Says Spider-Man No Way Home Brings Together 3 Generations of Spider-Man
“We were all treating (‘No Way Home’) as the end of a franchise” Holland added. “I think if we were lucky enough to dive into these characters again, you’d be seeing a very different version. It would no longer be the ‘Homecoming’ trilogy. We would give it some time and try to build something different and tonally change the films. Whether that happens or not, I don’t know. But we were definitely treating (‘No Way Home’) like it was coming to an end, and it felt like it.”
With the stakes raised as high as they can possibly go, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, remains the most anticipated Marvel title of this year. And after it broke the record of the most viewed movie trailer in 24 hours – previously held by another Marvel title; Endgame – fans have been eagerly counting down to its December 17 release date.
