Kyle McCoy

A/E Editor

kzm266@psu.edu

On Monday, August 23rd the highly anticipated trailer for Spider-Man no way home was released. The trailer quickly took the internet by storm garnering over 355.5 million views in just 24 hours shattering a record previously held by the trailer for Avengers: Endgame. The trailer itself focuses on Peter’s life now that his identity as Spider-Man has been revealed to the world from the event of Spider-Man: Far from Home. 

Now being blamed for the death of Mysterio, Peter Parker hopes to find an escape from this predicament by visiting Dr. Strange, whom he requests the help of in making everyone forget that he is Spider-Man through the use of his magic. Dr. Strange agrees to help Peter and begins to cast a spell that would accomplish this very goal, despite warnings from Wong about the possible dangers that it could pose. 

Unfortunately for them, it seems Wong’s worries were well-founded, as something with the spell goes awry, and Strange inadvertently summons villains from across the Multiverse, which appears to include Doctor Octopus, who appears to be reprised by Alfred Molina from Spider-Man 2(2004), along with a tease to the possible return of Green Goblin to the silver screen. It’s up to Spider-Man to round up all these villains and send them back where they belong. 

Tom Holland stars as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, returning to the role for the sixth time in what will be the character’s third solo outing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For many fans, the release of this trailer is the culmination of months and months of speculation and excitement for the movie. 

The film was first announced back in June  2017, but the movie did not start production officially until January  2020. Like many other movie productions around this time, No Way Home was halted several times due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Production finally wrapped up in August of 2020. 

Fan interest for the movie peaked in December of 2019 when actor Jamie Foxx posted to his Instagram announcing that he would be reprising his role as Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 for No Way Home. The photo that accompanied the post featured an illustration of Tom Hollands’ Spider-Man, standing together with what appeared to be the Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man (2002)) and Andrew Garfield (Amazing Spider-Man) versions of the character, who appeared to be facing down an ominous, but an unseen threat. Following the release of the post Alfred Molina, who as mentioned, previously portrayed the villain Doctor Octopus in the 2004 movie Spider-Man 2, announced that he would be reprising his role in Spider-Man: No Way Home. These comments sent social media into a fervor causing hype and speculation for the movie to rise to an all-time high. 

Quickly after these announcements were made, rumors and leaks abounded that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield would be reprising their roles as Spider-Man in this film. These leaks and rumors only added more fuel to the already raging fire that was hype for the film, which likely contributed to the early leak of the August 23rd trailer, which an earlier version of was uploaded online by an anonymous source a few days before it’s official public release. As described before, the trailer seemingly confirms many of these rumors, further fueling fan excitement for the film for not just fans of the MCU, but fans of the Sam Raimi and Amazing Spider-Man adaptations of the character as well. 

While there are still many rumors and questions yet to be answered about the film, one thing is certain, whether you’re an MCU fan or just a fan of the Spider-Man character, you won’t want to miss Spider-Man: No Way Home, releasing in theaters December 17, 2021.