With Spider-Man: No Way Home getting closer and closer to theaters every day, excitement among Spider-Man fans is at an all-time high. And as if one Spidey film wasn’t enough, the first trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) was recently released, giving web-heads even more to look forward to.
But with the original Spider-Verse animated film receiving such overwhelming acclaim from fans and critics alike, No Way Home has a lot to live up to if it’s going to have a claim to being the best Spider-Man movie yet. In fact, there’s a lot that No Way Home has hopefully learned from its animated predecessor — not just as a multiverse-spanning Spider-Man story, but as a Spider-Man story in general.
One of the many criticisms that have been lobbed at the Tom Holland Spider-Man films is that their action sequences have been lacking compared to other iterations. And indeed, it’s not hard to see the argument here. Neither Homecoming nor Far From Home have had any fights that match the intense spectacle of, say, the train fight with Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2. Part of this is arguably due to the choice in villains — neither Vulture nor Mysterio are formidable close-range fighters. But even so, movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings have proved that the MCU’s action has the potential to be utterly outstanding.
As such, it would benefit No Way Home to take a page from Spider-Verse’s action scenes. Not only are the fights fast-paced and exciting thanks to the film’s distinct animation style, they also do an excellent job balancing large casts. Look at scenes like the forest fight against Doc Ock, or the battle at Aunt May’s house, or the final showdown at Kingpin’s particle accelerator.
Even while managing large numbers of heroes and villains, the action sequences manage to be memorable thanks to the energetic fight choreography and dynamic setpieces. And while not much action has been shown in the No Way Home trailers, the brief glimpses of the bridge fight with Doc Ock, the mirror dimension train battle against Doctor Strange, and the grand finale at the Statue of Liberty all look very promising.
One thing that both Into the Spider-Verse and No Way Home have in common is their extensive supporting casts. Spider-Verse has all the multiversal Spideys and Miles’ family, plus Aunt May and Mary Jane in smaller roles. Meanwhile, No Way Home has MJ, Ned, Doctor Strange, Aunt May, Flash, Betty, Happy Hogan, and J. Jonah Jameson — plus a few other heroic guest stars, if persistent rumors and leaks are to be believed. Many fans have expressed fear that with so many villains and supporting characters to juggle, No Way Home will end up as a jumbled, overcrowded mess just like Spider-Man 3 and Amazing Spider-Man 2, even with its nearly two-and-a-half-hour runtime.
However, Spider-Verse is proof that even a movie with a massive cast can still feel laser-focused if the script is tight enough. Many of its characters — Aunt May, Peni Parker, Spider-Ham, and Doc Ock, for instance — all have very little screen time compared to more prominent characters, but they nevertheless serve a purpose in the story, and are still memorable as a result. Meanwhile, the major players like Peter B. Parker, Gwen, Kingpin, Prowler, and Miles’ dad Jefferson are all given the focus they deserve.
Hopefully, the same will be true of No Way Home. Despite all the hype around returning villains like Electro, Lizard, and Sandman, it would be best for the story to relegate them to minor roles like Kingpin’s henchmen in Spider-Verse. As such, Doctor Octopus and Green Goblin would be allowed more prominence in the plot, like Kingpin and Prowler. Similarly, it’s likely that Jameson, Happy, and Peter’s classmates will have a much smaller presence in the film, letting MJ, Ned, Aunt May, and Doctor Strange have the significance they need in the central cast. At least, that’s what would make for the most coherent narrative.
But of course, the most important part of any story is the protagonist. Underneath all the multiversal mayhem, No Way Home cannot succeed as a Spider-Man story unless it is first and foremost a film about Peter Parker and his personal conflict. This is of course something that Spider-Verse pulled off magnificently — the dazzling animation and fun side characters may be a big draw, but the beating heart of the movie is Miles Morales himself. The real focus of the story isn’t the battle against Kingpin, but Miles’ struggle to find his own identity and meet the expectations forced onto him by others.
So far, both of MCU Spidey’s solo films have been driven by Peter’s internal struggles. In Homecoming, the main conflict is caused by Peter’s impulsive desperation to prove himself, while Far From Home sees him fall victim to Mysterio’s manipulations thanks to his own fear of responsibility. Each film has also advanced Peter’s ongoing character arc — first he learns humility and chooses to help those in need over chasing glory, then he overcomes his doubt and embraces his destiny not as the next Iron Man, but as the first Spider-Man.
However, Peter still has yet to figure out what “being Spider-Man” truly means, and the trailers for No Way Home hint at how the new film will address that. Once Peter learns from Strange that the multiversal villains are all doomed to die fighting their worlds’ Spider-Men, the two heroes promptly come to blows. Presumably, Peter intends to save his enemies from their fate out of guilt — something that will no doubt have disastrous consequences. But even so, this paints the image of a Peter Parker who is forced to carve out his own identity as a hero while he grapples with the legacy of other Spider-Men. In other words, the MCU’s Peter is in a very similar situation to Miles in Spider-Verse.
Into the Spider-Verse doesn’t just use the multiverse as a plot device or as a way to introduce fan-favorite characters: it has a thematic purpose as well. A crucial part of Miles’ character development is comparing himself to his fellow Spideys, then forging his own identity to prove himself as their equal. In many ways, Tom Holland’s Peter has also been struggling under the weight of its predecessors, being constantly judged against the standards of past films. If the rumors are true, this could very well reflect the nature of Peter’s arc in No Way Home — Tom Holland’s Peter rising to the occasion alongside Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men, and learning from them what it truly means to be Spider-Man.
This is all just speculation, of course. Even after the trailers, much of No Way Home’s story is still a mystery. But if it has any hope of becoming a contender for the best Spider-Man movie ever, then it’ll definitely need to follow the example of Into the Spider-Verse.
