How ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Pulled Off Something “Entirely Unique”

In 2015, Tom Holland was put through the wringer to land the role of Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War.

“There were six or seven auditions and callbacks and work sessions and screen tests,” recalls casting director Sarah Finn. “By the time he came in for his final screen test, he knew it and we knew it. We felt it.”

Six years (and a few Avengers films) later, Holland is poised to unveil his sixth and most ambitious appearance as the wall-crawler with Spider-Man: No Way Home. The film, opening Dec. 17, combines three generations of Spider-Man movies. It includes previous villains Willem Dafoe (2002’s Spider-Man), Alfred Molina (2004’s Spider-Man 2) and Jamie Foxx (2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2).

“It is entirely unique,” notes Sony film boss Tom Rothman of combining the franchises. “Characters from multiple iterations of multiple different franchises have united. It takes a multiverse to do that. And it takes a little bit of negotiation, too.”

The road to that multiverse was not easy. The Jon Watts-directed Spider-Man trilogy was only made possible through an unprecedented partnership between Sony, which controls the film rights to Spider-Man, and Disney’s Marvel Studios, which is home to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For a short time after 2019’s $1 billion grosser Spider-Man: Far From Home, Sony and Marvel had a public split, and it was unclear if the two would even team on the next installment.

Sony began developing a Spider-Man project that might have happened without Marvel Studios. Eventually, the two studios reconciled, and the idea of the multiverse came up. This presented another challenge. Could they actually get all those actors back together?

“It was tough. We were building pieces we weren’t quite sure were there as we were trying to build them,” notes screenwriter Chris McKenna, who penned the script with his Homecoming and Far From Home partner Erik Sommers.

Adds Sommers: “These are characters I’ve quoted as a fan. Then, all of a sudden, we are writing for those people as those characters.”

Dafoe returns as Norman Osborn/the Green Goblin, the villain he played in Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man. Like the other classic villain actors, he had to be assured this would be more than just a glorified cameo.

“I’ll come back if there’s something really good,” says Dafoe, who still has fond memories of the Raimi film. “If it’s just a cameo or a little tip of the hat, I’m not sure. If it’s something substantial, ‘Yeah.'”

J.K. Simmons reprises his role as J. Jonah Jameson, who at the end of Far From Home revealed Spider-Man’s secret identity. Simmons still stays in touch with Raimi, who directed him in three Spider-Man films in the 2000s, and plans to get together with him after the filmmaker completes his next project, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.

Of reprising Jameson, who has gone from newspaper publisher to internet conspiracy theorist, Simmons reflects, “He’s basically the same blowhard, just using a different medium to misrepresent the truth.”

Though Raimi did not attend the premiere, his presence was felt elsewhere. Both Benedict Cumberbatch and Benedict Wong appear in No Way Home and are also nearing completion of additional photography on Raimi’s Doctor Strange film.

“I’ve been marveling at his vision, his take. His overall resolve, as well,” Wong said. “We were shooting in the middle of a pandemic and it was almost like, Doctor Strange and the Menace of the Multischedule. We were literally filming in a quantum way. There is no plan A. There’s a B and a C and then a D. Your mind is running all over the place. I have no doubt it’s going to be something fantastic.”

Raimi’s Spider-Man is considered a seminal piece of superhero filmmaking and will turn 20 next year. Sony’s Rothman, who was at Fox when it opened in 2002, notes he was more than just an admirer of that film, which was shepherded by No Way Home producer Amy Pascal, then a Sony executive.

“I was green with envy,” says Rothman. “We had made X-Men. And X-Men sort of got it started, and then Amy was at Sony and she topped us. So luckily she’s still here making it happen.”

No Way Home is widely expected to enjoy the top opening weekend of the pandemic, which has seen tentpoles such as Marvel’s Black Widow and Warner Bros.’ Dune hit streaming services day-and-date. Unlike Disney or Warners, Sony does not have a streaming service, and its new film will exclusively be shown in theaters.

“Movies made for movie theaters have cultural impact,” says Rothman, who has been a vocal proponent of preserving the theatrical window. “It’s all that the window brings with it. Audiences choosing to go out, to interact with a real cultural event and enjoy it on a big, big screen.”

No Way Home has been the subject of intense speculation, and of leaks. A bootlegged version of the first trailer appeared online in August, and a YouTube personality leaked stills of alleged high-profile cameos in the film. Then on Wednesday, significant portions of the film hit YouTube. (The Hollywood Reporter spoke with No Way Home team on Monday at the Los Angeles premiere, before the latest round of leaks.)

At the premiere, executive producer Victoria Alonso urged audiences not to spoil it and to see it for themselves. Said Alonso: “Go see the movie. Experience it yourself. Get yourself tested. Get a vaccination, if you can, see it in the theater.”

As for Holland, his future of Spider-Man is unclear, though Sony would like to see him back. Reflecting on his growth, Pascal notes, “I remember on the first movie he was like a baby, and now he’s a grown man. It’s very exciting.”