“No Way Home” and its amazingly high expectations

This story was originally published in the second edition of The Lion’s Tale (December 13th, 2021).

One of the biggest things being talked about as of the moment is Spider-Man: No Way Home, and to no one’s surprise as well. This film will be the third installment to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man adventures in the MCU. It would be an understatement to consider the speculation and talk behind this film odd – or maybe better put, strange.

Leaks have torn this movie to shreds much like the rifts in space-time where several villains have poured from their worlds to ours. From trailers we have a near “Sinister Six” built up to clash with the web-head. So where are these villains’ Spider-Men? Where’s Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield?

There is a very specific line, which can come across as normal on first listen, but when really focused on, its true nature is interesting. So picture it. Dr. Otto Octavious pins Peter Parker against a concrete column, forcing him to remove his mask and the villain says this: “You’re not Peter Parker.” You hear that? “You’re. Not. Peter. Parker.” This can’t be some alternate Doc Ock played by Alfred Molina just for the sake of nostalgia, this has to be the same Doc Ock that battled Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man on the New York subway. 

There’s another feature that was discovered in the Brazilian release of the second trailer, where you can see The Lizard get walloped by seemingly nothing. This has gotten to mean that there’s at least another Spider-Man fighting alongside Tom Holland’s Peter. So much evidence that they must be in, right?

Well, maybe. Some people think so, some don’t. Yes, there have been many leaks that seem to prove that Maguire and Garfield will be returning to the big screen. But there have been ten times the amount of leaks so clearly faked. What can we believe and what can we disregard?

We really don’t know. So when No Way Home comes out, don’t be angry if Tom Holland is the only wall-crawler on screen. But if he isn’t, if Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield do show up, cheer and be happy. Be happy it happened.