Spider-Man: No Way Home TRIVIA!!

Spider-Man is back at the Dietrich with the extended version, 'Spider-Man: No Way Home - The More Fun Stuff Version.' My Examiner review for the film's re-issue is currently available on the website and in the print/online edition of the Examiner! And here are quite a few interesting tidbits for 'No Way Home':

*** Some of these little tidbits do have spoilers ***

• Benedict Cumberbatch has admitted to not reading the full script, wanting to surprise himself with the final product.

• J.K. Simmons had enjoyed playing J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy, and admitted to being heartbroken that he wouldn't be able to revisit the character in a fourth movie. Naturally, when Marvel approached him to reprise his role in Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)'s stinger and this film, he jumped at the chance. Simmons also expressed excitement in adapting Jameson to the modern-day era, describing him more as a media blowhard than a newspaper editor. To make up for the fact that his character was now bald, Simmons insisted on keeping Jameson's cigar and mustache for this film, due to wanting to have some aspects from his portrayal in Sam Raimi's trilogy to carry over in the MCU.

• To preserve the secrecy of film's production and to prevent his appearance from being leaked, Willem Dafoe walked around the set with a cloak covering his costume. Tom Holland accidentally bumped into Dafoe while cloaked and this was how the two first met on-set.

• Tom Holland helped to save this movie from cancellation by forcing renegotiations between Sony and Disney. Under the terms of the new deal, not only does Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) still take place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), but Spider-Man can also appear in future MCU movies, as well as Sony's own Spider-Man franchise.

• Sam Raimi was very happy to see Doctor Octopus in this film's first trailer, praising the character's appearance and tentacle animation while also expressing excitement to see the full film.

• Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) takes place directly after the events of Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019). Meaning that it takes place in Summer-Winter of 2024.

• The film became Sony's highest-grossing film in history. Earned $1.6 billion in its first 11 days at the box office.

• The film was originally scheduled for release on July 16th, 2021, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic its release date was delayed (on April 24th, 2020) to November 5, 2021, placing it on the original release date for the Disney-distributed MCU film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). Three months later (on July 23rd, 2020), it was delayed a second time: to December 17th, 2021. The new Doctor Strange film was forced to undergo rewrites and reshoots in order to realign continuity with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it was originally intended to be released prior to this film.

• The film revolving around the multiverse was meant to be a closely guarded secret, but listings for some tie-in toys that used phrases like "Blast your way into another universe" and "potentially multiversal consequences" made their way onto retail sites a few weeks before the first trailer was released.

• A few weeks before the film's release, the visual effects were still being worked on and getting the finishing touches.

• The final scene of the movie shows Tom Holland's Spider-Man swinging out of his apartment. He is wearing a brand new suit which seems to be inspired by the previous two Spider-Man suits which he saw on Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield during this movie. It appears that he uses Maguire's Spider-emblem and Garfield's vibrant color scheme and design. The suit also resembles the Earth-616 comic book costume.

• According to screenwriter Chris McKenna, both Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire were on board before they had read any of the scripts. McKenna stated, "They knew the idea, they trusted everyone."

• The idea of Norman having bouts of amnesia to completely separate himself from his Goblin identity is something that goes back to some of the earliest Green Goblin stories, and was also a frequent device on animated series like Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981).

• Both Rhys Ifans and Thomas Haden Church reprise their roles through voice acting only. Neither actor was available for filming. Their characters, Dr. Curt Connors/Lizard and Flint Marko/Sandman, respectively, are represented throughout the film through CGI. This is why their characters don't appear in human form until the end of the film. Stock footage of Ifans and Church from their previous films is used for these brief scenes.

• The reason Tom Hardy's Venom is pulled into the Verse is actually explained in the end credits of Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021). Just before he's pulled in, Venom tells Eddie that the symbioids share a hive mind across universes. Meaning Multiverses as well, therefore Venom knew Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker because Topher Grace's Venom did. He remembered being Spider-Man's suit in that universe. This could also explain why Grace's Venom was not pulled in as the spell "grabbed" a different version of the same symbiote.

• Parts of the plot involving Spider-Man erasing his identity borrow heavily from the 2010 story arc "One Moment In Time" and the 2007 story arc "One More Day" both written by Joe Quesada. However the major differences in this film are that Aunt May is killed, and instead of having only his secret identity erased from most people, the whole world forgets who Peter Parker is.

• An extended cut of the film, subtitled The More Fun Stuff Version, was announced in June 2022. The re-release celebrates 60 years of Spider-Man in comics and 20 years of Spider-Man in film, and features approximately 13 minutes of additional and deleted scenes. The additions include: an introduction from Holland, Maguire, and Garfield; additional scenes of Parker and May being interrogated by the Department of Damage Control; the scene with Holland's brother Harry as a thief that was cut from the original release; Daily Bugle reports of Parker's first day back at school and the arrivals of Dillon and Marko; additional scenes of Parker at school; Brant interviewing Parker, his teachers, and his classmates; additional scenes in the basement of the New York Sanctum; a scene featuring May, Parker, and the villains in an elevator while on the way to Hogan's apartment; an additional scene with Murdock; additional scenes of the three Parkers; and a new post-credits scene, replacing the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness teaser trailer, which showcases the effects of Strange's second spell.