The director of Spider-Man: No Way Home just confirmed what fans suspected about the threequel's ending.
Tom Holland’s latest outing as Peter Parker saw him team up with both Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire, as the trio took on five different supervillains. But, on top of that, by the film's conclusion, audiences finally had a classic Spidey in the MCU.
This webhead was mostly on his own, living alone and poor in New York City. It’s Peter Parker vs. the world, just like audiences have come to love.
Jon Watts Confirms the Meaning of No Way Home’s Conclusion
The Spider-Man: No Way Home - The Art of the Movie book just landed on shelves worldwide, and in it, the film’s director, Jon Watts, confirmed what audiences always suspected about the ending of the movie: it ends at the beginning.
Watts remarked that the idea going into the third installment was “always about how [doing] something” audiences “[hadn’t] seen before with Peter Parker:”
"When we were doing ‘Homecoming’, the discussions were always about how we do something that you haven't seen before with Peter Parker… That steers you down a couple different paths and leads you to doing things like having his best friend find out his identity, and having his aunt find out, and then, at the end of the last movie, having the whole world find out.”
He confirmed that after three movies, the whole trilogy was just “[them] really [taking their] time” telling Tom Holland’s Spidey “origin story:”
“So that was a fun thing to play with these new aspects. But in the end, you know, it was nice to be able to have everything coalesce into, at its essence, the simple story of Spider-Man. We just really all took our time telling the first issue of 'Spider-Man' — that origin story.”
Since No Way Home initially hit theaters, fans had speculated about this extended origin story, thinking the film ended where most of the other Spidey movies start with Peter broke, living in a rundown New York apartment, and under the guise of anonymity. And this is Jon Watts officially confirming that the movie's ending also acts as a conclusion of the Web-Slinger's MCU origin.
Marvel Studios Head of Visual Development Ryan Meinerding also shared how he was “super excited” to design Peter’s new suit on the film’s final moment, something the hero will seemingly carry forward with him into this next set of wall-crawling adventures.
The artist noted that the overall look is “a little bit influenced” by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s suits, pinning that after three movies and a few team-ups with the Avengers, the MCU finally has “a fully-fledged Spider-Man:”
"It's a classic red-and-blue suit with a spider that feels more grown-up—a little bit influenced by the spiders that he saw on Tobey [Maguire’s] and Andrew [Garfield’s] suits… The journey that he's been on, the pain that he's been through-losing both Tony [Stark] and [Aunt] May and then losing his friends at the end has allowed him to get to a place where he is not just the friendly neighborhood kid Spider-Man. Now he's more of a grown-up Spider-Man. He is owning that identity in a strong way. It's such a big movie, and ending on something like that feels right it feels like it's earned. Now we have a fully-fledged Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe who is classic."
What Will Spider-Man 4 Bring to the Table?
Tom Holland’s first six appearances in the MCU were basically the longest live-action origin story ever told for the character, and it’s what makes this particular take on the hero so unique.
With that in mind, it would be incredibly disappointing if it was the end of the line for him. Thankfully, that’s not the case.
While a Spider-Man 4 with Tom Holland will happen, development on the highly-anticipated sequel is stalled due to the two simultaneous strikes affecting the film industry currently.
No official release date is known, but recent reports may suggest that July 27, 2025, is when the next installment will drop—barring any delays, of course.
Fans are still speculating about what Spider-Man 4 could focus on, but many are really hoping to see Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin and Charlie Cox’s Daredevil become involved in some way.
Others are advocating for the MCU to start introducing Miles Morales to everyone, with the appearance of Donald Glover’s Prowler in Across the Spider-Verse being a key stepping stone.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is available for purchase digitally and physically now.
