Spider-Man: No Way Home continues to be the talk of the movie community well into 2022, already sitting as the sixth-highest grossing movie in history. This comes with some of the best reviews for any superhero movie ever made, giving Sony and Marvel a massive success. Featuring more than a dozen high-profile stars and incredible action all the way through, the threequel had no shortage of thrills.
As the MCU's last movie of 2021 makes its run in theaters, its cast and crew are starting to share various behind-the-scenes details about how everything came together on screen. From details about No Way Home's Spider-Man team-up action to scrapped scenes with Charlie Cox's Daredevil, fans are getting a deep look into how much work it took to make this blockbuster happen.
Another topic of discussion included some of No Way Home's most difficult scenes, along with some moments that changed direction during production. A recent interview with No Way Home's screenwriting duo even revealed that this was the case for a turning point in the plot that included one of the story's biggest fights.
How No Way Home's Condo Scene Almost Changed
In a sitdown with The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith, Spider-Man: No Way Home writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers touched on how a turning point scene in Happy Hogan's condo was almost different.
The pair revealed that Jacob Batalon's Ned and Zendaya's MJ were almost in the scene alongside four of the film's villains, Peter Parker, and Aunt May.
Eventually, Peter's friends were taken out of the scene to make sure they weren't there with nothing to say alongside so many other powerful players. This allowed that moment "to focus on the villains" as Peter found out more of what was truly about to happen, particularly how things were going to get worse from there:
"It’s funny, the Happy’s condo scene, originally, we had Ned and MJ in that scene too, and it was like ‘Oh my god, we’re trying to service all these villains and we’re trying to keep Ned and MJ alive,’ and then we split them off with the box, which then works dramatically, but then it’s like, well, then we don’t have to be constantly servicing. So we have Alfred, we have Willem, we got Jamie there, and then we’re gonna have Zendaya and Jacob not have any lines? We can’t do that. So once we dramatically move them from that, everyone was like, ‘Now we just get to focus on the villains,’ but it was that kind of stuff all the time. It was always honing, stripping down, changing locations."
This led to a conversation about the scene featuring Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire's introductions via Ned's Sling Ring portals. The screenwriters hinted that they were already thinking about having Ned use the Sling Ring, but that everything switched around once Happy's condo became a more important locale.
Originally, that condo "was only supposed to be in Act 1" and only meant to be used for "some of those fun apartment scenes" rather than the massive battle that actually came into play. Everything changed during production for this scene, so much so that the set itself had to be adjusted to take the brunt of all the action that needed to take place there:
“I think we were already playing around with that idea of him having the Sling Ring, but whether he brought it to Happy’s condo or not… and that location changed. It was not originally Happy’s condo, there were different locations. And it was funny, if you wanna know just a technical thing. When we switched all that to Happy’s condo, Happy’s condo was only supposed to be in Act 1, and it was only just supposed to be for some of those fun apartment scenes. It was not built for a giant action-throwdown Wrestlemania extravaganza. And so, that all had to be, I think it was right before Thanksgiving or Christmas where it was a big thing. We had to stand around one night after work on the set and go, 'This has to now withstand walls coming down now, people being thrown into, flames coming out, how are we gonna do this?’ And it was a big, big ordeal that Joanne Perritano, who’s our line producer, executive producer on the movie, we threw headaches at her every day, and that was one of them was like, ‘Oh, we’re not having it at this other location now,' it’s all here in this set that was not supposed to be - it was not built, and it’s built, and it’s here, and it’s not built for this. Now we have to retrofit it for this giant action sequence."
Major Changes for No Way Home Moments
Every Marvel movie takes the opportunity to change plot details and story beats during production, whether they be minor or major changes to make the final outcome better. This was the case in a big way for No Way Home with at least these two important scenes going through major adjustments from pre-production to final release.
Ned and MJ both played key roles in these scenes thanks to their absence from the scene with Goblin's reveal and their importance in bringing Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire into the movie.
The decision to take Peter's friends out of the scene with four of the movie's villains made that moment even more dramatic, especially since they had all interacted in Doctor Strange's basement earlier in the plot. It also helped make more of an impact when Ned and MJ teamed up with the other Spider-Men to find the MCU's Peter and give him the backup he needed.
While the timing behind these changes is unclear, Marvel and Sony clearly did their due diligence to make sure that the plot played out as smoothly as possible. Considering how important all five villains were, along with both Ned and MJ, every character got their time to shine as Peter Parker's story pushed forward to new heights.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing in theaters worldwide.
