A deleted sequence from Marvel Studios and Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home has seen the light of day, thanks to an upload by a storyboard artist who worked on the film.
Spider-Man: No Way Home was arguably one of Phase 4’s most popular and successful projects. Bringing back a collection of Spider-Villains and Spider-Men from the history of the live-action franchise essentially turned the film into a money-printing machine.
One such classic villain was Thomas Haden Church’s Flint Marko aka, Sandman. Simply wanting to get home to his daughter in his native universe, Marko spent much of the film sympathizing with Tom Holland’s Peter, but eventually acted against him in the final battle.
Storyboards are an incredibly crucial element in the filmmaking process. They help the director and the rest of the crew determine how specific scenes are supposed to go. These storyboards are often just rough sketches and will typically be turned into brief animations called animatics. And it seems from the storyboards below, a sizable Sandman action scene was left on the cutting room floor.
No Way Home Storyboards Depict Deleted Sandman Fight
Phil Langone, a storyboard artist on 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home took to Instagram to share an animatic that he worked on for the film. The sequence in question features Doctor Strange and Peter Parker getting interrupted by a sudden onslaught of sand, courtesy of Flint Marko.
Dr. Strange attempts to cast his spell as Spider-Man looks on.
Whirlwinds of sand and debris suddenly overtake the proceedings, causing Strange to falter.
Marko makes his presence known, coming face-to-face with Peter.
Stephen pokes his head in from a Sling Ring portal.
The three characters stand together.
Check out the video posted by Langone below:
Why Did Marvel Remove This Scene?
Interestingly, Flint appears fully human in that last still, as opposed to being completely sandy as shown in the finished film.
It’s easy to be curious about the context of this scene but it’s difficult to know for certain what was going on since there isn’t really a sequence in the movie that matches up with the storyboards.
Fans will remember that Sandman enters the film as a shaky ally to Peter and only turns against him when he feels he’s overstayed his own welcome on Earth-616. Perhaps the above was meant to take place during the final battle where an understandably irked Marko had decided enough was enough.
Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: No Way Home isn’t currently available on Disney+, unlike most of the rest of the studio’s catalog, but it can be purchased wherever movies are sold.
Furthermore, Peter Parker’s next big-screen adventure is currently in early development and could potentially be targeting a 2024 release date.
