Spider-Man: No Way Home was a true rollercoaster for fans, both in terms of the movie itself and the run-up to release. Ever since the dramatic cliffhanger of Far From Home saw Peter Parker's heroic identity revealed to the world, MCU enthusiasts couldn't wait to see what was next. But the picture of Tom Holland's third MCU outing changed dramatically when Alfred Molina's Doc Ock was confirmed to be returning along with Jamie Foxx's Electro.
The end result was a Multiverse blockbuster packed with excitement, nostalgia, and fan-favorite characters, which changed the game of the MCU forever. Celebrating three generations of Spider-Man meant not just bringing the three legendary Peter Parkers together, but also reuniting heroes and villains of the past for the first time in years.
These moments, such as Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man standing opposite with Alfred Molina's Doc Ock, proved to be emotional for audiences, but it appears the cast had the exact same feelings in making No Way Home.
Alfred Molina Reveals His No Way Home Tear Up Moment
During a recent appearance on the Household Faces podcast, Doc Ock actor Alfred Molina revealed which scene in Spider-Man: No Way Home made him tear up.
Molina revealed his love for the scene in which Andrew Garfield cracks Tobey Maguire's back, calling it a "perfect little moment," but also sharing his interest in discovering "how much of that was improvised:"
“Yeah it was brilliant… I’d love to know, I don’t know Tobey or Andrew well enough to kind of just phone them up and ask, but I’d love to know just how much of that was improvised… When I saw the movie, the audience just lapped it up, it was just perfect. It was a perfect little moment.”
The British actor described how he got "very teary" in his "delightful" reunion scene with Maguire's Peter Parker, whilst also sharing how the two of them joked that they "might be a bit too old for this:"
“I got a little emotional, actually. There was one scene where I suddenly meet Tobey, and he kinda goes ‘How are you, Doctor?’ And I go, ‘Oh my god, it’s good to see you.’ I got very teary in that scene. I kinda went, ‘Oh shit, this is a moment.’ And it was delightful. And it was, of course, delightful to see Tobey again. We did have a giggle on set about… I think I said something like, ’I’m terrified that I might be a bit too old for this.’”
The interviewer went on to ask if Molina aimed to replicate his 2004 Spider-Man 2 performance, the actor revealed that wasn't really his goal. Molina claims to have initially questioned how he would return years after his character's death, before thinking back to a conversation he had with producer Avi Arad while filming his 2004 debut, in which he told him "nobody dies in this universe:"
“No, it wasn’t that really… My first question was, ‘How are you going to bring me back? I mean, I died! He died.’ And then I remembered a conversation I had with Avi Arad, who at the time was running Marvel, and he was overseeing the production with Sam Raimi. And I remember saying to Avi at the time, ‘Well I guess once we’ve shot this scene, I guess your option on me is null and void.’ ’Cause, they’d signed me up for two movies and I thought, ‘I’ve died, there’s no way I’m going to be in the second one.’ And he said, and I’ll never forget it, he said, ‘Nobody dies in this universe.’"
The legacy Marvel star went on to share how No Way Home director Jon Watts explaining the Multiverse concept of his return "blew [his] mind," calling it "the exciting part" of coming back:
"So keeping all his options open, and it turned out to be prophetic… so when I talked to Jon, I said, ‘So, how are we gonna–, what are we doing?… Am I coming back 17 years after my death?’ And he said, ‘No, we’re going to pick it up… from just before where you left it. Something’s going to happen…’ and then he started explaining the whole thing about how these different universes are existing… and that just blew my mind… The movie did the most extraordinary thing by bringing all these universes together into a Multiverse… and that, I thought, was the exciting part…”
The interviewer went on to call No Way Home a "meta-commentary on the genre itself" as it asks the audience, "Who is your Spider-Man?:"
Interviewer: “It becomes, by its very nature, sort of a meta-commentary on the genre itself. It becomes this sort of thing of, ‘Well, who is your Spider-Man?’ Which is the same thing that the fans are asking themselves as they sit in the audience. We all became the villains for a moment, like, ’Well, no, that’s the one I grew up with so obviously…”
Molina agreed with the analysis, expanding to call it a comment on the "whole, wonderful magic of movies," explaining how the "audience’s capacity to suspend their disbelief is infinite" as long as they are rewarded with something "exciting and different:"
“That’s right. And I think in a way, in a kind of sly, perhaps, indirect way, it’s almost also a comment on the whole, wonderful magic of movies themselves. The idea that you can ask an audience, as long as you pay them back with your creativity and entertainment… the audience’s capacity to suspend their disbelief is infinite. So these movies, when people say, ‘Oh, how can you do another? How can they ever make another one of these films?’ Well, it’s obvious because our imaginations are infinite. And as long as you can present an audience with something that’s going to be exciting and different and is going to involve them and intrigue them, you can go anywhere with it.”
No Way Home Was Crazy For Everybody
No Way Home generated cheers and tears from audiences around the world, as fans were elated to see heroes and villains return to the big screen for, what was in some cases, the first time in decades.
Tobey Maguire's Peter reuniting with Alfred Molina's Doc Ock proved to be a joyful moment of emotion for audiences, especially given all the Spider-Man 2 references packed into the conversation. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 fans were gifted similarly as Andrew Garfield's Spidey spoke to Jamie Foxx's Electro, now free of his power corruption.
Unfortunately, No Way Home was missing one long-awaited reunion: Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man with Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin. The original Spider-Man villain and hero pairing never got the chance to fight or even talk again, something that would have been interesting given the closeness between them before Osborn's villainous turn.
Deleted scenes have revealed the two once fought in the skies on Goblin's glider, although that scene sadly never made it into the final cut. Nonetheless, No Way Home delivered a beyond satisfying nostalgia trip that audiences will be talking about for years to come.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is out now on digital platforms.
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