Marvel Studios and Sony's Spider-Man: No Way Home continues to take the world by storm and web up an extremely tidy profit. The film, most fans will agree, is a love-letter and a fitting tribute to the almost-twenty year film history of the Spider-Man character championed by Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland, and a stone-cold reminder of Peter Parker's famous credo, "With great power comes great responsibility."
Indeed, Spider-Man's greatest nemeses from across the Multiverse are transported to the main MCU to cause trouble after a mis-cast magical spell and it's up to not one, but three Peter Parkers to stop them.
Of course, most will know by now that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield appear in No Way Home as Spider-Men from other worlds: the worlds of the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb Spidey films, respectively. This proved to be a monumental occurrence for audiences, but their appearance was kept tightly under wraps before the release of the movie.
And it seems that the general public weren't the only ones kept in the dark regarding Maguire and Garfield's involvement.
Betty Brant's Actress Speaks on Marvel's Secrecy
Actress Angourie Rice, who plays Peter Parker's classmate Betty Brant in the MCU, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about her role in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
She started by revealing that she wasn't privy to the knowledge of the various surprises and secrets that the film had in store.
Despite getting to read the script for the threequel's predecessor, Rice confirmed that she only received sides for the filming of No Way Home, pages of a script being shot on a particular day of filming:
"I got to read the script on [Spider-Man: Far From Home]. They're very secretive about everything, which is fair."
Rice continued on to recount how she invited a friend who "knew all the theories" to a screening of the film:
"I’m not on the Marvel side of the Internet as much as superfans are. I have a friend who’s a superfan and I would just find out stuff from him. He would text me and say, 'Is this true?' And I would be like, 'Honestly, I don’t know. Stop asking me!' (Laughs.) I actually took him to the Melbourne screening, and he knew more than me, going into it. He was like, 'I’ve been on all the fan sites, I know all the theories.' (Laughs.)"
Rice also praised her experience watching the film as a fan:
"I loved the performances and I loved the VFX. The VFX are one of the coolest things about seeing anything Marvel or superhero. You can see the real people doing the stunts on set, but when you see how much work goes into creating a whole world, digitally, after everyone wraps, the visual spectacle of it all is just so exciting. "
The actress also cited the "audience's reactions" as a favorite element of attending the screening.
"At the screening here in Melbourne, there were a bunch of fans and press people, and one of my favorite things about seeing it was hearing the audience’s reactions. It was like seeing a live theater performance or a musical. Everyone was applauding and screaming and getting into it, so that was really fun."
Marvel And Sony's Subterfuge Seems To Have Paid Off
As mentioned above, No Way Home is smashing box office records and raking in tons of money. And what's more, almost everyone who sees the film appears to be happy with it. No mean feat, considering that the film has a lot of plates to keep spinning in order to keep everyone satisfied.
Maguire and Garfield only enter the film shortly before the final battle, yet they still feel like integral cogs in the story. By all accounts, it was an incredible experience to witness all three cinematic Spider-Men swing onto the silver screen at the same time.
The very fact that the studios kept all of this information away from a lot of the cast in the film in order to preserve the surprise is something that seemingly does not get enough credit.
Marvel Studios and Sony's Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing in theaters in many markets around the world.
