For the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man, our friendly neighborhood hero’s identity is revealed to the world, bringing his life as a 17-year-old high school senior – as well as the lives of his loved ones – into the public eye. The danger and chaos that surrounds Spider-Man end up costing Peter – and MJ and Ned (who the media cast as Spider-Man’s accomplices) – their chance to get into college. Unable to stand by and watch his friends’ dreams dashed, Peter asks Doctor Strange to restore his secret. Strange, who carries the weight of having made the decision that took the life of Peter’s mentor (Tony Stark), is moved by Peter’s entreaty and agrees to help him against his better judgment. A decision that almost breaks him emotionally.
Strange begins to cast the Spell of Forgetting, but when Peter realizes the spell will cause MJ, Ned, May, and Happy to forget he’s Spider-Man, he wants to have it both ways. Endeavoring to have everything exactly as it was before Mysterio revealed his identity, Peter changes the parameters of the spell while Strange is casting it — inadvertently opening a Pandora’s Box that starts to bring everyone who knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man in every universe into the MCU. Strange contains the spell before an infinite number of visitors come through, but unfortunately for Peter, the people who make it through are Spider-Man’s enemies in other universes.
Now, Peter must face the most formidable villains who’ve ever fought a Spider-Man in any universe, while trying to protect his future with MJ and Ned. In this powerful culmination of Peter Parker’s MCU origin story, Peter will make the costly sacrifices that true heroes make every day in order to help others.
The culmination of the Homecoming trilogy is an emotional endeavor with Peter Parker in his last year of high school and the eyes of the world on him. It was clear that No Way Home would be the final chapter in Peter Parker’s coming-of-age story. In Civil War, Tony Stark, Peter’s mentor says, ‘Are you the spider-boy?’ And in the previous films, Peter really has been the spider-boy with a support system always ready to catch him before he falls; but what is Peter Parker without his support and how does that change who Spider-Man is meant to become? Yes, this is a film about him becoming the Spider-Man but it is also about change, growth, and if one has the power to fulfill his destiny when everyone and everything is stripped away from him due to his own actions.
Will he step into the darkness or find the light at the end of the’ with great power comes great responsibility tunnel’? In No Way Home, Peter’s choices are a lot more complicated as Peter and Spider-Man’s paths become one; and the right thing isn’t always easy to determine. Peter is torn between what he wants in the present moment and where his destiny is taking him, but can you change destiny, or should you just sit back and let it happen?
No Way Home questions what makes a superhero and what makes a villain. Can a villain change their fate or are they destined to forever play the role given? Once they are portrayed as fully fleshed-out characters with a sole purpose to attack the hero, can we look at them differently?
To learn more about Spider-Man: No Way Home, check out the full spoiler-free review in the video above.
