How Marvel Helped Sony Learn From Its Mistakes With ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’

by Josh Ramos · January 3, 2022

One of the biggest films of all time, and one of the greatest on-screen adaptations of Peter Parker, Spider-Man: No Way Home was a landmark achievement for everyone involved; but also a lesson in how Marvel helped Sony learn from its mistakes.

There has maybe never been a more ambitious project than Spider-Man: No Way Home; a film that clearly and unabashedly celebrates 20 years of Peter Parker on screen; it feels as though the story was destined to be the biggest exploration into the character yet.

Source: Marvel Studios

With 2016’s introduction to the MCU’s Peter Parker came a unique air of expectation for the character; it isn’t that the previous iterations were bad, it just felt…different.

There was a track record with Marvel- who at that time was just finding its footing as the biggest interconnected universe in cinema history- that lent itself to doing the character of Peter Parker justice in a way that had never been achieved.

Marvel

Or at least, they represented the character’s best chance.

Captain America: Civil War was a smashing success, and Spider-Man: Homecoming delivered fans with the beginnings of a brand new Peter Parker franchise that made good on everything that they hoped he would be.

Source: Marvel Studios

With Sony’s participation, fans were cautiously optimistic about its continuation, however; every sequel attempt at the character had been found with varying results.

Spider-Man 2, the sequel to Sam Raimi’s 2000’s era Spider-Man film, is one of the best turns on the character to date; whereas The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the sequel to Marc Webb’s version of the character was a bloated and confusing outing.

Source: Sony Pictures

Spider-Man; Far From Home was another great outing for Tom Hollands Peter Parker, and kept a very simple arc for the character that had proven him well; focus on the development of his Spider-Man, while giving him one villain to face off against.

Things changed, however, with the rumbling of just what was in store for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Source: Marvel Studios

With Spider-Man 3 suffering from similar flaws as The Amazing Spider-Man 2, many wondered how Sony would fair created yet another third installment that was rumored to involve various villains.

That is how Marvel helped Sony learn from its past mistakes.

Marvel has become the premier franchise at handling a film with a variety of characters; with their various Avengers films roving their ability at juggling so many moving parts.

Sony had the opposite problem; whenever they had to develop a film with too many pieces, it was common for them to falter on delivering on the development of some of them; often creating an unfulfilling experience that feels overly stuffed.

Source: Marvel

With the combination of Marvel’s understanding of how to make a film with so many moving parts, and Sony’s incredible characters developed over 20 years of Spider-Man films; it was a match made in comic book movie heaven.

Thus, Spider-Man: No Way Home was not only perhaps the greatest Spider-Man film of all time, but it was the moment in history that displayed how Marvel helped Sony learn from its mistakes.