Posted in: Marvel Studios, Movies, Sony | Tagged: alfred molina, doc ock, electro, green goblin, jamie foxx, spider-man, spider-man: no way home, tom holland, willem dafoe, zendaya
Spider-Man: No Way Home: Tom Holland 'Villains Originally a Secret'
With anticipation mounting for the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home, it's hard to imagine the hype being any different with the villains involved coming from the multiverse. According to franchise star Tom Holland, who spoke to Yahoo Entertainment UK about initial plans before they were changed. If Sony's marketing had its way, it would have been much different. The film was to be built up more as a conflict between [Spider-Man] and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) rather than the multiverse aspect.
The concept was already introduced in the previous film Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019 when Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio revealed to Peter (Holland) about being from the multiverse. The events of No Way Home picked up from the end-credits scene where media mogul J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) of the Daily Bugle that shows Mysterio's secret broadcast revealing Peter Parker's identity as the title character at Times Square. With the multiverse expanded upon in the Disney+ series WandaVision and Loki, the stakes were certainly raised as figures from Spider-Man's rogue gallery were revealed from the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb films for Jon Watts' latest. "We're pretty tired of constantly lying and deceiving people," Holland said. "I feel like conscience is weighing on me now. It's tough." Confirmed returning are Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin, Alfred Molina as Doc Ock, Thomas Haden Church as Sandman, Rhys Ifans as The Lizard, Jamie Foxx as Electro. Each was the primary villain of the five films during the Raimi and Webb eras.
"Remember when that was the initial marketing plan?" Holland said. "The initial plan was to make the film seem like a civil war between myself and Doctor Strange, and they were gonna keep everything a secret. That is impossible." Co-star Zandaya, who plays MJ, agreed it would have been "exhausting" to keep such a secret while humoring on the fan theories she encountered. "There's some things where I'm like, 'why didn't we think of that?' It's really cool, and I think that's part of the excitement and the fun — the theories and the ideas and possibilities. There now is, because of the multiverse, literally an infinite amount of possibilities of what this film could be or could turn into. I think everybody should just go into it with no expectations and just have fun." Dafoe, Molina, and Foxx have since also spoken up about reprising their roles and how technology changed since their original appearances. For more on Spider-Man: No Way Home, you can go to Yahoo. The film comes to theaters on December 17th.