Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man: No Way Home is a 2021 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, co-produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), and the 27th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Jon Watts and written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. It stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man alongside Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Benedict Wong, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire. In the film, Parker asks Dr. Stephen Strange (Cumberbatch) to use magic to make his identity as Spider-Man a secret again after it was revealed to the world at the end of Far From Home. When the spell goes wrong because of Parker's actions, the multiverse is broken open and several visitors from alternate realities are brought into Parker's universe.

A third MCU Spider-Man film was planned during the production of Homecoming in 2017. Negotiations between Sony and Marvel Studios to alter their deal—in which they produce the Spider-Man films together—ended with Marvel Studios leaving the project in August 2019, but a negative fan reaction led to a new deal between the companies a month later. Watts, McKenna, Sommers, and Holland were set to return, and filming took place from October 2020 to March 2021 in New York City and Atlanta. No Way Home serves as a crossover between the MCU and the previous Spider-Man films directed by Sam Raimi and Marc Webb. Several actors reprise their roles from those films, including previous Spider-Man actors Maguire and Garfield. The pair's involvement was the subject of wide speculation and numerous leaks despite Sony, Marvel, and the cast's efforts to conceal their involvement until the film's release.

Spider-Man: No Way Home premiered at the Fox Village Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on December 13, 2021, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 17, as part of Phase Four of the MCU. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed over $1.953 billion worldwide, surpassing its predecessor as the highest-grossing film released by Sony Pictures. It became the highest-grossing film of 2021, the sixth-highest-grossing film at the time of its release, the highest-grossing Spider-Man film, and set several other box office records, including those for films released during the COVID-19 pandemic. The film received a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 94th Academy Awards, among numerous other accolades. An extended version of the film, subtitled The More Fun Stuff Version, had a global theatrical release in September 2022. A sequel is scheduled for release in July 2026.

After Quentin Beck frames Peter Parker for his murder and reveals that Peter is Spider-Man, the Department of Damage Control arrests Peter; his girlfriend, Michelle "MJ" Jones-Watson; his best friend, Ned Leeds; and his aunt, May Parker. Lawyer Matt Murdock gets Peter's charges dropped, but the group grapples with negative publicity. After Peter's, MJ's, and Ned's MIT applications are rejected, Peter goes to the New York Sanctum to ask Dr. Stephen Strange for help. Strange starts casting a spell that would make everyone forget Peter is Spider-Man, but it is corrupted when Peter repeatedly requests alterations to let his loved ones retain their memories. Strange contains the corrupted spell.

At Strange's suggestion, Peter tries to convince an MIT administrator to reconsider MJ's and Ned's applications. He is attacked by Otto Octavius, who rips nanotechnology from Peter's Iron Spider suit. This bonds with Octavius's mechanical tentacles and allows Peter to control them. As Norman Osborn arrives and attacks, Strange teleports Peter back to the Sanctum and locks Octavius in a cell next to Curt Connors. Strange explains that the corrupted spell summoned people from other universes within the multiverse who know Spider-Man's identity. He orders Peter, MJ, and Ned to find and capture the others; they locate and retrieve Max Dillon and Flint Marko at a military research facility.

Osborn reclaims control of himself from his split Green Goblin personality and destroys the Goblin mask. He gets help from May until Peter retrieves him. While discussing their battles with Spider-Man, Osborn, Octavius, and Dillon realize they were pulled from their universes just before their deaths. Strange prepares to reverse the contained spell and send the villains back to their respective universes, but Peter argues that they should first help each villain to possibly change their fates upon their return. When Strange refuses, Peter steals the spell, traps Strange in the Mirror Dimension, and takes the villains to Happy Hogan's apartment. He uses Stark Industries technology to cure Octavius. Before Peter can cure anyone else, the Goblin persona retakes control of Osborn. The Goblin convinces the other villains to betray Peter and fatally wounds May as Dillon, Marko, and Connors escape; before she dies, May tells Peter that "with great power, there must also come great responsibility".

Ned discovers that he can create portals using Strange's sling ring, which he and MJ use to try to locate Peter. They instead find "Peter-Two" and "Peter-Three", alternate versions of Peter who were also summoned from the villains' universes by Strange's spell. The group finds this universe's Peter ("Peter-One"), who is mourning May and ready to send the villains home to die. The alternate Peters share stories of losing loved ones and encourage Peter-One to fight in May's honor. The three Peters develop cures for the villains and lure them to the Statue of Liberty. Peter-One and Peter-Two cure Connors and Marko while Octavius helps cure Dillon. Ned accidentally frees Strange from the Mirror Dimension. The Goblin unleashes the contained spell, breaking the barriers between universes and pulling in countless others who know Peter's identity. Strange attempts to hold them off while an enraged Peter-One tries to kill the Goblin. Peter-Two stops him and Peter-Three helps Peter-One inject the Goblin with his cure, restoring Osborn's sanity.

Peter-One realizes that the only way to protect the multiverse is to erase himself from everyone's memory and requests Strange do so while promising MJ and Ned that he will find them and remind them who he is. Strange reluctantly casts the spell, and everyone returns to their respective universes—including Eddie Brock, who unknowingly leaves behind a piece of the Venom symbiote. Two weeks later, Peter visits MJ to reintroduce himself to her and Ned, but decides against it. While mourning at May's grave, he has a conversation with Hogan and is inspired to carry on, making a new Spider-Man suit and resuming his vigilantism.

Rhys Ifans reprises his role as Dr. Curt Connors / Lizard, an Oscorp scientist from Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) who transformed into a large reptilian monster while trying to regrow his missing arm. Thomas Haden Church reprises his role as Flint Marko / Sandman, a small-time thief from Raimi's Spider-Man 3 who received an ability to transform into sand. Both Ifans and Church returned to voice the characters, though footage at the end of the film when they revert to their human forms was archival footage from The Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man 3, respectively. Watts served as a stand-in for Church on-set by providing motion-capture reference to the uncredited body double who physically replaced Church in the role. Charlie Cox reprises his role as Matt Murdock from Marvel Television's Netflix series, and Tom Hardy reprises his roles as Eddie Brock / Venom from Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) in an uncredited cameo appearance in the mid-credits scene.

Reprising their roles from previous MCU Spider-Man films are Angourie Rice as Betty Brant, Parker's classmate and Ned's ex-girlfriend; Hannibal Buress as Coach Wilson, Midtown School of Science and Technology's gym teacher; Martin Starr as Roger Harrington, Parker's academic decathlon teacher; J. B. Smoove as Julius Dell, Parker's teacher; J. K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, the host of The Daily Bugle; and Gary Weeks as Department of Damage Control (DODC) agent Foster. Jake Gyllenhaal appears as Quentin Beck / Mysterio via archival footage from Far From Home. Also appearing in the film are Paula Newsome as an MIT administrator, Arian Moayed as DODC agent Cleary, Mary Rivera as Ned's grandmother, and Cristo Fernández as a bartender serving Brock. Tom Holland's brother Harry Holland was set to make a cameo as a thief, but his scenes were cut from the original theatrical release. Lexi Rabe, who portrayed Stark's daughter Morgan in the film Avengers: Endgame (2019), also had an appearance that was not included in the theatrical release.

During production on the film Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), two sequels were being planned by Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures. In June 2017, star Tom Holland explained that each film would take place during a different year of high school for Peter Parker / Spider-Man, with the third being set during the character's senior year. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige noted in July 2019 that the third film would feature "a Peter Parker story that has never been done before on film" due to the ending of the second film, Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), which publicly reveals that Parker is Spider-Man.

Development on third and fourth MCU Spider-Man films had begun by August 2019, with Sony hoping Holland and director Jon Watts would return for both; Holland was contracted to return for one more film, while Watts had completed his two-film deal and would need to sign on for any more films. By then, Marvel Studios and its parent company The Walt Disney Studios had spent several months discussing expanding their deal with Sony. The existing deal had Marvel and Feige produce the Spider-Man films for Sony and receive 5% of their revenue. Sony wanted to expand the deal to include more films while keeping the same terms of the original agreement. Disney expressed concern with Feige's workload producing the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) franchise already and asked for a 25–50% stake in any future films Feige produced for Sony. Unable to come to an agreement, Sony announced that it would be moving forward on the next Spider-Man film without Feige or Marvel's involvement. Their statement acknowledged that this could change in the future, thanked Feige for his work on the first two films, and said they appreciated "the path [Feige] has helped put us on, which we will continue." Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers were writing the screenplay for the third film by the time of Sony's announcement, after also doing so for Far From Home, but Watts was receiving offers to direct large films for other studios instead of returning to the franchise, including potentially working on a different property for Marvel Studios and Feige.