‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’: This Scene With All 3 Spideys Took 10 Rewrites to Get Right
The Spider-Man: No Way Home writers put a lot of work into getting the movie just right. That includes, of course, the now-iconic moments between Spider-Man actors Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire, who joined forces in the third act. According to writers Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna, one Spider-Man: No Way Home scene between the three Spideys went through 10 rewrites before it was finally ready for the big screen.
[Spoiler alert: The following story contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home.]
‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ brings Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland, and Tobey Maguire together on a rooftop
Fans of the Spider-Man films will likely forever remember the first meeting between the three Spider-Man iterations.
In one of No Way Home’s most emotional and raw scenes, Garfield’s and Maguire’s Peter Parkers meet with Holland’s Peter on a rooftop. Holland’s Peter has just lost his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). He wants to send his fellow Spider-Men and their villains back to their own universes, but Garfield’s and Maguire’s Peters try to convince him to keep fighting.
Holland’s Peter insists that the others have no idea what he’s going through. Then, in a touching moment of reflection, his fellow web-slinging heroes share their own stories of loss. Maguire’s Peter tells Holland’s about the death of Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson, as seen in the original Spider-Man). Meanwhile, Garfield’s Peter shares that he lost Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone in The Amazing Spider-Man 2).
Together, the three Spider-Men learn that none of them are alone. They’re connected by a famous line that Uncle Ben or Aunt May once said to each of them: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Ultimately, the conversation aids Holland’s Peter in learning what it truly means to be Spider-Man.
‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ writers Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna said the scene took 10 rewrites and a lot of collaboration
In a detailed interview at IGN Fan Fest, Sommers and McKenna detailed the process of creating the rooftop scene. Sommers explained that they needed to look at the lives of Garfield’s and Maguire’s Peters to add depth to the scene.
“When they got pulled into this movie, what condition were they in? What were they doing? What was their mindset? … Well, what if Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, if his Peter Parker couldn’t do it, he couldn’t keep that hope,” the writer said. “And then we also had to think long and hard about where Tobey’s Spider-Man would be.”
The writers had plenty of conversations about this, which led to approximately 10 rewrites of the Spider-Man: No Way Home scene. They opened the floor to the actors, director Jon Watts, and producer Amy Pascal. Even Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige joined the discussion. McKenna added:
Making a movie like this is a big collaborative experience. And with each collaborator, it just gets better and better. But it changes. And even the night before that big rooftop scene with the three of them meeting together and trying to convince MCU Peter not to push the button and send these people back to their deaths. That was the kind of thing that we’d been working on over and over. And then the actors come in and then we rip it all apart and we put it all back together again.
The scene’s final cut included a little bit of everything
In the end, the rooftop segment incorporated ideas from everyone, including Holland, Garfield, and Maguire. It might just be Spider-Man: No Way Home’s most collaborative scene.
“A lot of the pieces are there, but in slightly different ways,” McKenna continued. “And it’s just an evolution and for us, it’s just a privilege to work with all these incredible people. And we were all working together, that’s what was so great about it. Just trying to make sure it was living up to this great concept.”
Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing in theaters.
