Spider-Man: No Way Home Director Jon Watts Confirms Big Theory About His Peter Parker Trilogy

Spider-Man: No Way Home may have had some of the worst-kept secrets when it came to the film's cameos, but the threequel managed to keep a number of key plot points close to the vest. Three of those in question were Aunt May's death, Doctor Strange's memory spell, and Peter Parker moving into his glorified storage closet of a New York City apartment. As many fans pointed out, those moments seemed like puzzle pieces for an origin story, especially given the fact that Aunt May hits Peter with the iconic "great power, great responsibility" speech.

Jon Watts Confirms Spider-Man Trilogy is One Big Origin Story

As noted in the Spider-Man: No Way Home – The Art of the Movie book, director Jon Watts confirmed that his three Marvel Cinematic Universe web-slinging movies serve as one big origin story for Peter Parker.

"When we were doing [Spider-Man] Homecoming, the discussions were always about how we do something that you haven't seen before with Peter Parker. That steers you down a couple different paths and leads you to doing things like having his best friend find out his identity, and having his aunt find out, and then, at the end of the last movie, having the whole world find out," Watts said. "That was a fun thing to play with these new aspects. But in the end, it was nice to be able to have everything coalesce into, at its essence, the simple story of Spider-Man. We just really all took our time telling the first issue of Spider-Man — that origin story."

When fans last see Peter Parker, he is sewing together a new Spider-Man suit. He goes on to take these fresh threads out for a spin on the snow-covered New York City skyline before the credits roll. As some fans have interpreted, the suit pays homage to both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Men.

"It's a classic red-and-blue suit with a spider that feels more grown-up—a little bit influenced by the spiders that he saw on Tobey [Maguire's] and Andrew [Garfield's] suits," Marvel Studios Head of Visual Development Ryan Meinerding said. "Now he's more of a grown-up Spider-Man. He is owning that identity in a strong way. It's such a big movie, and ending on something like that feels right. It feels like it's earned."

Spider-Man: No Way Home is available on home video now.

When Will Spider-Man 4 Hit Theaters?

As of this writing, an untitled fourth Spider-Man movie starring Tom Holland has paused progress on pre-production due to the writers' strike. 

"I can say that we have been having meetings," Holland said this past June. "We've put the meetings on pause in solidarity with the writers. There's been multiple conversations had, but at this point it's very, very early stages."

There is no word on when Spider-Man 4 will be able to resume the scripting process. Considering it was starting that step just earlier this year, it's likely that Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios were aiming to begin filming at some point in 2024. That anticipated timeframe gets a big asterisk now with the ongoing strikes, but it's possible that if everything resolves in a timely manner, cameras could begin rolling next year. That would then leave 2025 as the likeliest release year for the fourquel to arrive in cinemas.