Spider-Man: No Way Home Plot Was Changed After Another Marvel Movie Delayed Release

There was once a timeline when Spider-Man: No Way Home was going to come after the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, where the Sorcerer Supreme (Benedict Cumberbatch) went on a mind-bending trip through the multiverse. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Doctor Strange follow-up was delayed (more than once), forcing the filmmakers to alter No Way Home significantly. In fact, Spider-Man star Tom Holland says there were substantial script rewrites being done to the movie long after principal photography had even started.

“You could ask the director, ‘What happens in act three?’ And his response would be, ‘I’m still trying to figure it out,’ ” Holland said in a recent stop with GQ.

The key connection between the two flicks is the involvement of Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange. He has a healthy role alongside Holland’s Peter Parker this December and will take the reigns of his own franchise once again come May.

“All the time when you’re making those movies are pinch-yourself moments,” Cumberbatch to Esquire UK earlier this month. “I’m never over the giddy nature of working opposite Spider-Man. It’s pretty cool.”

“You go into it, and you commit to it and it’s daft,” Cumberbatch said of working on superhero movies. “But it’s also really enjoyable and intoxicating and should be celebrated as well and treated for what it is, which is fun.”

In a separate interview, the A-lister confirmed his mystical character and Parker and will grow closely over the events of No Way Home.

“There’s a close relationship,” Cumberbatch explained to The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year. “They’re neighborhood superheroes, and they’ve had an experience or two. They’ve got history. It might be the case that Peter asks me to help him do something? I think I’m allowed to say that much. I help him fill in his tax returns. That’s what I do.”

Spider-Man: No Way Home is set for release on December 17th. What other Spidey-family characters do you think will end up appearing in the upcoming feature? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!