Spider-Man: No Way Home Writers Rewrote Major Scene 10 Times

Like Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: No Way Home was always going to be a challenging story to write. Bringing together different Spider-Man sagas in a way that was fulfilling and deeper than simple fan service was a difficult task, but writers Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna managed to pull it off. The script wasn’t without its challenges, and there was one scene in particular that needed a ton of rewrites before it could finally work.

During IGN Fan Fest this weekend, Sommers and McKenna opened up about their experience writing the Sony and Marvel film. Sommers explained that the first scene between Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire was particularly challenging, as they had to balance all three stories. 

“When they got pulled into this movie, what condition were they in? What were they doing? What was their mindset? The end of the last Amazing Spider-Man had this really nice speech from Gwen about staying hopeful and everything. And immediately it became interesting to us,” Sommers said. “Well, what if Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, if his Peter Parker couldn’t do it, he couldn’t keep that hope. He was too hurt by what happened. And so, that led us to the attitude that we found for him.”

“And then we also had to think long and hard about where Tobey’s Spider-Man would be in,” the writer continued. “And that was a more difficult question ’cause more time has gone by. And what has that guy been up to? And then of course the actors had opinions about what their Spider-Man, what their Peter Parkers should have been up to, and where they’d be coming from as well.”

As Sommers noted, it wasn’t just up to the writers where each of those three characters was going throughout the film. All three Spider-Man actors had a say in what their version of the character would be up to.

“The story just evolves the entire time,” said McKenna. “This is all a collaborative experience with effort with [MCU boss] Kevin Feige and [Spider-Man producer] Amy Pascal and [director] Jon Watts and many more and we’re just all working together […] Once we knew we had Tobey and Andrew, obviously we have an MCU Peter Parker story to tell, and we knew we’d be holding off on Tobey and Andrew till the third act, but we definitely talked a lot about how will they be coming in, so it didn’t feel like it was just Deus Ex Machina.”

What did you think of Spider-Man: No Way Home? Let us know in the comments!