Spider-Man 3 leaks reveal a major first for the MCU

Spider-Man is uniquely suited for New York City. Web-slinging is a superpower that’s most useful in crowded cityscapes like Manhattan and Brooklyn than wide-open places like South Dakota. But bizarrely, the Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t allowed Tom Holland’s Spider-Man to have an eye-popping action scene within the city of New York — with all due respect to the Staten Island Ferry.

But finally, in Spider-Man: No Way Home, the MCU will give Peter Parker what he’s been missing: A New York-set action set piece.

What Happened? — On March 23, a Spider-Man fan account @spideysnews on shared on Twitter pictures from an Instagram user’s private account. While the source account is locked, @spideysnews shared what the user posted with a three bullet point description.

The tweet reads:

• “During an overnight shoot, they dropped people from a platform”
• “The set included an NYC street pole labeled ‘8th Avenue’”
• “The set was mainly blue screens & cranes”

Not only does the leak confirm that the movie will pick up from Spider-Man’s unmasking that happened at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home (Spidey was on a street pole outside Madison Square Garden on eighth avenue), it implies there may be something big going down in New York City. Based on other leaks shared by @spideynews, the set includes “a massive, stadium-sized wall of blue screens” that will be used to turn the whole place into New York City in post-production.

This can only mean a big New York action scene for Spider-Man: No Way Home, which has been sorely missing for the MCU’s Spider-Man.

A New York Moment — Despite Spider-Man’s roots in New York, the MCU has gone out of its way to have its web-slinger anywhere else besides the Big Apple. Some of the biggest action moments for Spider-Man have been outside the boroughs, such as Washington D.C., Venice, or even alien planets (as seen in Avengers: Infinity War). But rarely New York.

The only times Spider-Man actually had big battles in New York (excepting his fleeting fight in New York at the start of Infinity War) was on the Staten Island Ferry (on water) and Coney Island. Both happened in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and to be frank, the Coney Island fight looks like it takes place on literally any other beach in existence.

In short, the MCU hasn’t done the best job letting Spider-Man be, in bold text, a New York City superhero. Even the Raimi films, which also filmed outside New York, at least had moments scripted for places like the Flatiron, Madison Square Park, Columbia University, the Natural History Museum, Bellevue Hospital, the Queensboro Bridge, Central Park — the list goes on.

But finally, Spider-Man: No Way Home is correcting things. While it’s unclear what exactly is being shot in this stadium set (which, we’ll point out, is still in Atlanta), the scope of it implies something big. Given the multiverse premise of No Way Home, it might be really big.

The Inverse Analysis — So much of No Way Home is kept secret that it’s impossible to really know what is being shot at this very moment. It could be a multiverse crossover with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Or it might not. The stadium could be turned into New York in post-production. Or it might not. But with what little we do know, it’s fingers crossed that the MCU Spider-Man actually lives up to his movie’s titles, bringing the web-slinger home to the city he belongs.

Spider-Man: No Way Home will be released in theaters on December 17.