Spider-Man: No Way Home could bring one historic change to the MCU

The closer we get to the long-awaited release of Spider-Man: No Way Home this December, the more we learn about Marvel and Sony’s plans for the franchise.

Throughout the past few weeks, the studios have confirmed the roles of several multiversal villains in No Way Home and announced the planned release of an animated series titled Spider-Man: Freshman Year. However, with No Way Home serving as the final chapter in the trilogy that began with Spider-Man: Homecoming, there’s still a lot of uncertainty surrounding Tom Holland’s future as Peter Parker.

Thankfully, some of that uncertainty has, at last, been cleared away.

What happened — In a recent interview with Fandango, producer Amy Pascal revealed that Sony and Marvel are already planning on doing another trilogy of Spider-Man films together after No Way Home.

“This is not the last movie that we are going to make with Marvel – [this is not] the last Spider-Man movie. We are getting ready to make the next Spider-Man movie with Tom Holland and Marvel. We’re thinking of this as three films, and now we’re going to go onto the next three,” Pascal said.

Predictably, the Spider-Man producer’s confirmation that Tom Holland’s time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will not end with No Way Home has led to speculation amongst fans about Peter Parker’s big-screen future. While there are several different directions Marvel and Sony could take the Spider-Man franchise in the coming years, there’s only one path that feels truly exciting and worthwhile.

A New Generation — With Spider-Man: No Way Home expected to blow apart the multiverse on-screen, the door is open for Marvel and Sony to tell some very interesting stories together in the future. In specific, No Way Home’s introduction of a live-action Spider-Verse presents the two studios with the opportunity to start bringing new comic book web-slingers to life on the big screen in a way they have never been before.

We are, of course, talking about characters like Miles Morales, who made his big-screen debut in animated form in 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. He’s a character who deserves to receive the live-action MCU treatment, and the same goes for some of Marvel’s other notable wall-crawlers, including Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099 and Spider-Gwen.

Not only would those characters be exciting new additions to the MCU, but the time has never felt more right to start bringing them in. Spider-Man: No Way Home is, after all, expected to be the culmination of Sony’s past three Peter Parker-centric Spider-Man franchises, with Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire both rumored to have roles in the film. If those rumors prove to be accurate, Spider-Man: No Way Home will essentially bridge all three of Sony’s live-action Spider-Man franchises together.

And what better time to start introducing some new, non-Peter Parker web-slingers into the MCU than immediately after a film that essentially ties the character’s big-screen history together?

The Inverse Analysis — The success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse proved that moviegoers were open to meeting versions of the iconic Marvel Comics hero who might not necessarily be named Peter Parker. Now, it’s time for Marvel and Sony to start embracing some of the possibilities that Into the Spider-Verse did.

Spider-Man: No Way Home will explore the Spider-Verse more than any other live-action Sony title before it. And the next few years feel as good a time as any for the two studios to start telling some wall-crawling stories that aren’t as Peter Parker-centric as their past efforts have been. A new, post-No Way Home trilogy certainly seems like the perfect vehicle to start doing just that too.

Fortunately, Spider-Man: Homecoming set up Miles Morales’ existence in the MCU back in 2017, which means at least one path has already been laid for a much-needed expansion of the Spider-Man franchise to finally begin.

Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into theaters on December 17, 2021.