Supercurricular

19/11/25: The Media Magazine April 2022 Issue

Spider-Man: a Multiverse of Success

In this article, the writer discusses the key elements that lead to the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, with this film being the first Covid-era production to reach pre-pandemic cinema success. 

To begin, the methods of production in the filming industry is explained where, in the instance of No Way Home, Sony and Marvel co-produced this film after years of only Sony being able to make Spider-Man movies (Marvel Comics (1998) sold film rights of the character to Sony). The co-production for No Way Home enabled both companies to achieve large financial success. This is because Sony was able to fully develop more original, creative concepts, from the granted financial freedom that was created through the Sony/Marvel co-production, that have been developing since Tom Holland's Spider-Man in the MCU, 'Into the Spider-Verse (2018)' and 'Venom: Let There be Carnage (2021)'. Here, this allowed No Way Home to have Spider-Man be the only hero with the superpower to cross through cinematic universes, leading to the main plot of No Way Home, as well as the possibility of more 'dimension-hopping' films within the Spider-Man universe.

Secondly, Sony and Marvel both pandered to the concept of 'fan service' in order to engage and entertain audiences. From the usage of Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland as their respective Spider-Man characters to the reintroduction of old Spider-Man villains like Electro, Green Goblin, and Sandman in trailers and other marketing (lots of inter textual references), No Way Home created quite a post-modern, 'meta' piece of cinema, adding to that sense nostalgia which not only enticed Marvel/Spider-Man fans into watching the film but also Marvel fanatics and cinephiles too.

Overall, this article showed me how the production of a movie goes beyond the actual camerawork but the deeper steps and logistics of production, where companies have to be mindful of not only the character they're portraying but also how the audience will respond to these depictions. Interestingly, many films today are following No Way Home's approach, creating a multiverse or making new content of/referencing a well-known franchise/product (e.g. 'Freaky Friday 2 (2024)', 'Barbie (2023)', Frankenstein (2025)', as well as the many Hunger Games movie) - it is evident that this technique is working for both companies and their consumers, which leaves people with the question on whether new cinema is still original/artistic anymore, or becoming just a chance to get easy money.