With what seemed like a never-ending wait full of anticipation and excitement shared among all Marvel fans, Spider-Man: No Way Home premiered on Dec 16, 2021. Picking up right where Spider-Man: Far From Home ends with the reveal of the beloved hero’s real identity, you follow along on Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) journey to fix the catastrophe his life has become while trying to get into college and enjoy life with his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon). Like other Marvel films, this story extends beyond Parker’s life into the Marvel Cinematic Universe to team up with other heroes. The story begins when Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), creates a spell to make the world forget Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Now, this wouldn’t be a true Marvel movie though if something didn’t go wrong in the process of the hero trying to right his wrongs. Peter learns the true madness of tampering with the multiverse when new yet familiar friends and foes come knocking at his door. The movie was a hit from the first showing as it raked in $260 million dollars on opening weekend, making it the second largest domestic opening to date coming behind Avengers: Endgame and beating Avengers: Infinity War. The film has now earned more than $700 million domestically and 1.6 billion globally, according to Imdb.com.

In the history of Spider-Man movies, the name was originally owned by Sony resulting in the production of Tobey Maguire’s character (2002-2007) and then Andrew Garfield’s (2012-2014). In February 2015, Disney, Marvel, and Sony made a deal the shared the rights to the character. From 2016 into the present, Marvel has profited immensely from Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, making appearances in Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame along with his three featured movies. As Marvel sits in the middle of Phase 4 (After Avengers Endgame), the ending of No Way Home set up the scene for where Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness, will continue on featuring Wanda Maximoff as she too has begun tampering with the multiverse in search of her two sons.

The biggest wait for Spider-man: No Way Home was the question of how many Peter Parkers would be on the big screen. Being teased repeatedly, fans of the movies were left wondering for months even as videos and pictures surfaced on Twitter and multiple other social media platforms, no one truly wanted to believe the theories until they knew for sure. Well, from opening night on the moment each Peter Parker appeared on screen, screams and cheers filled every single theater. It was an atmosphere similar to when Star Wars: A Force Awakens premiered in 2015. Similar to this movie it was a moment when adults saw their favorite childhood characters come back to life. Fans were given a walk down memory lane; suddenly the movie wasn’t just about the youngest Peter Parker (Holland) trying to fix his mistakes to save the world, but Tobey Maguire and Andrew Maguire coming back to bring everyone’s childhood obsession with the beloved character full circle.

It’s hard to prepare the audience for the thrill ride ahead; it was packed with action and an intense storyline, and though it is technically the third movie in the newest Spider-Man installment and 27th movie of the MCU, it was definitely one of the best. While there’s a general thought that in any trilogy the last will be the worst since it’s tying up all loose ends and closing the story to please all those who are watching, his movie is not the case. The immediate difference between Tom Holland’s movies versus those that came before him was that this was the story of who he was before he entered his peak era for personal growth and abilities. These movies that Spider-Man (Holland) has been in were essentially his character’s prequel to what is inevitably to come. As Holland’s contract with Marvel comes to an end, there is much speculation as to what will be the future of the character and if someone new or old will continue in the role. Currently, Sony is thinking of a crossover movie with Venom and Spider-Man, so the future of the character is truly unknown due to the fact that there are four Spider-Man characters who have been given their own movies, the possibilities are endless.

Once again Marvel studios outdid themselves with the movie they put out. Spider-Man: No Way Home stepped out of the box and delivered a piece that caused tears, laughter, and so much screaming. Being able to see Peter Parker leave the life we watched him grow into and venture into what the future has to offer him was an amazing ending. But of course getting to see the men who were for some, their childhood, teenage years, and adulthood come together on the screen was, in a sense, perfect. For those who haven’t seen the movie yet, what’s the holdup? Go watch it and experience what made the wait for the movie so worth it.