Actor Tom Holland says that the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home — due to premiere in theaters December 17, 2021 — is the end for a franchise first established with 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming.

As one of the most eagerly anticipated films in the storied history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the third entry for the MCU’s Spidey from director Jon Watts aims to satisfy fans’ lofty expectations. According to star Tom Holland, the cast and crew of No Way Home approached the project as the end of an era.

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No movie in recent memory has been as hyped by fans as Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). Following up on the super successful Phase Four Marvel movie Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), the threequel is rumored to raise the stakes — taking the action into a Multiverse that’s even bigger than Disney and Marvel Studios.

Sony’s Spider-Man characters are now in play — bringing up the possibility of appearances from Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker and Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn aka Green Goblin from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, as well as Andrew Garfield’s Parker, and Jamie Foxx’s Electro from Marc Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man series. Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus is confirmed to have a role in the new movie, having appeared in the record-breaking trailer.

In a new profile of No Way Home from Entertainment Weekly, Spider-Man actor Tom Holland talks about how the epic film was treated as the final chapter for the franchise. While not ruling out future adventures for his Peter Parker and other characters like MJ (Zendaya) and Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon), says that after No Way Home, nothing will be the same. Holland explained,

“We were all treating [No Way Home] as the end of a franchise, let’s say. I think if we were lucky enough to dive into these characters again, you’d be seeing a very different version. It would no longer be the Homecoming trilogy. We would give it some time and try to build something different and tonally change the films. Whether that happens or not, I don’t know. But we were definitely treating [No Way Home] like it was coming to an end, and it felt like it.”

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Holland’s description of a possible future story for these characters as “very different version” is particularly intriguing. As we know from the No Way Home trailer, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Spider-Man are set to mess with the Sacred Timeline and the Multiverse in a major way.

As the influence of Sony characters — like Venom (Tom Hardy) and Morbius (Jared Leto) — are rumored to become more and more prominent in Spider-Man crossovers, is it possible that the characters from the Sony and Marvel collaboration films may be relegated to their own corner of the Spider-verse?

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Sam Raimi’s beloved trilogy ended in a critical debacle with the much maligned, over-stuffed Spider-Man 3. Sony decided to reboot it’s popular franchise and take it in a new direction with Andrew Garfield as the webslinger. However, following two underperforming films Sony pulled the plug on that franchise as well. Following an historic agreement between Disney and Sony, Marvel Studios was able to borrow Spider-Man for Marvel Cinematic Universe films and MCU Spidey solo films — with both studios sharing profits. Sony has continued to keep exclusive film rights to other Spider-Verse characters as they built up their own universe: Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.

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How Tom Holland’s Peter Parker will continue to bridge the gap between Marvel Studios and Sony remains to be seen. With fans having extremely high expectations for No Way Home, it looks like audiences are ready for a grand finale of the Homecoming trilogy.

Do you think Tom Holland will be back as Peter Parker after No Way Home? Let us know in the comments!