Spider-Man: No Way Home Was The Worst Thing To Happen To The MCU

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is in dire straights right now. It's a massive media empire with instant access to several of the most beloved fictional characters of all time, but every run ends eventually. Any franchise that's used to raking in billions will start to realize that its endless growth is unsustainable. Disney needs every film to shatter a box office record, and they're getting increasingly desperate. Their recent Robert Downey Jr. Announcement demonstrates their willingness to stay in the past. Spider-Man: No Way Home felt like a celebration, but it might have been a farewell party for the franchise.

Every other cinematic universe is either dead or dying. The DC Universe died and came back, but most of the other competitors will stay six feet under, where they belong. Marvel made the only successful attempt. It was an innovative experiment that immediately drew the attention of every other studio. Without a tantalizing example to aspire to, Marvel could build something new. Everyone else refused to start from the bottom and build to their massive payoff. Now, after Marvel successfully reached its finale with Endgame, they've fallen prey to the same short-sighted avarice that killed every other name in the race.

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By  Sebastian Peris

Spider-Man: No Way Home was a massive hit

Giving people what they want works, at least once. Spider-Man: No Way Home is the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time. Two other Marvel projects beat it, but it's Sony's biggest earner of all time. This was late 2021, and people were still wary of going to the theater. The success was extremely predictable. No Way Home sold itself as the final chapter of Tom Holland's Spider-Man trilogy. That would have been enough to move tickets, but it had the worst-kept secret in the franchise.

As the third big-screen Spider-Man, fans wanted to see Tom Holland interact with the other two. Everyone knew in their hearts that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield would return. Of course, they did, and the crowd went wild. It's a movie that leaves breaks for applause when its cameos appear. Everyone knew it would work, but Marvel took a lesson from the film — If it works once, it'll work again and again. However, no matter how much fans loved it the first time, they will get over it after a while.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is a terrible model for future sequels

Like Endgame, some Marvel projects only work after years of buildup. Big blowout reunion specials aren't as impressive if they're the usual routine. No Way Home brought two Spider-Men into the fold after lackluster finales. Superhero stories rarely end on a high note. Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 were both unfortunate endings to their respective franchises. Dragging the old Spider-Men back was an obvious cash grab, but it worked under the pretense of giving them worthwhile send-offs. Unfortunately, it made so much money that Disney would want to do it again and again with no justification. The old script for Avengers 5 reportedly included Tobey Maguire again.

This is the grim downside of the multiverse gimmick. An idea that should have expanded the universe and kicked open the doors to create endless opportunities now ensures that the toy box keeps getting smaller and smaller. Marvel has only doubled down on that assertion. They don't want to create anything new. They just want to profit from the actors and characters that people loved 20 years ago.

Deadpool & Wolverine made things worse

Deadpool & Wolverine pull the same trick, attempting to draw in millions by bringing back a beloved performer. Hugh Jackman's Wolverine is a fine box-office draw, but he received the perfect send-off in Logan. The film attempts to deliver a fond farewell to the Fox movies, but it spends most of its time demanding applause for meaningless cameos. It's exactly as self-indulgent as No Way Home but without any justifiable excuse. While No Way Home opened the multiverse to endless cameos, Deadpool & Wolverine cemented the idea of an "anchor being," a single person in any given reality that maintains the integrity of the dimension. That's the new excuse that they'll use to keep actors like Robert Downey Jr. Around until they're dead. It's a miserable exercise in squandering possibilities in favor of cheap calls for applause. It probably wouldn't happen if No Way Home didn't bring in quite as much cash.

No Way Home is a messy product. It's not the end of its trilogy or the next stage of Spider-Man's story. It's just an excuse to mash a few toys together and profit from the results. The film's conclusion fundamentally breaks most of the main characters for the benefit of the hostile negotiation between Marvel and Sony. It's a script written around a business decision. The film has its virtues, but the audience rewarded the most self-indulgent celebration of IP ownership ever made with almost $2 billion. Marvel may never recover from its third-most-successful film.