The VFX files for Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies no longer exist, which made for a unique challenge when making No Way Home. Well before Tom Holland brought Peter Parker into the MCU, Raimi redefined the superhero genre with his Spider-Man trilogy in the early 2000s. Starring Tobey Maguire, the three films saw Peter battle iconic villains like the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) and Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) while balancing the superhero life with being a normal New York City citizen. Though the trilogy went out on a divisive note, the middle installment, Spider-Man 2, remains one of the most beloved superhero movies of all time.

Raimi's movies recently got a major reexamination thanks to the MCU's Spider-Man: No Way Home. The blockbuster film plunges Holland's Peter into a multiversal adventure after one of Doctor Strange's spells goes horribly awry. Numerous villains from alternate realities pour into the MCU, including Green Goblin and Doc Ock. They are once again played by Dafoe and Molina, making No Way Home the ultimate crossover of Spidey franchises. This meant the team behind the new film had to pay homage to what came before.

Related: What Happened To Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker After Spider-Man 3

However, some of the visual aspects of the Raimi villains' returns were a bit tricky to nail down. One might assume the No Way Home VFX team could simply pull old assets, but they unfortunately no longer exist. In a recent interview with befores & afters, VFX supervisor Kelly Port revealed there were no digital assets from the Raimi films that could be used for No Way Home, which made the recreations of Doc Ock and Green Goblin a bit more unique. Port explained:

None of those digital assets, as far as we were able to find, just simply don’t exist anymore. They’ve vanished from the world, I think. But we did have physical assets that we were able to access and I think were really helpful, like a portion of Doc Ock’s claw and tentacles. We actually based our tentacles and claws on those. We were able to take those out of the physical archive and do a tonne of great reference photos for those.

And then we scanned the Goblin’s costume. It wasn’t in very good shape, but we scanned that and modified that a little bit. But none, really, were digital assets that we could retrieve because they just don’t exist. A lot of that wouldn’t have been very useful anyway because systems that were used then, in terms of look development or shaders, they would all be different by now, anyway.

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The Raimi films were made at a much different time for VFX, so perhaps it isn't too surprising that the digital assets from those movies no longer exist. It meant the No Way Home team had to take a unique approach to revisiting Molina's and Dafoe's villains, as Port explained above. For Doc Ock, the practical arms that were used in Spider-Man 2 proved to be a major asset, which is somewhat amusing to consider when one remembers how many fans objected to No Way Home using CGI to depict them. The physical tentacles are still superior.

Part of the joy of No Way Home came from seeing the Raimi actors return alongside those from the MCU and Sony's Amazing Spider-Man movies, and based on fan reactions, it's safe to say the creative team did an excellent job of keeping the visuals and stories of the previous characters perfectly aligned with what Raimi did. It brought an extra dose of nostalgia to No Way Home, and it served as a wonderful tribute to the original Spider-Man movies. While it's a shame the original VFX assets from Raimi's films no longer exist, it's interesting to see how those working on No Way Home dealt with that obstacle. Luckily, it all worked out in the end.

More: All 9 Spider-Man Movies Ranked (Including No Way Home)

Source: befores & afters