Spider-Man: No Way Home Is Missing Its Perfect Release Date

The perfect time to release Spider-Man: No Way Home would be in May of 2022, but the interconnected nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the franchise's recent schedule shift probably prevents the Multiverse-exploring movie from moving there. Spidey's upcoming adventure is swinging into theaters this holiday season on December 17th. While it's already a big event for the Wall-Crawler, kicking off the summer of 2022 has more advantages for it than even the holiday season offers.

The most obvious is the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic is still a factor, and the possibility of (hopefully) having much less of a burden to contend with in the pandemic by May of 2022 would make opening then advantageous. With No Way Home being produced entirely during the pandemic, it would also afford Marvel Studios that much more breathing room to make the film as polished as it can be before being released. It would also give No Way Home breathing room of a different sort.

While 2020 was notably the first year since 2009 with no new MCU films, 2021 has been packed to the gills with MCU properties between movies and directly connected Disney+ shows. No Way Home would lighten what has been the MCU's most crowded year to date, and remove the possibility of audience fatigue from the equation. Then, there's the factor of the other two big-screen Spider-Men.

Spider-Man No Way Home Andrew Garfield Tom Holland Tobey Maguire

Though not outright confirmed, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are very heavily speculated to appear as their respective versions of Peter Parker in No Way Home, by way of the film's Multiverse plotline. May 2022 also happens to be the twenty-year anniversary of the release of Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man movie in 2002, and just two months shy of the decade mark for The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012. The possibility of Tom Holland's Spider-Man alongside Garfield as the second cinematic Web-Head and Maguire as the original makes May 2022 a release frame of exceptionally rare serendipity. By starting 2022's summer movie season in early May, No Way Home could be pushed as the ultimate commemoration of the Web-Slinger, landing on what could effectively be marketed as "Spider-Man Day".

With all of that said, the main thing holding such a delay back from happening is the interwoven storytelling format of the MCU itself, in addition the major scheduling shuffle the whole franchise just underwent. Unlike most franchises, a delay of one MCU movie can and frequently does impact the entire franchise, and Marvel already has Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness now scheduled for May 6, 2022. With the presence of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in both movies, the events of No Way Home seem likely to directly lead into Multiverse of Madness. This would mean the only way No Way Home could be pushed back to May 2022 is for Multiverse of Madness to be delayed again by several months, which would likely make another rescheduling of the rest of the MCU slate necessary. May 2022 would be the perfect date for Spider-Man: No Way Home to be released and positioned as a mega-celebration of Spidey's big-screen adventures, but unless Marvel is willing to push everything else down the road after having already just done so, it's probably going to end up being an opportunity the MCU can't take advantage of.

NEXT: Green Goblin May Be Hiding A Spider-Man: No Way Home Twist