After a breathless wait, Spider-Man: No Way Home's first trailer is rumored to be releasing on Monday (August 23) and here's why. The third Spider-Man collaboration between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures has been one of the MCU's most-anticipated films, as it's expected to be the bridge between the events of WandaVision and Loki and set up Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. What's more, all-but-confirmed rumors have swirled for a year now that previous Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield will be donning the suit again to fight characters returning from older Spider-Man movies, such as Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2 and Jamie Foxx's Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Despite the excitement, No Way Home's trailer has taken its time getting here for a number of reasons. For starters, the COVID-19 pandemic upended everything in Hollywood, including Marvel Studios' release schedule. Marvel has a carefully choreographed marketing calendar, with the studio taking care not to start the marketing campaign of a future project too soon, lest that Marvel movie or TV show take away thunder from the studio's current one in theaters or on Disney+. With Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings introducing brand-new characters who will be hugely important to the MCU moving forward, as well as Marvel getting its Disney+ TV universe off the ground this year, the studio has been wisely holding back on letting the Spider-Man: No Way Home hype train leave the station just yet.

Related: Why The Spider-Man: No Way Home Trailer (Likely) Hasn’t Been Released Yet

But with only three and a half months to go before Spider-Man: No Way Home's release, it's a little surprising that Marvel hasn't even released so much as a tease of the new movie. That all seems set to change, however, with rumors swirling and speculation growing that the first Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer will be released this Monday (August 23). Those rumors are thanks to CinemaCon kicking off tomorrow. Each year, the industry convention finds the major Hollywood studios trying to woo theater owners with their offerings. Studios tend to pull out all the stops, including bringing first-look trailers, sizzle reels, and their A-list talent for their panel presentations. It just so happens Sony Pictures is kicking off opening night tomorrow–and there's no bigger movie for them to reveal than the first trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Tom Holland as Spider-Man in Far From Home

It's not always a given that studios also release their trailers online right after debuting them at CinemaCon. It's possible that that was the original plan for Sony Studios, who very likely had a deal worked out with Marvel to hold off on promoting Spider-Man: No Way Home until Shang-Chi's release in theaters in less than two weeks. But that arguably changed this weekend when a low-quality, recorded version of what is supposedly the official Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer leaked on TikTok and quickly spread before being pulled down.

While it's Sony mostly piloting the ship, Marvel still has a firm hand on the wheel, and in the past, Marvel's M.O. in the wake of rare leaks has been to quickly adjust by uploading the hi-res, official version of its trailers. Such was the case when, back in 2014, the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer, which had been planned as a special debut during an episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., was leaked online. Marvel's now-iconic response was to simply tweet, "Dammit, Hydra." and then rush to get the high-quality version of the trailer online. While Sony obviously can't follow suit and upload the trailer before its CinemaCon debut, it's very possible that the studio will release the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer tomorrow night following the CinemaCon presentation, or at the very least, Tuesday morning.

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