WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man: No Way Home writers claim the Spider-Man sequel cut out some big Marvel characters. Spider-Man: No Way Home is the newest addition to the MCU's Phase 4 and was considered one of the most anticipated movies of 2021. The film picked up directly after the events of its predecessor, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and also wrapped up Jon Watts' "Homecoming" trilogy.

The wait seemed to be worth it for most Marvel fans, as Spider-Man: No Way Home has gotten rave reviews. The movie quickly started breaking box office records and became the highest-grossing US film of 2021 in just six days. Part of the hype surrounding the movie was the return of iconic Spider-Man villains from alternate universes. By bringing in Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Sandman from Sam Raimi's trilogy and Electro and Lizard from Marc Webb's films, Spider-Man: No Way Home effectively tied three generations of Spider-Man movies together. Multiple reports leading up to the film's release claimed Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man(s) were set to appear, which ultimately turned out to be true.

Related: Spider-Man: No Way Home - Every Easter Egg & Marvel Reference

While there were plenty of characters to reminisce over, Spider-Man: No Way Home cut some other big characters. In an interview with Yahoo!, screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers spoke about their work on Spidey's most recent outing. When asked about characters that fell off the table, McKenna revealed that some characters were left out because they already had to balance the stories of past villains with Tom Holland's arc as Peter Parker. The writers couldn't say who the characters were but that they were "big." McKenna's full quote can be read below:

I don’t know if we’re allowed to honestly, but there were big characters. But almost too big, because it always became a balancing act of how do we tell not only a story with all these awesome villains that we know we want to bring into this movie, the classic ones, but also how do we make this still a Tom Holland/Peter Parker story so that he’s not completely overshadowed? Because at the end of the day, it’s not going to be a great Spider-Man movie if you’re not telling an emotional Peter Parker story. We had these riches that we had to … This giant idea [with] all these great actors, but also we had to tell a story that felt like we were telling a personal story for our main character.

Doc Ock holds Spider-Man in his tentacles in Spider-Man: No Way Home

Stuffing too many characters into a single movie is something Sony has suffered from in the past. Raimi's Spider-Man 3 was criticized for including Venom, Sandman, and New Goblin in a two-hour film, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ran into the same issue in 2014 with Electro, Green Goblin, and Rhino. Spider-Man: No Way Home included five villains, three versions of Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Doctor Strange, but thankfully, the film was able to find a way to balance everybody's story. That being said, had Spider-Man: No Way Home included even more villains like Tom Hardy's Venom or Jared Leto's Morbius, the MCU movie could have seen the same criticisms.

Since McKenna couldn't comment on which characters were cut, it's possible they could appear in a future movie. The most likely character that could have been cut is Venom since Sony and Marvel have already teased a Spidey/Venom faceoff. Kraven the Hunter was originally going to be a villain in Spider-Man: No Way Home before they went the Multiverse route, so that could also be a character McKenna is referring to. Concept art for Spider-Man: No Way Home recently revealed America Chavez was supposed to debut in the sequel as well. Given the film's connection to past Spider-Man films, the MCU, and Marvel comics, the possibilities truly are endless. Still, it will be exciting to see if any of these characters end up appearing in a future Spider-Man movie.

More: Spider-Man: No Way Home's Ending Explained

Source: Yahoo!

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