Fans of the MCU can finally see Spider-Man: NWH in theaters. This is so after what has felt like an eternity due to numerous teases and leaks over the past year. NWH appears to be exceeding expectations at every level, bringing together three generations of the web-history slinger’s in one film.

This film took some major risks with five classic Spider-Man villains from the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy and Andrew Garfield films from The Amazing Spider-Man. That’s a lot of material to cover in just over two and a half hours of screen time. This is especially the case when considering that Jacob Batalon, Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, and more all have their own stories to tell.

Marvel and Sony faced a daunting task in creating a film with nearly a dozen characters. Not to mention the rumors of even more to come. The companies were required to ensure that each hero and villain had their moment in the spotlight. In a recent interview, the NWH writer talked about how he and his colleagues overcame this obstacle.

NWH Writer Explains His Decision To Omit Key Moments

In an interview with Discussing Film, the NWH writer of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Erik Sommers, explained how the film’s all-star cast was juggled with the film’s many crossover opportunities.

“Very carefully” was Sommers’ answer when asked how the team divided the spotlight between each villain and hero. He further meant to ensure that “everyone got their due.” To achieve this, many painful decisions had to be made to cut “little moments and things that you just love.” However, Sommers made it clear that this is still a Spider-Man movie first and foremost. This is also meant that every decision about the story had to be made “in service” of Peter Parker’s story.

“Very carefully. Because, I mean, you want to give everyone their due, and just as a fan, you want to see those people as those characters and have fun with them. But at the end of the day, it’s a Spider-Man movie – you have to be telling the story of Peter Parker, and everything has to be in service of that. So there were a lot of painful decisions made, you know, we would have loved to have done this and that and ‘Oh, wouldn’t be great if these two villains could do this!’ But it has to be in service of Peter’s journey, and you have to keep things moving. There were definitely a lot of what we call “little darlings” – little moments and things that you really just love – but sometimes you have to let them go.”

Creating A Peter Parker Storyline For Spider-Man 3

The five villains in Spider-Man: No Way Home are just the beginning of arguably the biggest solo crossover event in comic book movie history. In the third act alongside Tom Holland, Daredevil Charlie Cox made his MCU debut alongside Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man roles.

There’s no denying that NWH had an impressive cast of supporting characters. Nonetheless, this could have easily turned into an overly crowded and unwieldy adventure. This is because so many people and events needed to be spotlighted. However, Tom Holland’s MCU Spidey was at the heart of it all. As a reason, this further endured more hardships and sacrifices, unlike before. Either way, Sommers and his team were determined to keep the story focused on Peter at every turn.