Warning: The article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is now out in theaters, and with the Tom Holland threequel breaking box office records left, right, and center, Marvel fans across the globe are already turning their thoughts toward where the franchise will go next. With its multiversal scale and huge personal arc for Peter Parker, there are many ways in which No Way Home paves the way for Spider-Man 4, which we know is in early development.
Warning: Full spoilers for No Way Home to follow.
No Way Home ends with the webhead forced to make a tragic decision. The only way to reverse Doctor Strange’s botched spell that’s breaking the multiverse is for Strange to erase the memory of Peter Parker from the world, including from Peter’s closest friends and loved ones. The final scenes show Peter living a solitary life but still committed to being Spider-Man. It’s possibly the biggest sacrifice we’ve ever seen the character make and a perfect demonstration of the classic “with great power comes great responsibility” mantra.
While speaking to The New York Times, Sony producer Amy Pascal voiced why she thinks this emotional ending gives the filmmakers “a lot to work with” when it comes to the next entry in the franchise.
“You see Spider-Man make a momentous decision, one that you’ve never seen him make before. It’s a sacrifice,” Pascal says. “And that gives us a lot to work with in the next film.”
Peter’s future looks very different at the end of NWH than it did at its start. Initially, Peter is gearing up to attend MIT along with girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best pal Ned (Jacob Batalon), but after the spell erases his existence, Peter seems destined to remain in New York while his friends go off to live their college lives.
It’s hard to imagine where Peter goes next after Spider-Man: No Way Home and how he gets some semblance of a life back, but it’s likely that Pascal and Marvel’s Kevin Feige have already started thinking about it.