Second Run: Spider-Man No Way Home

Good day Crewmembers! Welcome to “Second Run: Spider-Man: No Way Home.” The digital release is on March 22, so we wanted to give you time to use our guide to catch up.

This feature goes further in-depth than our “Opening Night" posts to give you a deeper foundation for viewing. Please note, due to the nature of these features; some SPOILERS are inherent.

Your needs from the MCU:

This is pretty easy. You need Spider-man’s story to this point so you should AT LEAST watch Captain America: Civil War, Spider-man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. To branch out from there, would be basically starting the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) from the beginning. So again, those are your basic Spider-Man needs for No Way Home.

You also need to know what’s up with Doctor Strange, so add in Doctor Strange (especially before you watch Infinity War). Now your schedule looks like this:

Civil War->Doctor Strange->Homecoming->Far From Home->Infinity War->Endgame->No Way Home Your needs from the MCU Adjacent:

The MCU Adjacent is the TV Shows that reference the MCU, but aren't completely within it. These include the shows originally streamed on NETFLIX. For No Way Home, you should be generally familiar with DAREDEVIL. You don’t need to watch the entire series, but having at least a few episodes in your history is a good idea. Your needs from the Multi-verse:

The Multi-verse refers to the idea that there are many different realities all existing at the same time. Like there are infinite variations of “you” living completely separate and different lives in other dimensions/realities. This concept is touched on by name in Far From Home and in a theoretical way in Endgame. Then in No Way Home, the Multi-verse became a reality for the MCU. For the sake of this article, the Multi-verse refers to movies and TV Shows that are based on Marvel Characters but not made MARVEL Studios.

To get the full effect of the Multi-verse you need to be familiar with Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3 starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and a slew of villains. You also need Amazing Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man 2 featuring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and a few other bad guys.

You’ll notice from the number of Spider-Man movies that SONY isn’t as sharp as MARVEL Studios when it comes to detailed connected stories. However, that began to change when they started working hand-in-hand with MARVEL allowing the Spider-Man character to join his Marvel Superhero family in the MCU. Therefore, we also recommend watching VENOM and VENOM: Let There Be Carnage. You should note though that the Eddie Brock and Venom Symbiote in these movies are different from the ones that were in any previous Spider-Man movie.

There you have it! After running through those programs, you should be ready to get into No Way Home. Of course, there are other connections and Easter Eggs that you might not catch on first viewing, but you should be able to watch, understand, and connect to some pretty cool moments in the film. After that, you can always go back and start the MCU from Iron Man and discover new things!

Until then, enjoy the show!

SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME

Pre-Viewing Checklist

Spider-Man (2002)

Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2012)

Daredevil (2015-2018)

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Doctor Strange (2016)

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Venom (2018)

Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)