Current Events > Spider-Man No Way Home writers address the final spell in the movie *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/spider-man-no-way-home-spoilers-tobey-maguire-andrew-garfield-aunt-may-1235144617/

Mays death was a step in the filmmakers mission to strip everything away from Hollands Peter and leave him, by the end of No Way Home, much closer to his true comic book origins: a scrappy kid with almost no resources beyond his intellect and superhuman abilities. That culminates with his decision to repair the widening rift in the multiverse by having Strange cast a spell that makes everyone, everywhere forget him as Peter Parker.

Since Hollands Peter still exists in the MCU, his decision has a litany of wide-ranging and persnickety problems attached to it: Does this mean all records of him are gone too? Does he still have a social security number? Are the photos of MJ and Ned gone from his phone? And so on.

Asked about these questions, McKenna and Sommers grimace.

This is the first time that weve ever discussed this, Sommers deadpans.

In truth, the filmmaking team talked at length about the implications of the anti-Peter spell and how the movie could address them. We were like, do we do a Back to the Future kind of thing where you see him fading out of photos? Sommers says. Does he still have a drivers license or a passport? It just led to more questions.

So they punted. We decided, lets try to do it in the most satisfying way and just focus on the emotion of it, Sommers says. And then if people have questions about some of those details that didnt get answered here, well answer them hopefully in another movie somewhere down the line.

Obviously, some sort of magical redaction has occurred, McKenna adds. At the end of all this, we didnt want a lot of people trying to do magical math in their head.

Pascal suggested looking to the 1978 Warren Beatty comedy Heaven Can Wait for a solution. People had these experiences, but they start forgetting the person they knew, but they were still affected by the events that happened, McKenna explained.

Besides, it was more important to have the scene where Hollands Peter encounters MJ while shes working in her doughnut shop and decides to not try to win her back. You want to have that doughnut scene be him making the last piece of the sacrifice, McKenna says, adopting Peters inner-monologue: I could tell them everything. I can try to get my friends back. But Id be going right back to the place of endangering my loved ones by bringing them into my life. And I cant have that.

Sounds like this will be addressed in future movies, but the plan was for the spell to do a bunch of reality warping, not just memory wipe. All photos, records, anything relating to Peter Parker's existence is erased.

Interesting

I assumed the GED book he had in his box of shit at the end was a hint at his records being totally wiped

They should have just gave they classic "It's magic. I don't have to explain shit" reply. Because that's really what it is.

AngelsNAirwav3s posted...

Asked about these questions, McKenna and Sommers grimace.

This is the first time that weve ever discussed this, Sommers deadpans.

That is not promising...

AngelsNAirwav3s posted...

Mays death was a step in the filmmakers mission to strip everything away from Hollands Peter and leave him, by the end of No Way Home, much closer to his true comic book origins: a scrappy kid with almost no resources beyond his intellect and superhuman abilities

Fuck yes. Our prayers have been answered. Finally comic-book Peter/Spider-man. No more prodigal son/Iron JR.

MatzoTov posted...

That is not promising...

Lol I think they were being sarcastic.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Yeah seems like everything Spider-Man has done still happened.

AngelsNAirwav3s posted...

We decided, lets try to do it in the most satisfying way and just focus on the emotion of it

Yeah, that was the best move. It's a real emotional story beat, so don't try to add too much logic to it.

Why would any reality warping occur? Strange described it as brainwashing.

dave_is_slick posted...

Why would any reality warping occur? Strange described it as brainwashing.

A whole lot of people (especially MJ and Ned) would be pretty freaked out that there's a whole bunch of photos and messages on their phones and social media of them with a guy they don't know.

Punished_Blinx posted...

A whole lot of people (especially MJ and Ned) would be pretty freaked out that there's a whole bunch of photos and messages on their phones and social media of them with a guy they don't know.

While true, if any reality warping was going to happen, don't have the guy who's already cast it before describe it as mere brainwashing.

dave_is_slick posted...

While true, if any reality warping was going to happen, don't have the guy who's already cast it before describe it as mere brainwashing.

I mean, when talking about the experience with Wong, he was just making one person forget the events of a party, not everyone on the planet forgetting the existence of a single person.

I'd imagine, if anything, there might just be a sort of "perception filter" -- to borrow a Doctor Who term -- over everyone on Earth right now. So pictures and videos of Peter still exist, but if someone looks at them, they'll kinda zone out and gloss over it, unless they focused really hard to purposefully find discrepancies.

Granted, I don't think that's the case here since it seems Peter's entire schooling history has been erased.

Surely he isnt the only Peter Parker. What about all the common folk Peter Parkers in that universe?

BlackHorse6969 posted...

Surely he isnt the only Peter Parker. What about all the common folk Peter Parkers in that universe?

That's a good point they missed. It's almost like John Smith

The spell clearly targeted that specific Peter Parker. Not anyone with that name in general.

Rharyx211 posted...

The spell clearly targeted that specific Peter Parker. Not anyone with that name in general.

It brought anyone who knew Peter Parker, including other Peter Parkers from other universes into the universe...so we should have at least had a few thousand random Peter Parkers running around

indica posted...

It brought anyone who knew Peter Parker, including other Peter Parkers from other universes into the universe...so we should have at least had a few thousand random Peter Parkers running around

i thought it only brought people who knew Spiderman was Peter Parker?

M

1NfamousACE_2 posted...

i thought it only brought people who knew Spiderman was Peter Parker?

M

Oh, maybe you're right *shrugs

But now that I think of it, Electro didn't know Peter Parker was Spiderman from what I remember?

Did Tobey Spidey and Garfield Spidey forget Holland Spidey?

jumi posted...

Did Tobey Spidey and Garfield Spidey forget Holland Spidey?

No magic could hope to affect Tobey Maguire Spidey, he could beat thanos w/ full gauntlet

Garfield Spidey will also remember after spending some time wondering why his last adventure with another Spiderman had him call himself Spiderman 3 if there was only two Spidermen.

Doe posted...

No magic could hope to affect Tobey Maguire Spidey, he could beat thanos w/ full gauntlet

Tobey used RESPONSIBILITY! It's super-effective!

It would be interesting if Peter meets Gwen Stacy in the next movie

1NfamousACE_2 posted...

But now that I think of it, Electro didn't know Peter Parker was Spiderman from what I remember?

Yeah he didnt know, unless they wanna pull some shenanigans like they did with Venom knowing him because of the multiversal symbiotic hive mind making Hardy Venom know what Grace Venom knew

Electro the person didnt know who he was but the electricity knew!

Or another possibly is this character

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_%28comics%29?wprov=sfla1

She was bitten by the same spider as Peter but kept it a secret for years. In the comics she and Peter have a pheromone type sexual chemistry and constantly want to fuck each other

Zikten posted...

Or another possibly is this character

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_%28comics%29?wprov=sfla1

She was bitten by the same spider as Peter but kept it a secret for years. In the comics she and Peter have a pheromone type sexual chemistry and constantly want to fuck each other

This character is utterly useless for anything but sex fantasys I still wonder why they came up with something like that for a kid's comic boo character, then again comics always had weird sex fetish stuff in it for some reason from the ninja turtles for freaking sonic the hedgehog to transformers they've all had implications or flat out sex scenes in them

Hell of a can to kick down the road, but whatever.

MatzoTov posted...

That is not promising...

Did you read the literal next sentence? They were being sarcastic.

Even during the movie these thoughts were at the back of my head, even if he erased everybody's memories that won't stop people from discovering old article's, news, and video records of the past few months.

So idk how he thought that would work at all.

Prismsblade posted...

Even during the movie these thoughts were at the back of my head, even if he erased everybody's memories that won't stop people from discovering old article's, news, and video records of the past few months.

So idk how he thought that would work at all.

Magic erases technology.

Honesty considering half the population died and reappeared 5 years later, this is minor to the universe and hardly worth looking into logistically

tremain07 posted...

This character is utterly useless for anything but sex fantasys I still wonder why they came up with something like that for a kid's comic boo character, then again comics always had weird sex fetish stuff in it for some reason from the ninja turtles for freaking sonic the hedgehog to transformers they've all had implications or flat out sex scenes in them

Marvel and DC both have been catering to adults for years. Kids don't really read comics anymore. The main universe comics for both companies are now written for adult readers. There do exist stuff for kids but it's not canon material

It's kinda dumb when they don't think these things out, so you get glaring plot holes like Captain America (did they ever properly explain that?). I don't really like the full reset so they can have a mopey, down-on-his-luck Spider-Man. The prior direction was more fun.

Blue_Popo posted...

Magic erases technology.

Honesty considering half the population died and reappeared 5 years later, this is minor to the universe and hardly worth looking into logistically

Until the MCU decide their a gag series or some shit, yes, it is. Like when universes don't define any real limits or consistent rules for magic so it can just do anything, or not on a dime.

Prismsblade posted...

Until the MCU decide their a gag series or some shit, yes, it is. Like when universes don't define any real limits or consistent rules for magic so it can just do anything, or not on a dime.

Fine. The only way it makes sense is that all pics, vids, internet data are deleted. Memories are forgotten and replaced by "magic memories" which somehow stitch events with you together without you

Prismsblade posted...

Until the MCU decide their a gag series or some shit, yes, it is. Like when universes don't define any real limits or consistent rules for magic so it can just do anything, or not on a dime.

Shut the fuck up