After an unexpected kick-off to the film's marketing, the sequel to Spider-Man: Far From Home has finally been confirmed as Spider-Man: No Way Home. But the announcement didn't come without a series of red herrings, including a slew of hysterical fake titles.
The title reveal came after a brief 30-second video from Spider-Man's official Twitter account showed stars Tom Holland, Jacob Batalon and Zendaya seemingly getting turned down by the film's director Jon Watts when asking about the real name of the upcoming threequel. Instead, Holland muses that Watts "gave us a fake name again," a reference to the trio each posting a different alleged title for the film on their Instagram account.
As the actors chat about Holland's skill of accidentally spoiling things, they walk right by a whiteboard full of words, paying no attention to it. The camera doesn't follow them and lingers on the board, though, and in the center of it is the movie's actual title. However, surrounding it are a series of seemingly proposed titles, all themed around the word "home," much like Holland, Batalon and Zendaya's posts were.
Pausing on the whiteboard not only shows all of the home-based titles, as well as some fun Spidey-based doodles, but also commentary written in colored marker. It's possible that these titles were the ones "suggested" to Watts and Marvel Studios, who provided their criticisms.
Some of the feedback is short and sweet. Home Sweet Home is written off as "gross" and Home Worlds is "boring." It seems like the studio also wants to avoid referencing timeliness, as titles like Stay at Home, Homesick and Work from Home receive responses of "STOP," "UGHHH!", and "PLEASE NooOoo," respectively. Additionally, Wanna Go Home elicits, "We're already there!" It's clear that, after the past year has seen everyone stuck at home, the Spider-Man team was eager to avoid anything that could be compared to the pandemic.
Then there are the more unique titles. Close to Home, as the commentary notes, is just that, while Homeschooled allegedly gets a thumbs down from Aunt May. Webcamming, though, sticks out for a number of reasons. It's the only title to not even contain the word "home," as one person notes, and the implication of the title seems to connect to something much more "mature."
Finally, there are the titles that make reference to already-existing properties. Holland had already veered into this territory with Phone Home, the fake title from his Instagram. Here, we have No Place Like Home, which references an iconic line from The Wizard of Oz. Home Alone is crossed out due to "copyright issues" with the Macaulay Culkin film series of the same name. Perhaps most hilariously, scrawled in the bottom right corner is Far From Home, the title of the 2019 Marvel Studios film.
No Way Home has profound implications as a title, given what we know so far about Holland's Peter Parker being outed and framed for Mysterio's murder. Not only could he be on the run, but the casting of several stars from previous Spidey films means the possibility of the hero hopping through the multiverse, including past iterations of his namesake. Either way, given the humorous bevy of fake titles that filled up the whiteboard in the teaser, it's clear Spider-Man has found a great home with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Directed by Jon Watts, Spider-Man: No Way Home stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Jamie Foxx, Alfred Molina and Benedict Cumberbatch. The film arrives in theaters Dec. 17.