When Peter Parker's secret identity is outed to the world in Spider-Man: No Way Home, he'll need a little help from his friends to get by -- and fortunately, he's got some of the best. That's why, when Doctor Strange attempts a spell to make everyone forget his Spider alter ego, Peter is horrified to discover Ned, MJ and Aunt May will be among those who won't remember. In his attempts to exempt them from the spell, Peter accidentally causes it to backfire, allowing Spider-Man villains from across the multiverse to cross over into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Speaking to CBR, Spider-Man: No Way Home stars Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon previewed what's in store for Peter, MJ and Ned in the upcoming MCU film. They explained the "courageousness" inherent in MJ and Ned's loyalty to Peter and teased how they will all really become a team. They broke down Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus and Electro's "seamless" transition into the MCU and the way Spider-Man must adapt to fight them. They also promised that fans will see an all-new side of Peter and more.
CBR: Peter, MJ and Ned are all heroes in their own way. How would you define your character's approach to heroism, and how does that influence the decisions they make in Spider-Man: No Way Home?
Jacob Batalon: I think that approach is to, I guess, for Ned, just to be the best friend he can be -- the bestest friend he can be.
Tom Holland: Very loyal.
Batalon: Yeah. So just supporting his best friend. I think they become a team in the movie. So I think that's important, that Ned and MJ are the loyal base that he has, the strength that he needs, the people that he needs. So I think that's pretty much where we come from, for sure.
Holland: Yeah, no, absolutely. No, really! I don't need to talk about why Peter Parker's a hero! We all know that. But like, why --?
Zendaya: Man! I would say, well, listen, their whole lives have been changed, probably for the worse because of this Mysterio fiasco.
Holland: I thought you were going to say for meeting Spider-Man! I was like, "Rude!"
Zendaya: No, because now the person that they care about the most is painted this villain and thus they are too, because they helped him. So I think the best hero they could be -- I think the fact that they don't have any super powers, but are still putting themselves in in danger to help the person they love as much as they can is pretty courageous -- their courageousness. Because I would be like, "Yo, I don't know if I can --"
Batalon: [laughs] "You're on your own! I don't have any superpowers! You've got all the webs!"
Zendaya: "I don't know how much I can help!" But yeah, I'm really proud of them for stepping up and helping.
On the flip side, you've all got to face these crazy awesome villains coming in. Who were you most excited to encounter, and who came away as your favorite?
Holland: We were all excited to meet all of them!
Batalon: All of them were pretty amazing, yeah.
Holland: I obviously had the pleasure of fighting all of them as well. What was really exciting about that is, because all the villains are so different, each fight scene -- in turn -- is very different, so the fighting styles change. So for me, it was just really fun to have to adapt to fighting someone with eight arms and legs and fighting someone who's a goblin and then fighting an electrical current. [laughs]
Batalon: An electrical current! [laughs]
Zendaya: I think it was also fun that they all fully embrace their characters from their previous films, in the style of their previous films.
Batalon: Yeah! That was cool!
Zendaya: It was really funny to see them in our universe, because maybe the way we behave and our villains are are different from the way their villains are. So it's like popping in like, "Hey, Peter!", you know what I mean? [laughs] "Ah!"
Batalon: "Whoa!"
Zendaya: Yeah. So it's fun to see just how committed they were, and how seamlessly they were able to fall back into these characters.
Batalon: I agree. For sure.
No Way Home has been described as the conclusion to the Homecoming trilogy. Now that we're entering this final phase for your characters, what is something No Way Home allows you to do with your character, that perhaps you couldn't in previous films?
Holland: That's a great question.
Zendaya: Yours is kind of -- I mean, I don't want to speak for you, but we see so many more sides of Peter.
Batalon: Yeah, for sure.
Zendaya: All the characters, you know? We get to emotionally put them under a certain situation we've never cinematically seen. So you see them deal with different kinds of pressure, different kinds of scrutiny, different kinds of...
Holland: Yeah, and also Peter Parker's ability to be bad. There's something that happens in this film which I think fans will be very shocked by, which is really exciting and, for me, was something I loved bringing to the screen.
Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into theaters on Friday, Dec. 17.