Marvel Studios' Spider-Man: No Way Home isn't, per se, competing with Sony Pictures Animation's own multiverse adventure, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
In an interview with Empire Magazine, Marvel Studios President/Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige credited Into the Spider-Verse for paving the way for the live-action No Way Home. "Spider-Verse helped to popularize the conceit of multiple universes with different characters in them," said Feige. "But it's not about competing, necessarily. It's about telling your own story."
Spider-Man: Homecoming and Far From Home helmer Jon Watts directs No Way Home, which sees Peter Parker (Tom Holland) turning to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help after the world learns his secret identity during Far From Home's mid-credits scene. However, when Strange casts a spell to make almost everyone forget Peter is Spider-Man, it backfires, causing individuals from other timelines in the multiverse to inadvertently end up in the MCU's main reality -- a situation that parallels the premise for Into the Spider-Verse, in more ways than one.
Rumor has it No Way Home will feature several actors reprising their roles from Sony's non-MCU Spider-Man trilogy and The Amazing Spider-Man films, including Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as their respective iterations of Peter Parker. "Rumors are fun because many of them are true, and many of them are not true," teased Feige. "The danger is when you get into the expectations game of wanting people to be excited about the movie they get and not disappointed about a movie they don't get."
So far, the only character from Sony's non-MCU Spider-Man movies confirmed to appear in No Way Home is Alfred Molina's Doc Ock from Spider-Man 2. And even then, it's unclear why he's back to his old villainous ways in the film, given that Spider-Man 2 concludes with Otto Octavius regaining control of his sentient metallic limbs and sacrificing his life to prevent his experimental fusion reactor from destroying New York City. Doc Ock's not the only evil-doer who makes a miraculous recovery in No Way Home either, judging by reports that the movie features no less than five famous Spider-Man villains (and maybe a secret sixth one).
Spider-Man: No Way Home opens exclusively in theaters on Dec. 17, with the as-yet-untitled Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 arriving on Oct. 7, 2022.
Source: Empire Magazine