WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home, now in theaters.
Those who've seen Spider-Man: No Way Home believe the movie uses recycled footage from past Spider-Man films.
During the climactic battle featuring Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire's Spider-Men facing off against Jamie Foxx's Electro, Thomas Haden Church's Sandman and Rhy Ifans' Lizard, many noticed that Flint Marko/Sandman being cured mirrored the scene from Spider-Man 3 where he was washed down a sewer grate, albeit in reverse. Moreover, Lizard turning back into Dr. Curt Connors bears a striking resemblance to the same scene from The Amazing Spider-Man.
While no official sources have confirmed or denied whether the footage was reused, a possible explanation could be that it was done to skirt the need to digitally de-age Church and Ifans, whose villainous alter egos already relied far more heavily on CGI than Foxx, Willem Dafoe (Green Goblin) and Alfred Molina (Doctor Octopus).
In No Way Home, villains from past Spider-Man films enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Peter Parker interferes with Doctor Strange's spell intended to make the world forget his secret identity. When Peter discovers each of those villains died in their universes while fighting Spider-Man, he sets out to cure them before sending them home, but the plan backfires when Green Goblin, Electro, Sandman and Lizard go rogue. It's eventually revealed that it wasn't just villains who made it into the MCU, though, as Ned inadvertently opens portals for Maguire and Garfield's Spider-Men to enter the picture. Together, the three Peters succeed in curing the villains, but Green Goblin's damage to Doctor Strange's spellbinding box means the only way to stop the damage to the Multiverse is for Strange to cast a new spell that makes the entire world forget who Holland's Peter is.
Despite having just completed its opening weekend, Spider-Man: No Way Home is already the highest-grossing film of 2021 after earning $587.2 million worldwide. Its $253 million domestic haul also makes it the second-highest opening weekend of all time behind Avengers: Endgame.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is now in theaters.
Source: Marvel Studios/Sony Pictures