SPIDER-MAN: NOW WAY HOME Creators Originally Wanted to Keep Villains a Secret and Focus Marketing on a Civil War Between Spidey and Doctor Strange

The marketing that we’ve seen over the past several months for Spider-Man: No Way Home has been pretty great, but it is not what the creators originally had planned for the film. They originally wanted to keep the returning villains – Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Electro, and Sandman – a secret from the public, and wanted to keep the fans’ focus on a civil war-type storyline between Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.

But as the villains were leaked, one by one, it was made obvious that it wasn’t going to work out that way. Spider-Man star Tom Holland talked about the situation in a recent interview with Yahoo! Entertainment:

"Remember when that was the initial marketing plan? The initial plan was to make the film seem like a civil war between myself and Doctor Strange and they were gonna keep everything a secret. That is impossible.

With so many surprises still in store, the actor did admit he's "pretty tired of constantly lying and deceiving people," adding that his conscience is weighing pretty heavy now. Holland's costar Zendaya added that No Way Home makes it so virtually anything is possible within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, saying:

"It's really cool and I think that's part of the excitement and the fun — the theories and the ideas and possibilities. There now is, because of the multiverse, literally an infinite amount of possibilities of what this film could be or could turn into. I think everybody should just go into it with no expectations and just have fun."

I kind of miss the days before the internet when spoilers weren’t as big of a thing, unless you had a jerky friend who liked to ruin things for you. It was so much fun to see a movie on opening night and have it be full of surprises. I appreciate that Marvel tried their best to recapture that for this film, and I can’t wait to see it.

Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into theaters this week.