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Spider-Man: No Way Home was one of the biggest superhero events in movie history, but according to director Jon Watts, fans online came dangerously close to spoiling the surprise before the cameras even rolled.
The 2021 Marvel blockbuster saw Tom Holland's Peter Parker joined by two iconic Spider-Men from different cinematic eras: Tobey Maguire, who played the role from 2002 to 2007, and Andrew Garfield, who starred in The Amazing Spider-Man films from 2012 to 2014. Their return was a tightly guarded secret, but Marvel fans are nothing if not sharp.
In a recent interview with Collider, Watts shared that during the scripting phase, the team came across a Reddit fan theory that mirrored their planned reveal of the two legacy Spider-Men.
"We were writing the script, and we were working on where we wanted to reveal the guys,” Watts said. “It always seemed like Peter’s going to be sad because Aunt May has just died, and that the portals are going to open, and the two Spider-Men are going to step out. It’s probably a rooftop somewhere... It’s all sort of hazy. You’re still trying to figure it out.”
But then he stumbled across a Reddit thread that predicted the exact same setup: portals, grief, rooftop reunion.
“It was exactly what we were planning, almost word for word. That was the moment I knew we needed to change it.”
Instead, the team opted for the now-iconic kitchen scene at Ned Leeds’ house, where Ned accidentally opens portals and brings in Garfield and Maguire’s Spider-Men, a quieter, more comedic and grounded moment that took fans by surprise.
The last-minute change was not only a pivot away from fan predictions, but also one of the film’s most beloved scenes. It offered a moment of levity after Aunt May’s tragic death and gave audiences time to reconnect with the former Spider-Men in a more relatable, domestic setting.
Jon Watts directing ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ – Credit: Sony
Spider-Man: No Way Home became a box office juggernaut, grossing over $1.9 billion worldwide and cementing its place as a Marvel classic. But as Watts’ comments prove, Reddit fan theories can shape blockbuster storytelling more than we realise, especially in the digital age of leaks, speculation, and spoiler culture.
