While the return has been triumphant for the MCU, the interruptions impacted some of the studios’ narrative elements. Spider-Man: No Way Home screenwriters Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna discuss the sudden shifts within the studio and how an unforeseen delay prompted a rearranging of two significant pieces to the multiversal puzzle.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home has been a groundbreaking achievement, shattering the global box office while equally earning glowing reviews from critics who enjoyed the newest take on the Peter Parker adventure. However, the path towards this success was not an easy one and relied on the strategic positioning of certain chess pieces to bring the complex narrative to life in a meaningful way.

Sommers and McKenna were developing the script for the film when the studio suddenly rearranged the release schedule for its upcoming projects due to the pandemic. The arrival of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness should have preceded Spider-Man: No Way Home, which meant Strange’s knowledge of the multiverse would be more extensive than it was in the new Spider-Man film. Having the film release at a later date meant adjusting the depth of Strange’s knowledge, which Sommers and McKenna found to be doable.

“We were actually working off of things that were happening in ‘Doctor Strange 2,’ and trying to incorporate them into our script,” stated Mckenna. “When we started writing, Strange knows firsthand the dangers of screwing with these things. Then we changed it so he was a person who doesn’t know that much about the multiverse.” While daunting when it comes to rewriting the narrative, this sudden shift in perspective might have unintentionally benefited both projects. For example, it’s hard to imagine the effects of Spider-Man: No Way Home being the same if Strange already knew the danger present in the magic he was tampering with to resolve Parker’s identity crisis. However, his character’s ignorance built more suspense and allowed the audience to experience the dangers firsthand with the characters themselves.

“But that makes it even more frightening, to start fooling around with these things, because it’s the fear of the unknown. Either way, he was the voice of reason going, ‘You don’t mess with the fate of an individual’ — and Peter Parker being naive enough to go, ‘Why not? Why can’t we save these people?’” expressed McKenna. Seeing the exploration of the multiverse in this way was a shift in the plans the MCU has envisioned but ultimately created an excellent jumping-off point for the Doctor Strange sequel to leap from heading into the new year. The change in the knowledge instilled within Strange could explain some of the project’s reshoots. Despite concerns that something had gone wrong with the film due to the delays, but the studio revealed that the accomplishments of Spider-Man: No Way Home and the Loki Disney Plus series ignited a desire to have more fun with the multiverse concept.

As stated, the delay may prove to be a benefit for the MCU and the direction the multiverse narrative is taken within future films. It would have been hard to imagine Strange tampering with the fabric of reality if he knew the consequences that could result from such actions. The studio would be asking audiences to suspend a great deal of belief, which may not have been possible because of the characteristics embedded within the character. Shifting his knowledge assisted the story and leads to an even bigger adventure within his exploration of the multiverse in his upcoming sequel. The actions committed by Strange in Spider-Man: No Way Home had tremendous consequences with the emergence of villains from other Spider-Man universes, which one can assume had greater effects elsewhere as well.

The trailer for Multiverse of Madness seems to point towards things getting further out of hand for Strange, which wouldn’t carry the same level of anticipation if not hinted at within Spider-Man: No Way Home first. His actions, however, have weight and even translate well into the upcoming sequel with Karl Mordo, an adversary to Strange, stating, “Your desecration of reality will not go unpunished.” Those words have more significant meaning after seeing the events within the Peter Parker universe. The pandemic was an unexpected obstacle that studios had to navigate, but the MCU seems to have maneuvered its chess pieces beneficially.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is currently playing in theaters.

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Source: Variety