'No Way Home' writers on ending Tom Holland's trilogy with a more 'hopeful' Spider-Man

If Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures team up for another Spider-Man trilogy (and let's be honest, after No Way Home's record-shattering box office success, there's no way they don't), you can bet things will never be the same for Tom Holland's iteration of young Peter Parker. For one thing, no one knows who he is anymore (courtesy of Doctor Strange) and a great fan theory posits that he had to sew his own costume at the end of No Way Home because the Stark technology no longer recognized him.

"We knew we were going to end up in that place. As far as what it means, whether or not there are going to be more? All we could do was try to service this story and tell what we felt was the best version of this story," No Way Home co-screenwriter Erik Sommers explained to The Hollywood Reporter. "It’s ended in a place where it could feel like a satisfying to this particular Spider-Man, or it definitely could keep going. We get this team together in a room — and again, each one of these movies has had a big thing from the previous to react to. To be a story engine. If there were to be another one, we have this big change at the end that would be a huge story engine to what comes next. I think it could be a satisfying conclusion or just another really fun, inciting incident for another story. I hope they do more. But I don’t know."

Despite making a promise to track down MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) and remind them of his true identity, Peter ultimately decides that the people he loves would be safer without him in their lives. He makes the incredibly difficult decision to fully embrace his responsibilities as a hero and keep any potential collateral (as well as emotional) damage at a safe distance. He is, for all intents and purposes, back to basics.

The end result, explained co-writer Chris McKenna, is a more "hopeful" vision for Spider-Man that serves as a contrast to previous incarnations of the character (particularly Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker, who fell into a deep despair after the death of Gwen Stacy). As many audience members have pointed out, Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home all serve as one big origin story for the MCU's take on the iconic web-slinging do-gooder.

"He has a choice and he doesn’t make that choice because he knows ultimately there’s a sacrifice that has to be made if he’s going to be the person that May raised him to be," McKenna concluded. "This is the responsibility that he now has to live with. In a lot of ways, this is the other two [Spider-Men] helping him get to a place where maybe they got to before he did. This is the great sacrifice. The death of May is the turning point in his life and really turns what it means to be Peter Parker and Spider-Man into a different place for him."

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