Spider Man No Way Home has finally arrived! What better time than now to look back at the first two films in the ‘Home’ series and reveal 10 fascinating facts
SPIDERMAN HOMECOMING
1. Tom Holland spoke into existence his eventual playing of Spiderman: in an interview in 2013, 4 years before Homecoming was released, a reporter asked Tom Holland if he would ever like to play a superhero, he actually replied that he would like to be Spiderman “in ten years’ time if they reboot it”. 4 years later he got his wish! At 19 years old he was the youngest actor to be cast as Peter Parker – Tobey Maguire was cast at 25 and Andrew Garfield was cast at 26 years old.
2. The actress Jennifer Connelly voices the Spiderman computer ‘Karen’. Her husband Paul Bettany who later went on to play ‘Vision’ in the MCU initially voiced the Iron Man computer ‘JARVIS’.
3. Homecoming pays homage to John Hughes’ high school films and the cast had to watch a John Hughes movie marathon to prepare. Films watched included The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Pretty in Pink.
4. Stan Lee filmed his then customary MCU film cameo for Homecoming, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy volume 2 and Thor Ragnarök all in one day.
5. Homecoming was the first Spiderman film to not mention or feature his famous Uncle Ben of “with great power comes great responsibility” fame in any way whatsoever.
Who is the best Peter Parker/Spider Man? Find out here
SPIDERMAN FAR FROM HOME
6. Jake Gyllenhaal brought the character Mysterio to the big screen for the first time, but he was almost used earlier. If Sam Raimi’s cancelled ‘Spiderman 4’ went ahead Mysterio would have appeared in the film with the role taken by Evil Dead actor and long-time Raimi collaborator Bruce Campbell.
7. Speaking of Jake Gyllenhaal, he was originally going to replace Tobey Maguire as Spiderman in Sam Raimi’s ‘Spiderman 2’ after Maguire was injured whilst filming ‘Seabiscuit’. Maguire’s injuries cleared up quicker than expected and he was able to resume filming meaning Gyllenhaal was no longer required to step in;
Find out why No Way Home was one of December’s Most Wanted Movies here
8. Spiderman Far from Home marked the first Marvel Studios movie without a cameo by Stan Lee due to his passing in November 2018. We miss you, Stan!
9. Despite being based in the Netherlands in the film the tulip field scene was actually filmed in the UK using around 2 million digital tulips. Stansted Airport in Essex was also used for filming as a fill in for Newark Airport (New Jersey) in the film.
10. Spiderman films have been mostly very successful, but Far from Home was surprisingly only the first Spiderman film to gross over $1 billion worldwide.
