Spoiler alert for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Even if Tom Holland’s Spider-Man comes back swinging next year, following No Way Home, his Peter Parker will never be the same. The blockbuster Marvel Cinematic Universe film changed the hero’s life in a big way, and now that we’ve witnessed what was in store for him, Holland has broken down one particular relationship in the trilogy he believes to be the “heart and soul” of his movies.
While getting into spoiler talk with Marvel.com, Tom Holland spoke to one particular moment in Spider-Man: No Way Home that he finds to be the core of the trilogy. In his words:
The relationship between Peter and May throughout these films has been really integral to the heart and soul of the story. This scene kind of seemingly comes out of the blue, like no one expects this to happen. It's going to be really, really hard hitting for people [seeing the] movie.
Of course, he’s talking about the death of Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May, which was a particularly gut-wrenching moment in No Way Home midway through the film. As audiences, we’ve already seen Peter Parker lose a mentor in Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, so when a confrontation with Green Goblin leads to her unexpected death, we’re destroyed alongside young Peter.
It’s a pivotal scene in Spider-Man: No Way Home, because it allows Tom Holland’s Peter Parker to bond with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spidey, who had their own Aunt May and lost their Uncle Ben in their own movies. While Marisa Tomei’s May has been a more fun-loving element of the series, she’s the character Peter has had with him through everything, even before becoming a hero, so it’s hard to see the character grieve this loss.
During the interview, Tom Holland also said that Aunt May is an “incredible role model,” and even though her ending is super sad, he wouldn’t “change a single moment of it.” Following her death, MJ and Ned help Spidey through it by introducing him to the other Spider-Men. Additionally, Zendaya spoke to Peter and MJ’s relationship:
Peter helps to melt MJ a little bit, and break the shell that she's had to build in order to protect herself from the world. She doesn't have many people she feels that she can trust and rely on, and Peter has now become one of those people. And she doesn't want to lose him.
The pair really help each other throughout the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home and become a super sweet partnership to witness throughout the three movies. In the end, it’s not Tony Stark or Doctor Strange who gear the deepest relationships in the most recent Spider-Man trilogy, it’s the women in his life: Aunt May and MJ.
