Jon Watts, the filmmaker behind Spider-Man: No Way Home, recently shared an interesting behind-the-scenes story about one of the film’s most surprising creative changes — how Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s alternate Spider-Men were introduced. While speaking at the Mediterrane Film Festival, Jon revealed that the original plan for their entrance was dramatically different until he discovered some uncanny fan theories on Reddit that matched his ideas too closely.
In a chat with Collider, Jon explained that the initial script called for the older Peter Parkers to appear during a tragic turning point — right after the heartbreaking death of Aunt May. “Peter’s mourning the loss of Aunt May when the portals open and the two other Spider-Men step through. It was going to be a very emotional rooftop moment,” Jon recalled.
He admitted that while the idea felt powerful at first, it didn’t take long for him to see that die-hard fans were already imagining the same thing. “I stumbled across fan art on Reddit — it showed a rooftop scene with Doctor Strange portals opening and Tobey and Andrew’s Spider-Men stepping out. It looked exactly like what we had planned. I thought, ‘If that’s exactly what people expect, we can’t do that,’” Jon said.
Determined to deliver something that would genuinely surprise audiences, Jon and the team went back to the drawing board. The unexpected solution? Bring the two Spider-Men into the story through Ned Leeds and his family instead of a dramatic rooftop showdown. In the final cut, Ned uses Doctor Strange’s sling ring by accident to summon the alternate Spider-Men into his Filipino grandmother’s house — a twist no fan theory had seen coming.
Jon said, “I asked myself, ‘What’s the wildest thing no one would expect?’ And I realized — no one’s imagining the two Spider-Men showing up in a grandma’s living room in Queens!” The twist not only subverted expectations but added humor and warmth to the pivotal moment.
He also credited the role of Ned’s grandmother, played by Mary Rivera, for giving the scene its memorable charm. “It was the middle of the pandemic, and we needed to find the perfect actress, so we flew her from Hawaii to Atlanta to shoot her parts,” Jon said.
By relocating the big reveal and adding Ned’s unsuspecting grandma, Jon felt he delivered what fans wanted — but in a way that caught them off guard. “The best part is you still get to see Tobey and Andrew, but in a way no one drew fan art for. It felt like we pulled off the ultimate twist,” he concluded.