Spider-Man: No Way Home: Director Jon Watts held ‘Therapy Session’ for Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire

The film also stars Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Benedict Wong, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, among others.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man: No Way Home is currently running successfully in theatres, breaking several records with its box office collections. The film is also credited for bringing back the collective experience of cinema in theatres single-handedly. Directed by Jon Watts, the film features Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon and Jon Favreau, among others. And now only time will tell if the voters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences will nominate the movie for Best Picture.

In an interview with Variety, the director of the film Watts talked about shooting the film and holding a 'therapy session' for the three Spidey actors. He revealed he was not nervous or anxious on the first day of the shoot. He, in fact, had a great feeling of gratitude to return to the sets of Spider-Man. Watts had directed the earlier Spider-Man movies of Tom Holland, which includes Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

The filming of Spider-Man: No Way Home began in October 2020. “The first day was completely different from the first day of any film I’ll ever be on, because of the situation. So to be on the set and working, I felt deep gratitude. I think everyone else also felt that gratitude and I hope that comes across,” he told the portal. The plan was to shoot in New York with several extras but due to the COVID-19, it was not possible since there was a restriction on the number of people that can be gathered at the same time. Watts says this made the film even more challenging to make and that it got 10 times more difficult but he calls the entire experience a 'learning curve'.

He said he loved working with the actors and everyone was at the top of their game. "It’s nice to be talking with people who have thought about the characters and the scenes at least as much as I have," he said. But before filming the first team, Watts had the three Spidey actors along with Zendaya and Jacob Batalon sit down together and go through the script. He recalled that they all sat on folding chairs in a circle and talked about the story and what Spider-Man meant to them. It was exciting, he said adding, "We had the only three actors to ever play Spider-Man in a film, and each had been through so much, on and off-screen. It was like a Spider-Man therapy session.”

Since the cast had done the work before the shoot, filming the first scene, Watts says, was like watching the movie itself. "You’re capturing something more than a scene from a movie; you’re watching a once-in-a-lifetime event,” he said. The final scene of Spider-Man: No Way Home is a culmination of all the Spider-Man movies, including the ones directed by Sam Raimi, Marc Webb and Watts. "Peter Parker and Spider-Man mean so much to people and I felt that responsibility,” he said concluding with his personal connection with the MCU character.

Watts was 20 when the first Spider-Man movie, starring Tobey Maguire and directed by Raimi, was released on May 3, 2002. The film had released after a few months of the 9/11 attacks and the tragedy was still fresh in the minds of the people in the US. “Going to see that movie meant so much to me. I’ve always associated Spider-Man with that moment, that healing, cathartic experience,” he said before signing off.

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