No Way Home misses its perfect release date

The ideal Spider-Man: No Way Home release date is May 2022, but the connected nature of the MCU means Spidey’s next film likely won’t be able to budge.

The perfect time to release Spider-Man: No Path Home would be in May 2022, but the interconnected nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the franchise’s recent schedule change likely prevents the Multiverse exploration film from moving there. Spidey’s Next Adventure hits theaters this holiday season on December 17th. While this is already a big event for the Wall-Crawler, the summer 2022 kickoff has more perks for it than even the holiday season offers.

Most obvious is the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic is still a factor, and the possibility of having (hopefully) a lot less burden to face in the pandemic by May 2022 would make opening then beneficial. With No way home being fully produced during the pandemic, it would also give Marvel Studios a lot more leeway to make the film as polished as possible ahead of its release. It would also give No way home breathing room of a different kind.

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While 2020 was notably the first year since 2009 without new MCU movies, 2021 has been packed with MCU properties between movies and directly connected Disney + shows. No way home would lighten up what has been the MCU’s most crowded year yet and remove the possibility of audience fatigue from the equation. Then there’s the factor of the other two Spider-Men on the big screen.

While not entirely confirmed, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are very strongly believed to appear as their respective versions of Peter Parker in No coming home, through the film’s Multiverse plot. May 2022 also happens to be the twentieth anniversary of the release of Sam Raimi’s premier. Spider Man film in 2002, and just two months from the decade mark for The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012. The possibility of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man alongside Garfield as the second cinematic Web-Head and Maguire as the original makes May 2022 an exceptionally rare fortuitous release setting. Kicking off the 2022 summer film season in early May, No way home could be billed as the ultimate Web-Slinger commemoration, landing on what could effectively be marketed as “Spider-Man Day.”

That said, the main thing stopping such a delay from happening is the interwoven storytelling format of the MCU itself, in addition to the major programming overhaul that the entire franchise has just undergone. Unlike most franchises, a delay in an MCU movie can and frequently does impact the entire franchise, and Marvel has already Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness now scheduled for May 6, 2022. With the presence of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in both films, the events of No way home seem likely to lead directly to Multiverse of Madness. That would mean the only way No way home could be postponed to May 2022 is for Multiverse of Madness be delayed for several months again, which would likely necessitate another rescheduling of the rest of the MCU roster. May 2022 would be the ideal date for Spider-Man: No Path Home be released and positioned as a mega-celebration of Spidey’s big-screen adventures, but unless Marvel is willing to push everything down the road having already done so, this will likely end up being an opportunity the MCU can’t not take advantage of.

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