Culture Crash: Spider-Man’s Back Once Again

Welcome to Culture Crash, where we examine American culture – what’s new and old in entertainment…

Last month, Spider-Man: No way Home blew its expectations out of the water, opening to a staggering $260 million in the U.S., good enough for the 3rd biggest domestic opening weekend of all time, despite the pandemic surging due to the Omicron variant.

A secret to the movies success? People love a crossover event. For example, I have to be honest, I’m not much of a Marvel fan. I haven’t seen Black Widow yet, I haven’t been watching Hawkeye... I could go on. And yet, I went to see No Way Home on opening day. Why? Not so much because i was dying to catch up with the MCU, but rather because I love Spider-Man.

More specifically, I love the previous Spider-Man series, the ones starring Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. And no spoilers here, it was right in the trailers: No Way Home saw the return of many of those series’ most iconic villains.

The big headlines were that Willem Dafoe is back as Green Goblin, Alfred Molina is back as Doc Ock, and Jamie Foxx is back as Electro. There were even rumors that Maguire and/or Garfield may be returning as their versions of Peter Parker, but again, no spoilers here either way.

Still, that excitement: the returning villains, the swirling rumors, they made No Way Home feel like a must-see opening weekend movie. The key to my heart and countless others my age is to bring back reminders of those previous Spider-universes. It’s a comic book special, the crossover event.

And for me at least, it worked. I was thrilled to watch Dafoe and company back in action once again, and it gave me an excuse to marathon some of my favorite movies.

But even as someone who admittedly loved No Way Home, I can also see myself growing a little tired of the schtick. Already, Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton are going to reprise their roles as Batman in The Flash, and the success of No Way Home means I can see the previous-series crossover stunt continuing to flourish.

I’m just not sure the dopamine hit will continue to hit the same way if series continue to bring back old stars in this fashion.

But in Hollywood, I’m sure they’re going to try, for better or worse.