"The trailer for the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home is one of the most highly anticipated trailers of all time. While Spider Man has always been a huge property for Sony, what makes this trailer in particular so special?"
-- Phineas Hildreth, 7th Grade
The trailer for the upcoming Spider Man: No Way Home is one of the most highly anticipated trailers of all time. It has smashed multiple trailer-related records including most views and social media mentions within 24 hours. With 355.5 million views and 4.5 million mentions, leaving the previous record-holder Avengers: Endgame far behind. While Spider Man has always been a huge property for Sony, what makes this trailer in particular so special?
Well besides the fact it features many exciting moments for fans, like the return of Alfred Molina as Doctor Octavious (a.k.a Doc Oc) and teasing Willam Defoe’s return as the Green Goblin, there was also an insane amount of buildup leading to the trailer’s release.
Speaking of which, one of the earliest big factors of what made people so excited for the trailer was the confirmation of Molinas Doc Oc and Jamie Foxx’s Electro in late 2020, as well as the countless rumors that Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire's Spider Men will be appearing in the movie.
One of the first major speculations for the trailer’s release date was June first, as it was the current Spider Man himself, Tom Holland's birthday. Fans even got Holland trending on Twitter leading up to the rumored release date. In late May, the editor-in-chief of the publication Disinsider, Skyler Shuler, shared a screenshot of a conversation with a “good friend” who works at a theater. They claimed the trailer had been shared with theaters, which had fans thinking it would be coming soon. On the morning of June 10th, a leaked image of AMC schedules showed a presumed release date. However, the official Twitter page for the movie responded to a tweet indicating that the trailer was definitely not coming that day. There were a few more rumored release dates after this, such as July 22nd or August 1st (Spider Man day), but there was still no trailer in sight.
Speaking of which, one of the earliest big factors of what made people so excited for the trailer was the confirmation of Molinas Doc Oc and Jamie Foxx’s Electro in late 2020, as well as the countless rumors that Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire's Spider Men will be appearing in the movie.
One of the first major speculations for the trailer’s release date was June first, as it was the current Spider Man himself, Tom Holland's birthday. Fans even got Holland trending on Twitter leading up to the rumored release date. In late May, the editor-in-chief of the publication Disinsider, Skyler Shuler, shared a screenshot of a conversation with a “good friend” who works at a theater. They claimed the trailer had been shared with theaters, which had fans thinking it would be coming soon. On the morning of June 10th, a leaked image of AMC schedules showed a presumed release date. However, the official Twitter page for the movie responded to a tweet indicating that the trailer was definitely not coming that day. There were a few more rumored release dates after this, such as July 22nd or August 1st (Spider Man day), but there was still no trailer in sight.
While fans were getting impatient waiting for the trailer, so too it seemed, were many theaters. In mid-July, a theater in Delaware started displaying fan-made posters for the movie. “As fans clamor for a taste of Spider-Man: No Way Home, theater owners are desperate to begin marketing what could be the biggest film of the year,” said Sam Hargrave in an article for The Direct.
Anticipation for the movie only continued to grow as promotional art and toy leaks showed two new suits for the movie, the integrated suit, and the black and gold suit, as well as real set photos leaked from the reshoots that were happening showing a feast truck (feast is a charity in the comics that aunt may works for) as well as Benedict Cumberbatch’s Dr. Strange meeting with Spider Man outside the Sanctum Sanctorum. When asked about all the secrecy involving the trailer Marvel head Kevin Feige responded, "I can only guarantee there will be a trailer before the movie comes out”.
Finally, in mid-August, rumors started circulating stating that the trailer would be released during Sony's three-hour-long conference at Cinema-Con 2021 on August 23rd, but just one day before that happened, the trailer leaked online. A low-quality video of a version of the trailer with unfinished CGI was released online late Sunday that looked to be legitimate and was proven real when Sony started frantically taking down all versions of the trailer. Sure enough, the official trailer was released during Sony's Cinema-Con panel at around 6:00 pm and it was indeed the leak we had seen the previous night.
With the trailer finally out it seemed fans were very excited, with the video reaching almost two million likes within 24 hours and breaking records for trailer views. There have been lots of fan theories and speculation about the trailer with many theories trying to explain Dr. Strange’s very out-of-character decisions in the trailer, and other theories suggesting that Strange may be a disguised form of Mephisto, who’s basically Marvel's version of the devil. Marvel has done very similar things with Spider Man before in the comic run One More Day.
And even now the many rumors and leaks continue with leaked set photos and video showing Garfield’s Spider Man with a bluescreen background sitting on scaffolding. This sparked debates online about whether or not it was real, but then Sony started taking down posts featuring them, which suggests they were in fact real. With the trailer out and breaking records and the new most highly anticipated trailer seemingly being the second trailer for No Way Home, it’s looking like this is going to be one the biggest movies of the year. Spider-Man No Way Home swings into theaters on December 17th.
