Those lucky buyers who scored Spider-Man: No Way Home tickets for the December 16th early shows are exactly two weeks away from watching the final movie in the first MCU Spider-Man trilogy. The film will likely set new post-pandemic box office records. It’s all thanks to the massive interest in the multiverse and myriad cameos that have now been confirmed. But, with two weeks left to go, the studios haven’t actually finished making the movie. That’s according to an informed insider who says Sony and Marvel are still working on the visual effects for No Way Home, which is highly unusual for a movie of this importance.
The Marvel delays
A well-connected YouTuber said a few weeks ago that No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had a few problems in test screenings. As a result, Marvel delayed the latter, looking to fix elements of the story and add more cameos. As for No Way Home, Grace Randolph said the film would still make its December 17th release date. But the VFX work “was down to the wire” for both movies. Marvel and Sony are working with “very tight and stressful deadlines,” Randolph said at the time.
Since then, we learned that the Doctor Strange 2 reshoots are indeed extensive. Marvel will work on reshoots through Christmas, a report said recently. Undisclosed sources said that it was enough time to shoot an entirely different movie.
While that happened, we saw the second No Way Home trailer. And Sony then kept bombarding fans with a large number of TV spots that featured many scenes that were not seen in trailer 2. All that footage contained plenty of VFX, as the clips featured various scenes from the movie’s big fights.
However, at least one big VFX editing mistake revealed that Sony and Marvel removed two Spider-Man variants from a fight scene.
With all that context in mind, it’s not surprising to see Randolph’s new claims.
No Way Home is a special movie
The YouTuber said on Twitter that they’re still working on the VFX for No Way Home, reiterating her previous remarks. Sony and Marve are “down to the wire” for this one.
There are STILL working on the VFX for #NoWayHome
It’s gonna be down to the wire, folks! pic.twitter.com/nzr5GvoANF
— Grace Randolph (@GraceRandolph) December 2, 2021
She offered additional information to put things in perspective. “Most blockbusters should wrap VFX 2 months out, but the reality is usually a month out,” Randolph said. She added that “a few movies do cut it this close, though.” No Way Home appears to be one of those movies.
The YouTuber acknowledged the whole thing is “highly unusual.” Randolph said that she can’t even share the entire story. She added that it would probably leak “in a day or so,” hinting that something else might be afoot.
On the other hand, No Way Home is a massive movie. It has a runtime of 2 hours and 30 minutes, and we’re looking at plenty of action. Three Spider-Man variants will fight against five villains in various locations. We then have a powerful sorcerer performing all sorts of spells. All of that involves plenty of VFX work.
That said, we shouldn’t see any No Way Home release date delays at this point. The movie will drop in mid-December in most major markets. Then, some countries in Asia will only get it a few weeks later. We’ve known of these delays for a while now.
On a different note, Sony and Marvel already have a big reason to postpone the film if they need one. The novel coronavirus omicron variant has scared the world in recent days, just as No Way Home tickets started selling online.
