To help Tom Holland on the set of “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, Benedict Cumberbatch improvised an important dialogue from the film. A touching speech that Jon Watts decided to keep in the edit.
Spider-Man No Way Home: welcome to the Multiverse
The biggest success of the year 2021, far ahead Dying can wait, Fast & Furious 9 or Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Spider-Man: No Way Home currently has more than $1.8 billion in worldwide box office receipts. Enough to convince Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures to continue betting on the Multiverse, opened by mistake by Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), disturbed by Peter Parker (Tom Holland), in the first part of Jon Watts’ blockbuster.
While he just wants to become anonymous again and quietly live his romance with MJ (Zendaya), Spider-Man finds himself hunted by enemies from other dimensions. After a turbulent meeting with Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe), Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), or Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) in turn set off after him. But in addition to the support provided by MJ, Happy (Jon Favreau), Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), and Ned (Jacob Batalon), the young man can count on the help of two other Peter Parkers.
Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield have put on their respective costumes for this long-awaited meeting, which has given rise to countless speculations on the Web for many months. Other iconic characters are expected to continue making their return or entry into the MCU in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessin theaters on May 4, 2022.
An improvised sequence by Benedict Cumberbatch
In this second opus which is dedicated to him, with which Sam Raimi succeeds Scott Derrickson at the controls, the wizard will have to face the consequences of his actions in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Out of sympathy for Peter Parker, the superhero has breached seemingly terrifying worlds. At the end of the film, the high school student also asks Stephen Strange to cast a new spell so that things don’t get any worse.
The Master of the Mystical Arts then explains to him the terrible repercussions of his gesture. His loved ones and the whole world will forget not only Spider-Man but also Peter Parker. Farewells that Benedict Cumberbatch improvised during reshoot as he revealed in an interview for Collider. The actor launched into a monologue to help Tom Holland, and Jon Watts decided to keep him in the edit:
For that moment at the end of the movie, on top of the Statue of Liberty, we were really trying to make it work. Tom was struggling with the script, as it was before the reshoot. Then we did the reshoot and I had this idea, to show him that I love him, to tell him that I didn’t want him to make the sacrifice of being forgotten. He (Jon Watts, editor’s note) said: ‘It’s going to be in the film’. And I was like, ‘Okay, that’s cool. It’s awesome’.
While he generally prefers to stick to the text, Benedict Cumberbatch allowed himself to improvise after seeing Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr. excel in this practice on the set of Avengers: Infinity War. The actor is not the only one to have let his spontaneity speak during the production of Spider-Man: No Way Home, since Andrew Garfield also imagined an already famous replica.
