Tom Holland Reveals How Spider-Man: No Way Home's Director Pays Homage To The Sam Raimi Movies

Sony Pictures' "Spider-Man: No Way Home" swings into theaters in a matter of days, and it remains one of the buzziest movies to ever hit the MCU. But, even as theories abound as to whether former Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield will turn up to fight familiar foes from their own Spidey-flicks, we should also be talking about a truly astonishing fact surrounding the release of "No Way Home," which is that current Spider-Man Tom Holland has yet to spoil any major twists while doing press for the film.

In a recent interview with Den of Geek, however, Holland let a couple of intriguing nuggets spill about "Spider-Man: No Way Home" in the context of prior "Spider-Man" movies. When asked about having actors from older franchise films on board for "No Way Home," Holland raved specifically about Alfred Molina, who plays Doc Ock in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 2" and reprises the character for this upcoming film. The actor noted, "I think, back in the day, his arms were puppeteered, and obviously, in this film, they're completely CG. So I think it gave him a lot more creative freedom in the way that he could just move around the set, which was really nice to see someone kind of adapt to the new way of filmmaking."

While using CGI tentacles will undoubtedly affect Alfred Molina's performance as Doc Ock (hopefully, in a good way), fans of the Sam Raimi "Spider-Man" movies might be bummed by the decision as the tangible look and feel of the appendages were part of what made the character so unique in "Spider-Man 2." Even still, those fans will no doubt be elated to learn Jon Watts, director of Tom Holland's "Spider-Man" trilogy, is indeed bringing back the "Raimi Cam" effect for "Spider-Man: No Way Home." 

Holland offered that exciting info in the same Den of Geek interview, stating, "Something that Jon Watts did really well is, he would call it the 'Raimi cam,' and he would do these really quick smash push-ins on characters, which is something Sam Raimi, I suppose, was quite famous for. So Jon definitely paid respect to the previous two movies."

Once you get over Holland apparently knowing a little about Raimi's iconic stylistic flourishes, Watts' choice to utilize that specific camera trick from Raimi's vault is beyond exciting. That's mostly because Raimi has used the effect himself in almost every movie he's ever made and will almost certainly feature it in the upcoming "Doctor Strange in the Multi-verse of Madness." That said, the smash-zoom effect was arguably never utilized more effectively as it was in "Spider-Man 2," particularly in the scene where Molina's Otto Octavius officially becomes Doc Ock. In any case, we cannot wait to see how and where Watts works it into "No Way Home."