Surprised no one has commented on the Dr. stranger teaser at the end, which looked fantastic.
Oh, well it was definitely a semi-surprise for me. I had heard that the trailer had leaked a couple days prior to NWH's release, so I thought it would've been attached to the front of the film but when I didn't see it there, I figured it was at the end, a la the Avengers trailer seen at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger. Seeing Gargantos (not to be confused with Shuma-Gorath) for a brief second was mind-blowing. Like, I know we have aliens in the MCU, but seeing tentacle demons is a bit wild to me, but I'm ready for it. I'm enjoying that a lot of Phase 4 is about team-ups rather than strictly solo films, and seeing Wanda and America Chavez show up in this film will amplify my excitement for it even more.
I'm still gathering my thoughts on this movie, but it was way better than my already high expectations. Top tier MCU, and I agree that for all the different characters and 3 Spider-Man franchises, it all worked so well.
Agreed - this was a once-in-a-lifetime alignment of the stars, literally and figuratively. Something like this couldn't have been done before now, and I doubt something like this could have been done after now.
After Endgame, the cosmic stakes of the MCU have risen, and with this year's introduction into multiversal shenanigans with Loki and What If? have set up NWH's premise fairly reasonably, especially after the multiversal-fake-out we had in FFH with Mysterio's back story. And it's pretty genius that they managed to rework both NWH and DSITMOM after their release positions were swapped (because IIRC, Strange's sequel was supposed to come out BEFORE Spider-Man NWH), and so it all seems to fit together so nicely.
Though the first post-credits scene confused me a bit. So Venom was briefly in the MCU but now isn't........but what about Morbius? Keaton is in that movie, but he also mentions Venom, so I'm just lost.
There was a piece of venom that stayed in the MCU from that post credit scene, which I'm assuming will introduce a venom in the MCU (maybe a different actor?)
I've read/heard that this was Marvel Studios' way of saying to Sony "Oh, you wanted Venom in the MCU? Sure, but we're sending him back to you ASAP, but let us have a bit of his symbiote before he goes." I think it's a fun tease for future possibilities. I think if the MCU is headed towards the Secret Wars (because that would be an amazing way to feature the Fantastic Four and the X-Men as well), I think we could see Spider-Man get his black suit then, and we can finally get a comic-accurate black-suit Spider-Man in the MCU, but that might not be for a few more years, and I'd like to see Peter get one solo film in before the next big crossover event.
Does this mean we won't see Tom Holland face off against Tom Hardy? Ehhh, who knows at this point. Even though Feige and Pascal seem to be very buddy-buddy still, I'm always a bit worried that things could still fall apart at any time, especially given how open-ended NWH left things, given that no one in the MCU remembers Peter Parker, only that Spider-Man exists, so Peter's connections are all gone and he could be very detached from the MCU for a while. I am hopeful that there will be another trilogy set WITHIN the MCU, and that we eventually get MCU Miles Morales, maybe even Spider-Gwen, and see what else Sony/Marvel Studios can do.
Honestly, if Sony were smart, other than Venom, they would let Marvel Studios help them with all of their future Marvel films, like Kraven, Black Cat, Silver Sable, etc., just so they can be included in the MCU (especially given that Netflix heroes like Daredevil are now on the table, Spider-Man's allies/enemies are often similar ground-level characters like the Netflix heroes).
-Marc.