Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire sat for a ‘Spider-Man therapy session’ ahead of filming

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Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts has spoken about holding a “Spider-Man therapy session” ahead of filming.

In a new interview with Variety, Watts opened up about the making of the film, which is the third entry in the MCU’s Homecoming trilogy starring Tom Holland as Spider-Man.

Watts began working on the film – which also stars Zendaya and Marisa Tomei – in October 2019. After seven months, however, the pandemic forced production to halt.

They resumed in May 2020, with filming beginning in October that year.

Speaking about the first day of shooting, Watts said it was “completely different from the first day of any film I’ll ever be on”, adding that he felt “deep gratitude”.

Spoilers for No Way Home below!

Excitement surrounding the release was huge with many fans speculating that the film would see previous iterations of the web-slinger (played by Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire) appear alongside Holland’s superhero.

The rumours were confirmed when the film was released on 15 December last year, with Garfield and Maguire both starring opposite Holland.

Before filming the first scene with the three Spider-Men, Watts recalled that he gathered the actors, along with co-stars Zendaya and Jacob Batalon, for a discussion that he compared to a “Spider-Man therapy session”.

“We sat on folding chairs in a circle and went through the script together. I had talked to everyone separately, but to have everyone together to talk about the story, how the pieces fit together and what Spider-Man meant to them – that was exciting for me,” he said.

“We had the only three actors to ever play Spider-Man in a film, and each had been through so much, on and off screen. It was like a Spider-Man therapy session.”

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Watts continued to explain that “because we had done that work ahead of time, when filming that first scene with everyone, it was great to take a step back and see the crew watching, like they were watching the movie.”

He said: “You’re capturing something more than a scene from a movie; you’re watching a once-in-a-lifetime event.”

The director previously directed Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).

Read The Independent’s three-star review of Spider-Man: No Way Home here.