Spider-Man: No Way Home experiences presale ticket shortages as fans begin to buy their tickets for the movie’s release on Dec. 17. Photo courtesy of Collider.

JACK SHANNON | STAFF REPORTER | jmshannon@butler.edu

Rumors are flying, websites are crashing and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is sneaking up on us just as quickly as finals week. Marvel fans have been waiting since Tom Holland leaked plans for a trilogy in a 2017 interview. Now the movie is finally here, and audiences have already bought out opening weekend across the country. As a result, “No Way Home” is reported to have the best presale ticket numbers since “Avengers: Endgame.” 

However, this presale record didn’t come without problems. Ticketing websites like Fandango, AMC Theaters, Atom Tickets and MovieTickets.com all crashed during the initial hours of ticket release. Michael DeRosa, a sophomore sports media major, recounted his experience trying to get tickets.

“My friends and I were ready with our laptops at midnight, but, as soon as we hit refresh for showtimes, all the websites were down,” DeRosa said. “One guy got in his car to drive to a theater to buy tickets in-person and bullied me into coming with him. I argued that it would be closed but he said he had to be sure. After hours of refreshing hundreds of tabs across a few laptops and phones, we finally got tickets around 4:30 a.m.” 

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” will follow Tom Holland’s Peter Parker after the events of the second installment of the trilogy, “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” Specifically, this movie will look at the fallout of Peter’s secret identity being revealed to the world and the lengths he will go to undo this revelation. When he turns to Doctor Strange, reprised by Benedict Cumberbatch, for help, a spell goes wrong and new threats are brought into their universe. 

These new threats are villains from other universes who have faced off with Spider-Man before. Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus and Sandman will return from Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy, released between 2002 and 2007. These villains will be reprised by Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina and Thomas Haden Church, respectively. Electro and the Lizard from Marc Webb’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” series, released between 2012 and 2014, are also confirmed to make appearances. They will be reprised by Jamie Foxx and Rhys Ifans respectively.

 Jovana Gonzalez, a junior strategic communications major, shared her thoughts on what she expects from Spider-Man’s new enemies.

“I’ve always been a big Spider-Man person,” Gonzalez said. “When the originals came out, we had them in our DVD collection, so I’m pretty familiar with the Tobey Maguire versions. I’m really excited to see how Tom Holland is going to connect with all of the villains, especially Doc Ock. I think he could have a really interesting role in this movie – maybe even not as a villain.”

With the return of these villains, rumors have been circulating regarding appearances from previous Spider-Man actors Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Maguire originally held the role across three movies from 2002 to 2007. Garfield then took the mantle for two movies from 2012 to 2014 before it was passed on to Tom Holland when he made his debut in Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War.” 

Maggie Slaughter, a senior risk management and insurance major, talked about how it might be better if she didn’t see them as Spider-Man again.

“One of our friends doesn’t want them to show up because it might mess with his childhood, and I kind of respect that.” Slaughter said. “The other guys had their turn and it makes sense to just leave it alone. Marvel still needs to focus on Tom Holland’s arc because it’s still his story at the end of the day.” 

Kayla Miller, a senior education and history major, is excited for Maguire and Garfield to make their returns and wants them to feature in this film.

“I say they better show up,” Miller said.  “It’ll be cool for Spider-Man fans that have been following for a long time. Anyone who has ties to any of those different iterations of Spider-Man would want to see it. That is so many different generations of people, and that’s pretty awesome.”

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” officially releases in theaters Friday, Dec. 17, with showings starting as early as the afternoon of Thursday, Dec. 16.