Marvel Studios has confirmed an official title for Tom Holland’s first trilogy in the MCU as Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man. Tom Holland debuted as Spider-Man in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, taking over the iconic role from Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield who portrayed Peter Parker in various Sony-produced films. Since then, Holland has appeared in five further MCU projects, including Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and a dedicated solo trilogy putting his teenage hero front-and-center. Each of Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man films, including Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home, explored similar themes and a clear overarching storyline, detailing Spider-Man’s origin story in the MCU.
Spider-Man franchise director Jon Watts has claimed that Holland’s three solo MCU films explored Peter Parker’s full origin story as Spider-Man in the MCU, and this trilogy has now been given an official title. In the Spider-Man: No Way Home: The Art of the Movie book, Marvel Studios’ Head of Visual Development Ryan Meinerding suggested that Holland’s 2017, 2019, and 2021 films comprise “our ‘Home’ trilogy.” This refers to the use of “home” in each of the MCU’s Spider-Man films, and marks the first time that a trilogy of solo MCU films, of which there have now been six, has been given an official name. Read Meinerding’s full quote below:
The Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies starring Tobey Maguire were really the entrance into modern superhero cinema in a lot of ways, and both Andrew Garfield, in the Amazing Spider-Man films, and Tom Holland, in our ‘Home’ trilogy, have only enhanced the legacy of the silver screen web-slinger across two decades.
Spider-Man Is The Only MCU Trilogy To Get An Official Name
Interestingly, while the MCU has had a wide range of trilogies throughout its current run, these haven’t come with official titles other than the one given for the Spider-Man movie trilogy, making the addition all the more noteworthy. However, this is a move that makes sense, as MCU film trilogies like Iron Man’s or the Guardians Of The Galaxy’s follow a more conventional naming order, with the second and third releases simply adding a 2 or 3 to their titles, meaning there’s no need to give a name to the trilogy in the same way.
Even in cases where this is changed up – such as with the Thor movies or Ant-Man’s trilogy – the subsequent titles don’t follow a convention in the same way the “Home” trilogy does. As such, it would be far harder to give them a fitting label, and picking a name for the sake of it could well create more confusion around a specific series, especially as some now begin to release their fourth movies and begin potential second trilogies.
This may change in the future, though, as the franchise has seemingly leaned away from giving a trilogy numeric titles, meaning other trilogies are set to emerge who could themselves follow a naming trend in the same manner that the Spider-Man trilogy does. With Captain Marvel‘s sequel The Marvels leading to some confusion around whether it followed on from the original series, following a naming convention like the “Home” trilogy could well help the MCU remain cohesive as it continues to expand.
Why Spider-Man’s First MCU Trilogy Is Named The “Home” Trilogy
The “Home” title for Spider-Man’s MCU movie trilogy is a clear nod to the shared “Home” names in each of the respective titles, with Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home each having the word somewhere within them. On a deeper level, the “Home” trilogy is an apt title because the three movies explore Peter Parker growing up, and the stages he goes through as he evolves as a hero.
Spider-Man: Homecoming is a fitting label to give a movie that is literally about the period of time that contains Peter’s own high school homecoming. However, it also works as an allusion to Spider-Man’s return to the big screen, and as a reference to the hero’s younger age compared to most of the on-screen MCU heroes of the time, underlining how much this chapter of his on-screen life is a youthful one.
Far From Home also has a literal and deeper meaning. Most obviously, the movie is literally about Peter’s time away from the US on a school trip, but it is also about him having to grow without the comforts he was previously used to before, both in terms of the familiarity of his hometown, and in terms of the support he’d previously been able to rely on from Iron Man.
Finally, No Way Home works on a literal level – since Spider-Man is dealing with characters separated from their home universe – and on a more metaphorical level too. Peter Parker ends the movie having saved the day, but only after losing Aunt May, and sacrificing his friendships with the two people closest to him in order to ensure their safety and happiness, leaving him an independent hero who can no longer go back to the life he’d grown used to. With all this in mind, the “Home” trilogy is a fitting label for this part of the movie series.
What Does Spider-Man’s Future After The Home Trilogy Look Like In The MCU?
Tom Holland’s solo trilogy being titled the Home Trilogy neatly wraps up his entire MCU origin story as Spider-Man, ending with 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, which left the world with no memory of Peter Parker as he heads into his next MCU adventures. Producer Amy Pascal confirmed in November 2021 that Holland would appear in further MCU projects, including a new trilogy, and Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige backed this up in December with the announcement that Spider-Man 4 was in development. Feige revealed in February 2023 that Spider-Man 4’s story was set (via Entertainment Weekly), though recent WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have disrupted production on the upcoming film.
While the future looks bright for Spider-Man in the MCU – even if nobody remembers the Peter Parker under the suit after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home – Marvel Studios’ new naming of the Home Trilogy suggests one aspect of his storylines will change. Since Parker’s origin story is titled the Home Trilogy, it’s likely that future projects will drop the “home” from the title, perhaps adopting a new theme that runs through his second trilogy. Peter Parker is perhaps no longer worried about the idea of “home”, but instead is operating as an anonymous, street-level hero in the MCU, meaning Spider-Man will have new priorities in the MCU’s future.
