Moon Knight And Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Producer Reveals The Emotion He Felt Seeing No Way Home - Exclusive
While executive producer Grant Curtis has been basking in the glow of the new MCU Disney+ miniseries "Moon Knight," he's also still beaming about the most recent Marvel film to become a blockbuster smash worldwide. The film, of course, is "Spider-Man: No Way Home," and while the filmmaker didn't specifically have any hand in the production, he's certainly responsible for an important element of it, thanks to his longtime association with director Sam Raimi.
That's because from 2002 to 2007, Curtis worked as a co-producer on Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy, first as a co-producer on "Spider-Man" and "Spider-Man 2," and then a full-fledged producer on "Spider-Man 3." Of course, those Spidey films — while done in association with Marvel for Sony Pictures — weren't part of the MCU saga shepherded by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. But when Disney and Marvel Studios struck a deal with Sony to bring Spider-Man (Tom Holland) into the MCU beginning with "Captain America: Civil War" in 2016, it opened the door for a creative collaboration that catapulted the MCU to even greater heights.
As a result, fans of Sony's Spider-Man films finally got the ultimate web-slinger film with "No Way Home" in 2021. Bringing in Tobey Maguire from Raimi's original "Spider-Man" trilogy, as well as Andrew Garfield from director Marc Webb's "Amazing Spider-Man" films, the power trio was made complete when they joined Holland in the ultimate superhero adventure.
But fans weren't the only people thrilled by director Jon Watts' collaboration featuring the "Spider-Man" movies past and present. It proved to be quite a poignant moment for Curtis as his history with the character finally came full circle.
Curtis says his 'jaw dropped' watching Spider-Man: No Way Home
Naturally, Grant Curtis has been busy collaborating with fellow filmmakers Mohamed Diab, Justin Benson, and Aaron Moorhead — as well as star Oscar Isaac — on "Moon Knight." Still, as part of the MCU, the filmmaker also had the good fortune of knowing what was going on during the production of "Spider-Man: No Way Home." The film includes the return of three prominent villains from the original "Spider-Man" trilogy: Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), and Sandman (Thomas Haden Church). Even more pivotal to the film's secretive plot, though, was the reprisal of Spider-Man and Peter Parker by Tobey Maguire.
In an exclusive interview with Looper to discuss his work on "Moon Knight," Curtis reflected on his feelings of seeing "Spider-Man: No Way Home" for the first time, and understandably, the experience was "totally emotional."
"It's a little cliché, but my jaw dropped. Because I work at Marvel, there were certain aspects I knew were coming and as a fan, there was a lot of things I did not know," Curtis recalled. "My jaw dropped. They did such an amazing job. I was a fan and I'll be a fan of 'Spider-Man' until the end of time. It's an incredible franchise and they did an amazing job."
Perhaps more exciting is that Curtis' longtime friend and collaborator Sam Raimi has joined the MCU, too, as the director of the upcoming "Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness."
Also starring Ethan Hawke and May Calamawy, "Moon Knight" is streaming exclusively on Disney+, with new episodes every Wednesday through May 4.