Spider-Man: No Way Home is spiking on Disney Plus, and we know why

And there's never been a better time to watch it

Soon enough, it’ll be a brand new day for Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, as Peter Parker takes on a new rogue's gallery or supervillains while truly experiencing what it's like to be alone — at least until The Punisher and The Incredible Hulk show up. But while fans patiently wait for the next installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's take on Spidey, many of them are flocking to his last adventure.

After arriving on Disney Player earlier this year, Spider-Man: No Way Home is currently a huge hit on Disney Plus, according to data from FlixPatrol. This doesn't come as a surprise since the 2021 movie directly leads into Brand New Day, but No Way Home has more to offer than just a refresher on Tom Holland's character, it's also a fantastic film that delivers for all three versions of Spider-Man it contains.

After Spider-Man: Far From Home ended with Peter Parker being revealed to the world as Spider-Man, Spider-Man: No Way Home begins with the news causing major difficulties in the lives of Peter and his friends. (They can't even get into college!) That’s when Peter asks Dr. Strange to cast a magic spell to re-conceal his identity. Of course, things go wrong, causing a dimensional rip which brings two other versions of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield), and some of their villains, into MCU Peter’s universe.

Five years after the film’s release, it’s still impressive just how perfectly No Way Home depicts each version of Peter Parker/Spider-Man.

While Maguire’s and Garfield’s versions of Peter definitely play more of a supporting role, director Jon Watts and screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers still knew what the fans wanted to see, as well as what made sense for the characters. Maguire’s Peter Parker has been around the longest, helped kickstart the superhero movie trend and is still the most beloved version. So his Peter Parker got to be more of a wise mentor, a Peter Parker that had been through the worst of it as Spider-Man and came out the other end.

Garfield’s Spider-Man was trickier. This Peter seemed lonely and stuck in the same place we left him in 2014, mourning the death of Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone) who he failed to save. While he had wisdom to offer Holland’s Spider-Man, he seemed to get just as much out of the experience by bonding with his two other selves. The film also gave him a profound moment of closure, which came when he saved MJ (Zendaya) in a scene reminiscent of Gwen’s death.

As for Holland’s Peter, with the actor's youthful energy and appearance, his Spider-Man was the first one to feel like an actual teenager. Unfortunately, the downside of that was the feeling that Spider-Man was the MCU’s “junior hero,” especially with him under the wing of Iron Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Nick Fury (or as we later learned, a Skrull pretending to be Nick Fury) in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Holland’s Spider-Man did a lot of growing up. While Dr. Strange and the older Spider-Men also take a bit of a mentor role in the third film, by the end, Holland’s Peter feels like an adult, which informs his big sacrifice at the end, giving up all of his personal relationships for the good of the world when Dr. Strange casts another spell making everyone forget him, allowing for the dimensional rip to repair. The biggest part of this Spider-Man growing up though came when he got his “Uncle Ben moment,” even if it came through the death of Aunt May (Marisa Tomei).

Now it's up to Spider-Man: Brand New Day to deliver on that more grown-up version of Holland’s Spider-Man. While we know the film features Frank Castle/The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), and probably the Hulk too — so we’re still getting a superhero team-up with this movie — hopefully those other heroes realize what the fans have seen all along: that Holland’s Spider-Man can stand all on his own.