No doubt that you’ve seen the first trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home a good number of times by now. Tom Holland’s potentially final cinematic outing as the wallcrawler has a lot of fans buzzing about what all its universe hopping could lead to, be it remixes of old villains or some new allies and threats coming to beat up this Peter Parker. But who cares about all that when there’s a retro version of the trailer out for us to enjoy?
Courtesy of Youtuber Darth Blender, who loves making movie trailers using footage of animated shows, No Way Home’s audio mixed with clips from the 1967 cartoon that used to air on ABC, plus 1981’s Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. The remixed trailer lends itself some charm as the cheap animation has to convey the often overblown scale of a modern 2021 film, like the intended terror of seeing Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock show up to rip Holland a new one. (What isn’t charming, however, is the Asian character meant to stand in for Wong. Yeesh.) And yes, Blender does use the oft-memed moment of two Spider-Men exactly where you’d think he would.
It’s debatable as to whether or not the ‘67 cartoon, was actually any good. As the first animated go at the hero, voiced by the late Paul Soles, it’s primarily lived on through many, many memes that you’ve seen on social media recently. Its three-season run had some episodes were absurd as hell at best and a total snooze at worst. It makes trailers like this one fascinating glimpses into history that may inspire younger viewers to check the show out and see how the hero has evolved in animation…y’know, assuming the show ever actually comes to Disney+.
Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into theatres on December 16.