Every MCU Spider-Man Movie Ranked

Warning: SPOILERS for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Now that Spider-Man: No Way Home has been released, which of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the best? Every MCU Spider-Man movie was directed by Jon Watts, who joins Sam Raimi as the two directors who helmed a complete Spider-Man trilogy. Although Sony retains the movie rights to Spider-Man and his universe of characters, a deal struck with Marvel Studios allowed the web-slinger to join the MCU starting in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, which finally allowed Spidey to interact with Marvel’s other superheroes and even join the Avengers.

So far, Tom Holland has starred as Peter Parker and his wall-crawling alter ego six times in the MCU: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and his trio of films which can be unofficially dubbed the “Home” trilogy.  The Marvel Studios-produced Spider-Man trilogy wildly and purposefully differs from the three Spider-Man films starring Tobey Maguire and the two Amazing Spider-Man movies starring Andrew Garfield. Holland’s Peter Parker was fully integrated into the MCU from the get-go and Marvel Studios strategically opted not to repeat the Spider-Man tropes already seen in the previous five Spider-Man movies, such as showing the death of Uncle Ben. But audiences were overjoyed to see Spider-Man living in the same world as the Avengers after so many years of being the lone superhero in his universe. With the retirement of MCU’s central heroes like Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans) after Avengers: Endgame, Holland’s Spider-Man has ascended to become one of, if not the new flagship hero of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Obviously, given the enormous success and popularity of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man films, Sony announced its plans to continue its mega-successful Spider-Man movie franchise, hopefully with Holland continuing to wear Spidey’s skintight suit. What the next phase for Spider-Man will entail has yet to be revealed, although Holland is expected to join an upcoming MCU crossover film, possibly Avengers 5. Meanwhile, Spider-Man: No Way Home definitively ends the saga of Peter Parker’s MCU high school years, which encompassed the entire Spider-Man “Home” trilogy. Each of Tom Holland’s Spidey flicks is wildly entertaining, increasingly ambitious, and essentially redefined what a Spider-Man movie can be, but here’s how the three Spider-Man: Homecoming movies rank.

3. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Spider-Man: Far From Home sent Peter Parker and his Midtown High friends on a European vacation and its cliffhanger ending shattered the classic Spidey paradigm in the MCU. As the first MCU movie released and set after Avengers: Endgame in 2019, Spider-Man: Far From Home had to update the state of the MCU after The Blip caused by Thanos (Josh Brolin) and address the fallout of the death of Peter’s mentor, Tony Stark. Further, Far From Home is the first mention of the Multiverse in the MCU, with the film’s villain, Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), claiming to be from another Earth. The seeds for the upcoming Secret Invasion Disney+ series were also planted by the appearance of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who was impersonated by Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), the friendly Skrull from Captain Marvel.

Far From Home‘s best moments are Peter’s friendship with the duplicitous Mysterio and MJ (Zendaya) learning that he’s really Spider-Man, which finally gets their romance in gear. The first half of the film involving the Midtown High students traveling to Venice, Austria, and London, is great fun, and Gyllenhaal has a terrific supervillain monologue when he reveals his evil master plan. Far From Home‘s chaotic final act pits Spidey against Mysterio’s many illusions as the villain takes over the Stark Tech drones gifted to Peter by Tony, but the characters get lost in the relentless action, which builds to the shocking cliffhanger of J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) revealing Spider-Man’s secret identity to the world. Spider-Man: Far From Home threatens to collapse under the weight of its MCU responsibilities as the story feels like it’s getting too big for Spider-Man to handle.

2. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Spider-Man: No Way Home is a remarkable achievement because it introduced the Spider-Verse in live-action. A celebration of Sony and Marvel Studios’ entire Spider-Man franchise since 2002, No Way Home features an incredible cavalcade of guest stars and cameos from every Spider-Man movie, most importantly, Tobey Magure and Andrew Garfield reprising their roles as Spider-Man and sharing the screen with Tom Holland. No Way Home also features supervillains like the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), and Electro (Jamie Foxx), while Charlie Cox from Netflix’s Daredevil cameos as Matt Murdock. Doctor Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) major role also sets up his sequel, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. And No Way Home breaks Spider-Man: Homecoming and Far From Home‘s pattern as the first Tom Holland Spidey film entirely set in New York City.

For pure fan service and unforgettable moments that honor the previous Spider-Man movies, No Way Home is a gift. But No Way Home is more of an event than a coherent movie; the plot is convoluted, contradictory, and everything frustratingly hinges on Tom Holland’s Peter Parker making foolish decisions to enable the film’s plot points and cameos to happen. By the end of No Way Home, the MCU’s Spider-Man’s life is completely shattered as Peter’s dearest friends magically forget he exists, his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) is killed, and Holland’s Spidey is essentially stripped of all of his MCU advantages so that he’s reset to become more like the lonely Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield played. And yet, the spectacle of the three live-action Spider-Men swinging into action together against all of their supervillains is immensely satisfying, and Spider-Man: No Way Home fantastically delivers as a pure comic book movie.

1. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

While segments of Spider-Man: Homecoming feel like Iron Man 4 because of Robert Downey Jr.’s guest-starring role as Tony Stark, Tom Holland’s first headlining Spidey film is the best of his trilogy because it holds up nicely as a standalone movie. Spider-Man: Homecoming introduces the teenage Peter’s supporting cast and endearing high school life reimagined for Queens in 2017, including his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), MJ, Liz (Laura Harrier), who was the girl of his dreams, Betty Brant (Angourie Rice), and Parker’s bully, Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori). Jennifer Connelly also voices Spider-Man’s new Stark Tech suit. Homecoming is the first Spider-Man movie to take Peter outside of New York City, with Spider-Man traveling to Washington D.C. Spidey’s heroic rescue of his friends at the Washington Monument also had a clever in-joke between the webhead and Liz that called back Tobey Maguire’s famous upside-down kiss with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) in Spider-Man 2002.

Spider-Man: Homecoming stars arguably the best of the MCU Spidey’s supervillains, Michael Keaton as Adrian Toombs AKA the Vulture. Toombs’ scene in the car with Peter when he deduced his daughter, Liz’s, prom date is really Spider-Man is unforgettable. Indeed, Spider-Man: Homecoming created several new iconic moments, such as the wall-crawler trying to hold together a ferry with his webbing and Peter heroically freeing himself from being buried under tons of rubble in the Vulture’s lair. While Peter makes a lot of mistakes in Spider-Man: Homecoming, it wasn’t the excess of fatal blunders he makes in No Way Home. Holland’s Parker rose to become a true hero by the end of the film, and Peter’s wise decision to turn down Stark’s offer to join the Avengers established him as his own man. Spider-Man: Homecoming set the new high standard for what Spider-Man movies in the MCU will be and it heroically established Tom Holland’s young Peter Parker as the definitive Spider-Man for this generation.