Among the deleted scenes from Spider-Man: No Way Home, one scene involving the multiversal villains, Peter Parker, and Aunt May in an elevator would have continued a curious MCU trend had stayed in the film. Months after a resounding success at the box office, No Way Home is heading for audiences’ homes with a digital release. As it is common in this situation, scenes that didn't make it to the final cut are being released as bonus features.
No Way Home's deleted elevator scene would take place between Peter's escape from Doctor Strange's Sanctum bringing all the multiversal villains with him and the arrival of the curious group at Happy's apartment. Even though it’s a fun moment that plays with the absurd context of the ocasion, it makes sense that the scene was cut. The arrival of the villains at Happy's apartment was supposed to be a moment of rising tension, something that could have been muddled with a quick, no-dialogue comedy scene.
Had it been kept in the movie, No Way Home's elevator scene would have joined a surprising number of MCU elevator scenes. The most famous would be the one from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, in which Steve Rogers boards an elevator packed with Hydra's secret agents whose mission is to prevent Captain America from leaving the facility. Although restricted to the space of an elevator, Captain America and his enemies performed incredible moves and helped to mark Winter Soldier as one of the films with the best hand-to-hand combat in the franchise. The elevator idea would be used again in Avengers: Endgame, in which Steve Rogers once more boards an elevator along with some of the same faces from Hydra — except this time in 2012. An obvious reference to the Endgame directors' first film in the MCU, the scene played with both the idea that Rogers already knew of Hydra’s influence on SHIELD and the then-recent reveal in the comics that Captain America was part of Hydra. It seems this cut No Way Home scene was created as a nod to this MCU trend - but one that wasn't necessary to its continuation, which likely explains why it was ultimately removed from the final version of the film.
Two recent elevator scenes in the MCU were the ones in the Disney+ series from 2021 Loki and Hawkeye. Loki's elevator scene, which was used in nearly every trailer for Loki, sees Tom Hiddleston's and Owen Wilson's characters being essentially introduced and hint at what their relationship would become for the rest of the show. In Hawkeye's elevator scene, Kate Bishop and Yelena start their weird but funny fight caused by the new Black Widow being after revenge against Kate's mentor.
Elevator scenes in Marvel productions are not exclusive to the MCU. In fact, one of the funniest and most remembered scenes in a Spider-Man film is precisely the elevator scene in Spider-Man 2, in which the hero has an awkward small talk with a civilian after losing his powers and having to take the elevator. The now available on Disney+ The Defenders also had an important elevator scene, which preceded the group's first team fight.
It makes sense for Spider-Man: No Way Home’s elevator to have been cut, but it would be fun at the very least to add one more elevator-focused scene to the story of Spider-Man and the MCU. Fortunately, the scene was at least released as a bonus feature. How just a few seconds of Spider-Man and his villains sitting quietly in an elevator are already able to make an impact with viewers is a testament to just how important the character and its universe are in pop culture.
