Because of the COVID pandemic stretching things out for as long as it did, there has been an alteration of schedules as to when entries in Marvel Studios’ MCU franchise will premiere in order. “Black Widow” is no longer the leading chapter of Phase 4, as it seems. Now it is the Disney+ series “WandaVision” that has started things. The films however are staying in their places, with the third “Spider-Man” being the fourth movie in Phase 4, no matter what. Things got muddled when the main cast offered different subtitles for the film just yesterday, but now Marvel and Sony have set things straight.

Thanks to The Hollywood Reporter, we now know what “Home” phrase will be the subtitle of Spider-Man’s third headlining foray into the massive setting of the MCU. Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures floated the reveal on social media with a funny video clip. It shows Spidey actor Tom Holland apparently leaving the office of the movie’s director Jon Watts, complaining to costars Zendaya and Jacob Batalon that the production was giving them fake titles to spoil. He wonders why the secrecy, with the other two ribbing him for spoiling “Spider-Man: Far from Home.” Then they pass by a messy whiteboard.

Ladies and gentlemen, look forward to “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” coming to cinemas in December.

The subtitle for 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” had been rather appropriate in that the Marvel character was finally having solo movies tied to the MCU after years with Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures confining him to a separate movie universe. Then Holland revealed in 2018 that the subtitle for the sequel arriving the following year was “Spider-Man: Far from Home,” and a running gag was born. That explains why on February 23 he, Batalon and Zendaya, gave hilarious reveals claiming movie 3 was subtitled “Phone Home,” “Home Wrecker” and “Home Slice.”

With the reveal that some of the villains appearing in “No Way Home” are portrayed by the same actors who played them in the older Sony Pictures “Spider-Man” franchise, there is speculation that Peter Parker’s next MCU adventure will actually involve a multiverse, originally teased in “Far from Home” and then debunked. Also supporting this theory is Benedict Cumberbatch in a supporting role as Doctor Strange, which has his own Phase 4 entry in “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.” Just how much trouble is Spidey in for now?

We might know when Marvel and Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” premieres December 17, after the three-MCU-film blitz this 2021 consisting of “Black Widow” (May 7), “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (July 9) and “Eternals” (November 6).

Image courtesy of The Verge