While Spider-Man: No Way Home featured plenty of characters from across the hero's live action film history, three important characters to Peter Parker were almost in the movie as well.

Screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers spoke about their work on No Way Home in the new book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, revealing they originally had more characters from Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man films. Specifically, early scripts featured appearances by Kirsten Dunst's Mary-Jane Watson along with Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy and Sally Field's Aunt May, according to CBR.

McKenna and Sommers ultimately decided against this though, saying they felt the movie “was already overstuffed” and it would have been difficult to have the characters fit into the story in a meaningful way.

Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, Spider-Man: No Way Home

Leading up to No Way Home's 2021 release, there had been running rampant after confirmation Alfred Molina, Willem Dafoe, and Jamie Foxx would be reprising the villainous roles as Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, and Electro, respectively. Speculation immediately jumped to the previous Spider-Men making appearances in the film, which they did to aid Tom Holland's Spider-Man during its climactic battle at the Statue of Liberty.

Rhys Ifans and Thomas Haden Church returned as Lizard and Sandman, as well, though these were limited to voice-over roles while unused or recycled footage was used when they are made human again.

When asked about their potential involvement, though, Stone and Dunst repeatedly denied they had no involvement in Spider-Man's third stand-alone outing with in the MCU. Both admitted they found the rumors humorous and were grateful for fans wanting to see them return, but it was not in the proverbial cards at the time.

As for Holland's own future in the MCU, he will reportedly to continue as its friendly neighborhood Spider-Man as part of Sony Pictures' partnership with Marvel Studios. The new deal was said to be for six new films which would include a new trilogy along with Avengers: Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.