Image via Sony
After what feels like a lifetime, Sony and Marvel Studios have finally delivered the first trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home, and it did what it had to do. For the last few months, there has been nothing but rumors and speculation surrounding the third solo Spidey film, with everything from the supposed cast (which included cast members from past Spider-films) to the plot being overanalyzed before the teaser even arrived. The first trailer for No Way Home doesn’t confirm every rumor, like whether Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield are involved or not. What it does is confirm that the film will have a multiversal twist and that villains from Spider-Man movies of old will be included, including Alfred Molina reprising his role as Doc Ock.
From minute details like Flash Thompson’s now-comic accurate blonde hair to the Sanctum Sanctorum covered in snow, likely from the gaping hole the Hulk left in the ceiling in Avengers: Infinity War, this first trailer does a great job at giving fans exactly what they’ve been waiting for while also not revealing too much. It also looks like No Way Home could be the darkest and most serious MCU Spider-Man film yet, with real stakes and consequences being established for Peter’s actions. With plenty to break down and discuss, here are the biggest takeaways from the first trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The movie could follow the 'One More Day' storyline
Based on the trailer, it looks like Spider-Man: No Way Home will be starting right where we left off in Spider-Man: Far From Home, after Mysterio leaked Peter Parker’s identity to the world and framed him for his murder. It also looks like the plot will loosely follow the 2007 Spider-Man: One More Day storyline, where Peter Parker seeks the help of Doctor Strange to make everyone forget he’s Spider-Man after willingly going public for the sake of Tony Stark during the events of the 2007 Civil War comic run. While his reasons for wanting his secret identity restored in One More Day are different than what they might be in No Way Home—in the comics, it was to save Aunt May, who had been shot, and stop villains from attacking his loved ones—it looks like Peter gets his wish in No Way Home, leading to the unraveling their universe.
The main takeaway from One More Day—and another storyline used to retcon the character, Spider-Man: One Moment in Time—is that Peter selfishly wants to restore normalcy to his life without thinking about the larger consequences. Those consequences might be the destruction of the multiverse in No Way Home.
The Irresponsible Doctor Strange
One of the most glaring details that stuck out to me from the trailer was how lax Doctor Strange was about creating a rift in the multiverse? This is the same Sorcerer Supreme who refused to use the Time Stone against Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War because of the ramifications it would have on space and time before he looked into the future and knew he couldn’t anyway. Now he’s casting powerful spells all to help a teenager get his life back on track? That just doesn’t sound right or follow suit to the character development Strange has had since his solo film. Especially considering Wong told him not to attempt this kind of spell because of its risks. Why would he still go along with Peter’s request?
Some are theorizing that this could be a corrupted version of Doctor Strange, or Marvel villain Mephisto in disguise. [Ed note: Many have been speculating Mephisto’s entrance into the MCU since WandaVision premiered on Disney+ earlier this year.] Mephisto was the devil that Peter made a deal with in the One More Day storyline to alter time after Strange refused. The basement of the Sanctum Sanctorum where Strange is weaving the universe-altering spell also doesn’t look too dissimilar from the underground fortress where main WandaVision villain Agatha Harkless was casting her dark magic. Whether this is actually Doctor Strange or if characters like Mephisto or Nightmare are influencing him—Nightmare is reportedly going to be a big bad in Multiverse of Madness—this irresponsible use of magic isn’t the Sorcerer Supreme’s M.O. at all.
A glimpse into the Multiverse of Madness
After Strange casts the spell that mixed up their universe, there are brief shots of warped colors that resemble the same shots from the Disney+ series Loki when Loki and Sylvie ventured to the lair of The One Who Remains, a.k.a. Kang the Conqueror, beyond the confines of space and time. One theory of why Strange’s spell didn’t work could be because the stability of the sacred timeline has been corrupted after the events of Loki, leading to any tampering with universes creating a serious ripple effect. Assuming that the events of Loki happened before the events of No Way Home, it’s likely that Doctor Strange had no idea the sacred timeline had already been destroyed, therefore leading to a spell messing with space and time going haywire.
The Return of Doc Ock
For those who have been keeping up with the media frenzy surrounding No Way Home, this one might not have been that much of a surprise. While Kevin Feige has made sure to keep all Spider-Man-related news hush-hush leading up to this trailer, Alfred Molina told Variety back in April that he would reprise his role as Doc Ock in the upcoming Marvel film. In the interview, he also explained how the character would be joining the story right where we left him in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 after he sacrificed himself. “When we were shooting it, we were all under orders not to talk about it, because it was supposed to be some great big secret,” Molina said. “But, you know, it’s all over the internet. I actually described myself as the worst kept secret in Hollywood!”
Now the cat’s officially out of the bag, but it’s still fun to see Molina back as Doc Ock and looking just as he did 17 years ago, thanks to impressive de-aging CGI effects. Based on the shot from the trailer, it’s also unclear who he’s calling “Peter” when he shows up, considering that the villain would have no idea who Tom Holland’s MCU Spider-Man is. That might be an interesting misdirect that will be revealed in the film.
More (old) Spider-Villains...including The Goblin!
While Doc Ock was the only villain we get a clear shot of in the trailer, other brief moments throughout it imply that several big Spider-Man villains will be involved as well. For starters, we get shots of yellow lightning shooting down on a police cruiser. Last October, it was revealed that Jamie Foxx would reprise his role as Electro in a then-unnamed Spider-Man film. There’s another scene where that same lightning strikes Peter in an all-black suit. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that these were shots of Foxx’s Electro back in action after last being seen in Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Later in the trailer, there is also a quick shot of some hulking figure attacking Peter. While the scene is dark and the character is tough to recognize, based on the growl and sequence of scenes the shot comes in during the trailer, this might have been Venom or the Lizard.
Sony and Marvel now have joint custody over Spider-Man properties, so Venom is technically fair game. Plus, when the first trailer for Sony’s Morbius dropped at the top of last year, there was a shot of Michael Keaton’s Vulture at the very end. Vulture was the central villain of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Morbius will be set in the Venom-verse, so the symbiote could appear in No Way Home.
And finally, the Goblin. In the closing moments of the trailer, we see the iconic pumpkin explosive grenade most commonly used by the Green Goblin blow up the George Washington Bridge. We don’t get to see the Goblin in the scene, but we do hear a menacing laugh overlap with the shot of the grenade. Some fans speculate that it’s the laugh of Willem Dafoe reprising his role as Norman Osborne’s Green Goblin from the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man. I’m not going to make that conclusion yet based on the laugh alone, but the grenade is also the same design as the ones Dafoe used in the Raimi films. Regardless if it’s Dafoe or Dane DeHaan’s version of the character from The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the Green Goblin being included in general is dope and brings us that much closer to having the entire Sinister Six on the silver screen.
No other Spider-Men...yet?
What’s kept the rumor mill churning and keeping Marvel fans up at night is if other cinematic versions of Spider-Man would show up in No Way Home. Despite Andrew Garfield saying in several interviews that he has no idea what’s going on with the film, fans will have to see it to believe it. We’ve now seen one OG Toby Maguire Spider-Man villain in the MCU with the inclusion of Doc Ock, but no other Spider-Men. This is definitely by design because there was no way Marvel would give up all their tricks in the first act. It’s not surprising that Garfield or Maguire didn’t pop up in this trailer; it will be interesting to see if they appear in any No Way Home trailers between now and December 17.