The long-awaited Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer officially brought the MCU into the Multiverse. It also brought back an old foe, with (the ageless) Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock. Those aren’t the only two things we’re excited about though. This first-look at the film has a whole lot going on. And it raises a whole lot of questions. Here are the ones we most want answers to.
1. How Will Peter Be Cleared of Wrongdoing in Mysterio’s Death?
Mysterio and J. Jonah Jameson didn’t just turn Peter Parker into Public Enemy #1. They got him arrested for the murder of the pretend superhero. The trailer shows police interrogating a handcuffed Peter about Mysterio’s death. In part because Mysterio put his killer drones in Peter’s name. Police also question Spider-Man’s friends and family. But since we know the movie doesn’t take place entirely in a prison cell, Peter is not going away for murder. He will be cleared of wrongdoing.
Is that because other Avengers will come to his rescue? Will some of Earth’s mightiest heroes prove Peter is innocent? Will they also turn the tide of public opinion against the webbed-slinger? Or will Peter simply have an excellent attorney? One who might also join the Avengers soon?
Could She-Hulk‘s Jennifer Walters make her first MCU appearance in the movie as Peter’s defense attorney? Or might we get a surprise Matt Murdock Daredevil arrival instead? Someone is going to help Peter be exonerated (at least legally). Who, why, and how is what we want to know.
2. Why Is the Sanctum Santorum Covered in Snow?
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The weather in New York City looks downright pleasant in this trailer. So why is the Sanctum Santorum completely covered in snow? It would be weird for Doctor Strange and Wong to intentionally be living that way. What could unintentionally cause that frosty forecast then?
Sorcerers can open portals to other places. The Ancient One left Stephen Strange on Mount Everest during his training. Is a portal to an icy locale stuck open, letting in all the cold air? Or did an unseen spell also go awry and cause the change in temperature? An even bigger mystery could ultimately give us the answer to this question.
3. Why Would Strange Do This Spell for Peter?
Is Doctor Stephen Strange arrogant enough to do something reckless? The man’s ego once knew no bounds. It’s not out of the realm of possibility he’d risk casting dangerous spell out of sheer ego. Especially if he’s driven by guilt to help Peter. Spider-Man saved him in Infinity War, then fought with Strange twice to save the universe from Thanos. And Strange might feel responsible for the predicament Peter now finds himself in. The Sorcerer Supreme knowingly put Tony Stark on his path to a fatal Snap. Tony’s death was not only traumatic for Peter personally, it partly led to his life being totally upended.
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But after Endgame, shouldn’t Stephen Strange be smarter than this? Wouldn’t he be extra cautious when it comes to toying with the space-time continuum? His job is to protect Earth’s reality. This is risking Earth’s reality for one person, which he refused to do before.
We’d expect the old Stephen Strange to do something like this. Not the new one who wears sweatpants to work and drinks from novelty mugs. So what’s up with him? Is he still just immature? Or is it possible it’s not actually him? Is this a Skrull posing as Strange? Someone else the Doctor asked to fill in for him while he deals with something else—something else like Wanda and Chaos Magic. Or is it an impostor with nefarious goals who wanted to rip open the Multiverse? Is that why spells are failing and the Sanctum is filled with snow?
Something is strange about Strange. Including the very real possibility he’s not Strange at all.
4. Where Is Wong Going and Why?
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The trailer shows an angry Wong leaving his cold home with a stern warning for Strange. (Giving more credence to a phony Strange theory. Their interactions are unusually bitter and rude.) But where is Wong going? On vacation, hence the two suitcases? Or is he heading out to fight Abomination?
We know from a Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings trailer that Wong is going to battle the behemoth in a cage fight. Is this what Wong does for fun? Does he just need to get away from his messy roommate? Or is something more dangerous going on? And if that’s not the real Strange, the impostor might have made things so unpleasant for Wong it forced him to leave.
5. How Does No Way Home Fit with WandaVision and Loki?
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We don’t know when No Way Home takes place in the MCU’s timeline. Is it before, during, or after WandaVision and Loki? The answer to that will have huge implications for the movie and the franchise. Thanks to the Darkhold, Wanda might unleash her own Multiverse of Madness in the next Doctor Strange movie. If this film takes place after WandaVision it could be why the real Strange isn’t at the Sanctum. Or why the actual sorcerer accidentally accessed the Multiverse.
If it takes place before or during the Disney+ series, Wanda’s actions might be responsible for No Way Home‘s issues.
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And since time works differently in the TVA, we have no idea exactly how the fracturing of the Sacred Timeline might effect Peter’s world. Is Loki integral to understanding why villains from other live-action Spider-Man movies will arrive? Will we see the ramifications of Sylvie’s decision to kill He Who Remains immediately? Is the change at the TVA why Strange’s spell fails? When it does, why do him and Peter enter a realm that looks a lot like the one where He Who Remains built his Citadel? (Which looks a lot like the Quantum Realm.)
Just how connected WandaVision, Loki, No Way Home, and Multiverse of Madness (and maybe even Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) really are is among the single most important questions for the entire MCU, not just Spider-Man.
6. What Is the Box Peter’s Holding?
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Seeing Doctor Strange knock Peter’s astral projection out of his body is unsettling. Is is because of what Spider-Man is holding? It looks like a very old, very unusual box. Exactly the type of object you’d expect to find in the Sanctum Sanctorum.
Did Peter steal something from inside? If so, what could it be and why would he want it? Would he even know how to use it? And why is it important enough that Strange ejects Peter’s astral projection to stop him from having it? It’s a quick moment that feels far more important the more you think about it. And if you’re all in on the phony Strange theory, it’s a lot more ominous.
7. Why Does the Multiverse Open and Who Is Responsible for That?
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From an arrogant sorcerer to a phony doctor (“magical quack”), to Sacred Timelines and Chaos Magic, there are lots of potential reasons the Multiverse will rip open. But based on Strange’s own quote about how “threateningly little” anyone knows about it, how exactly will it be possible? Earth has long played with magic it doesn’t understand, and the Multiverse didn’t open. Whose actions will ultimately be responsible for that? Will it be the work of a single individual? Or the result of a collection of choices being made across the MCU?
He Who Remains warned about the catastrophic dangers of the Multiverse. It leads to Multiversal war and the possible destruction of all reality and life. To open that chasm hundreds of years before He Who Remains does/will is no small task. The answer to “how” it happens looms over this entire trailer. Along with what we didn’t see.
8. What Other Versions of Peter Parker and His Enemies Will Also Show Up?
Marvel/Sony
We always knew Alfred Molina was coming back as Doc Ock. Jamie Foxx is also returning to play Electro again. (Though all the non-blue lightning in this trailer points to some changes for the character.) And that little green bomb is all the evidence we need to know a Green Goblin will join the fun. But what other characters from past live-action Spider-Man movies will also appear in the movie
Might we see Venom, Lizard, or Sandman? What about Michael Keaton’s Vulture? The smart money says we’ll get six sinister villains total. Which ones will they be though and who will play them? Just as important, how many Spider-Mans will fight them? Are Sony and Marvel going to hold back Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield cameos until a later trailer? Or wait for audiences to see them appear in the film? Or is it possible we all got faked out and neither will show up?
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The trailer was worth the wait. But not getting a whole team of famous webbed-slingers would be a huge disappointment.
