Now that the second trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home has been released, we finally have a decent grasp of what's actually going on in this MCU sequel. Tom Holland's Peter Parker is going to face a real identity crisis and an entire team of familiar Marvel villains in his latest big-screen adventure.
That's not to say we don't still have plenty of questions about No Way Home. Let's take a deep dive into the new trailer to see what it reveals and the burning questions that remain about Spidey's return.
The first No Way Home trailer made it clear this sequel opens shortly after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Given the cliffhanger introduced in FFH's mid-credits scene, how could it not? We'll see Peter and MJ deal with the immediate fallout of J. Jonah Jameson leaking Spider-Man's secret identity and accusing him of murder. What's more, the first trailer shows us Peter will actually be arrested and taken into custody.
It's less clear what happens immediately after Peter's arrest. The first trailer also shows us a glimpse of Peter returning to school and facing the dumbstruck stares of his classmates. The second trailer, however, skips over this material and focuses more on Doctor Strange and the invading villains - what we assume is the main crux of the sequel.
It would seem Peter is able to deal with the immediate legal fallout of being outed by JJJ, leaving him to pick up the pieces of his personal life. The police may not be able to prove he's Spider-Man, but that doesn't mean the rest of the world doesn't still suspect him of leading two lives. The question is how, and who might be helping Peter Parker win his freedom? How does a poor kid from Queens beat the system?
If there's any truth to those persistent rumors about Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock appearing in No Way Home, this would probably be where he steps in. As a lawyer with a secret, costumed life of his own, Matt would be perfectly suited to helping a fellow hero out of a legal jam. Another possibility is we could meet Tatiana Maslany's Jennifer Walters ahead of her debut in the upcoming She-Hulk series.
However, it's just as likely the movie will have a simpler explanation for this question. Aunt May is dating Happy Hogan, former personal valet to one of the richest men in human history. Happy probably has plenty of resources of his own for situations like these.
Where Far From Home delivered a major fake-out on the multiverse front, No Way Home looks to be the first live-action Spider-Man movie to directly deal with the multiverse concept. But even after two trailers, we're still unclear how exactly the multiverse factors into the plot. We know villains from past Spider-Man movies like Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus and Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin are making the jump to the MCU. We don't know whether Peter himself will visit other worlds over the course of the movie.
The title would seem to imply as much. We know the plot hinges on Doctor Strange casting a spell to make the world forget Spider-Man's identity, only for that spell to go haywire and weaken the barriers between universes. Even as we see these iconic villains enter the MCU, Spidey himself may be lost in the multiverse and trapped with no way home.
But if that is the case, we see little evidence in this footage. Apart from a few shots showing us that trademark Doctor Strange, dimension-bending magic, most of these scenes look to be taking place in the MCU. So will Spidey be travelling to other worlds, or will this film be more akin to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where the action is mostly confined to one world?
The second trailer confirms a number of long-standing casting rumors. We now know Holland's Spidey will face off against at least five villains from the pre-MCU Spider-Man films - Molina's Doc Ock, Dafoe's Green Goblin, Rhys Ifans' Lizard, Jamie Foxx's Electro and Thomas Haden Church's Sandman. That's quite a roster, but we can't help but wonder if there are even more villains on tap.
Given how many incarnations of the Sinister Six Spider-Man has battled in the comics, six would seem to be the magic number for this big supervillain team-up. And it's worth remembering that not every villain from the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield movies is represented here. We don't see Topher Grace's Venom or Paul Giamatti's Rhino.
And while you could argue we're looking at James Franco or Dane DeHaan's version of Green Goblin in this shot, it's probably just Dafoe's Goblin wearing goggles instead of a helmet:
That's not even counting established MCU villains who might round out the Sinister Six. Could Michael Keaton's Vulture break out of prison to join this team? That might explain why we see Adrian Toomes as part of a prisoner transfer in the Morbius trailer. Will Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio rise from the grave? Could Venom: Let There Be Carnage's mid-credits scene be setting up Tom Hardy's Venom to join the Six?
No Way Home certainly doesn't need more villains at this point, but would Marvel really stop this close to giving fans a true Sinister Six on the big screen?
The second trailer also establishes the motivations for these returning Spider-Man villains. They're all fated to die fighting Spider-Man, and they seem intent on killing the MCU Spidey and rewriting their own destinies.
The problem is this logic doesn't apply to every character. Of the five, only three actually died in their original movies. Lizard survives his clash with Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man, with that film setting the stage for a Sinister Six team-up that never happened. And not only does Sandman survive the events of 2007's Spider-Man 3, he and Peter make peace with each other in the end. What reason would he have to hate Spider-Man now?
This raises the question of whether some of these characters might be from universes other than the Maguire-verse or Garfield-verse. Foxx's Electro also looks quite a bit different from his original appearance. Are these villains like J.K. Simmons' J. Jonah Jameson, where we're seeing a familiar actor play a slightly different version of their old character? Do these characters hail from alternate universes where the events of Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man played out differently?
Another possibility is that some of these characters are being manipulated into hating Spider-Man. We could easily see Dafoe's Norman Osborn taking advantage of the situation. Maybe Osborn craves revenge for the death he knows is coming, and he's tricking Sandman and Lizard into thinking they're doomed to meet similar fates. Ironically, Osborn doesn't realize he has no one to blame but himself for his death in 2002's Spider-Man.
This could also feed into the question of whether there's a mystery sixth villain at work. Maybe this character is the one manipulating the rest of the Sinister Six, feeding them half-truths or outright lies about the future so they'll target Spider-Man.
This isn't the biggest question raised by the new trailer, but we're intrigued by a scene showing Doctor Octopus' tentacles covered in red nanotech. What exactly is happening here?
We see two possible theories, both of them involving the Iron Spider suit bonding with the tentacles. Either Ock is absorbing the suit and upgrading his signature arms, or Spidey is controlling his armor to shut down his foe's weapons. The latter theory may explain why Ock can be seen locked away in Doctor Strange's Sanctum Santorum.
If you've been following the news around No Way Home over the past couple years, you've probably heard the rumors about Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprising their respective Spider-Man roles. Even ignoring the rumor mill entirely, it's not exactly a giant stretch to assume some familiar Spider-Men might be joining the fun alongside these classic villains.
The new trailer gives us no direct confirmation on that front, but there are some telltale clues that Marvel and Sony are trying to hide some major surprises. Take this shot, for instance:
We can see Holland's Spidey charging into battle against Sandman, Electro and Lizard, but neither Electro nor Lizard seem to be leaping at Spidey directly. We could easily believe there are supposed to be more Spider-Men in this shot who have been edited out. It would hardly be the first time MCU trailer footage has been doctored to hide major spoilers.
Even more telling is the fact that the Brazilian version of the trailer shows Lizard seemingly being punched by an invisible character. Either Spider-Man is teaming up with Drax in this movie, or someone was edited out of the frame.
There's no guarantee Marvel and Sony are trying to cover up a Spider-Verse team-up here. If those Daredevil rumors are true, it's entirely possible he's the character being CG'd out of this footage. Still, the second trailer directly acknowledges Maguire's Spider-Man when Doc Ock reacts to seeing Holland's Spider-Man unmasked. Ock has a history with that other Spider-Man. Why bring it up if Maguire isn't going to appear in the film? Why introduce these villains if No Way Home isn't going to fully commit to the Spider-Verse concept?
The moral of the story is this - don't be surprised if Holland isn't the only actor decked out in red spandex this time. Spidey is going to need a lot of help dealing with this new threat, and who better to help than more Spideys?
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
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That's not to say we don't still have plenty of questions about No Way Home. Let's take a deep dive into the new trailer to see what it reveals and the burning questions that remain about Spidey's return.
How Does Peter Get Out of Jail?
The first No Way Home trailer made it clear this sequel opens shortly after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Given the cliffhanger introduced in FFH's mid-credits scene, how could it not? We'll see Peter and MJ deal with the immediate fallout of J. Jonah Jameson leaking Spider-Man's secret identity and accusing him of murder. What's more, the first trailer shows us Peter will actually be arrested and taken into custody.
It's less clear what happens immediately after Peter's arrest. The first trailer also shows us a glimpse of Peter returning to school and facing the dumbstruck stares of his classmates. The second trailer, however, skips over this material and focuses more on Doctor Strange and the invading villains - what we assume is the main crux of the sequel.
It would seem Peter is able to deal with the immediate legal fallout of being outed by JJJ, leaving him to pick up the pieces of his personal life. The police may not be able to prove he's Spider-Man, but that doesn't mean the rest of the world doesn't still suspect him of leading two lives. The question is how, and who might be helping Peter Parker win his freedom? How does a poor kid from Queens beat the system?
If there's any truth to those persistent rumors about Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock appearing in No Way Home, this would probably be where he steps in. As a lawyer with a secret, costumed life of his own, Matt would be perfectly suited to helping a fellow hero out of a legal jam. Another possibility is we could meet Tatiana Maslany's Jennifer Walters ahead of her debut in the upcoming She-Hulk series.
However, it's just as likely the movie will have a simpler explanation for this question. Aunt May is dating Happy Hogan, former personal valet to one of the richest men in human history. Happy probably has plenty of resources of his own for situations like these.
Will We See Other Worlds in the Marvel Multiverse?
Where Far From Home delivered a major fake-out on the multiverse front, No Way Home looks to be the first live-action Spider-Man movie to directly deal with the multiverse concept. But even after two trailers, we're still unclear how exactly the multiverse factors into the plot. We know villains from past Spider-Man movies like Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus and Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin are making the jump to the MCU. We don't know whether Peter himself will visit other worlds over the course of the movie.
The title would seem to imply as much. We know the plot hinges on Doctor Strange casting a spell to make the world forget Spider-Man's identity, only for that spell to go haywire and weaken the barriers between universes. Even as we see these iconic villains enter the MCU, Spidey himself may be lost in the multiverse and trapped with no way home.
But if that is the case, we see little evidence in this footage. Apart from a few shots showing us that trademark Doctor Strange, dimension-bending magic, most of these scenes look to be taking place in the MCU. So will Spidey be travelling to other worlds, or will this film be more akin to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where the action is mostly confined to one world?
Is There a Sixth Spider-Man Villain?
The second trailer confirms a number of long-standing casting rumors. We now know Holland's Spidey will face off against at least five villains from the pre-MCU Spider-Man films - Molina's Doc Ock, Dafoe's Green Goblin, Rhys Ifans' Lizard, Jamie Foxx's Electro and Thomas Haden Church's Sandman. That's quite a roster, but we can't help but wonder if there are even more villains on tap.
Given how many incarnations of the Sinister Six Spider-Man has battled in the comics, six would seem to be the magic number for this big supervillain team-up. And it's worth remembering that not every villain from the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield movies is represented here. We don't see Topher Grace's Venom or Paul Giamatti's Rhino.
And while you could argue we're looking at James Franco or Dane DeHaan's version of Green Goblin in this shot, it's probably just Dafoe's Goblin wearing goggles instead of a helmet:
That's not even counting established MCU villains who might round out the Sinister Six. Could Michael Keaton's Vulture break out of prison to join this team? That might explain why we see Adrian Toomes as part of a prisoner transfer in the Morbius trailer. Will Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio rise from the grave? Could Venom: Let There Be Carnage's mid-credits scene be setting up Tom Hardy's Venom to join the Six?
No Way Home certainly doesn't need more villains at this point, but would Marvel really stop this close to giving fans a true Sinister Six on the big screen?
Are These Really the Same Villains?
The second trailer also establishes the motivations for these returning Spider-Man villains. They're all fated to die fighting Spider-Man, and they seem intent on killing the MCU Spidey and rewriting their own destinies.
The problem is this logic doesn't apply to every character. Of the five, only three actually died in their original movies. Lizard survives his clash with Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man, with that film setting the stage for a Sinister Six team-up that never happened. And not only does Sandman survive the events of 2007's Spider-Man 3, he and Peter make peace with each other in the end. What reason would he have to hate Spider-Man now?
This raises the question of whether some of these characters might be from universes other than the Maguire-verse or Garfield-verse. Foxx's Electro also looks quite a bit different from his original appearance. Are these villains like J.K. Simmons' J. Jonah Jameson, where we're seeing a familiar actor play a slightly different version of their old character? Do these characters hail from alternate universes where the events of Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man played out differently?
Another possibility is that some of these characters are being manipulated into hating Spider-Man. We could easily see Dafoe's Norman Osborn taking advantage of the situation. Maybe Osborn craves revenge for the death he knows is coming, and he's tricking Sandman and Lizard into thinking they're doomed to meet similar fates. Ironically, Osborn doesn't realize he has no one to blame but himself for his death in 2002's Spider-Man.
This could also feed into the question of whether there's a mystery sixth villain at work. Maybe this character is the one manipulating the rest of the Sinister Six, feeding them half-truths or outright lies about the future so they'll target Spider-Man.
What's Happening to Doc Ock's Tentacles?
This isn't the biggest question raised by the new trailer, but we're intrigued by a scene showing Doctor Octopus' tentacles covered in red nanotech. What exactly is happening here?
We see two possible theories, both of them involving the Iron Spider suit bonding with the tentacles. Either Ock is absorbing the suit and upgrading his signature arms, or Spidey is controlling his armor to shut down his foe's weapons. The latter theory may explain why Ock can be seen locked away in Doctor Strange's Sanctum Santorum.
Are Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in the Movie?
If you've been following the news around No Way Home over the past couple years, you've probably heard the rumors about Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprising their respective Spider-Man roles. Even ignoring the rumor mill entirely, it's not exactly a giant stretch to assume some familiar Spider-Men might be joining the fun alongside these classic villains.
The new trailer gives us no direct confirmation on that front, but there are some telltale clues that Marvel and Sony are trying to hide some major surprises. Take this shot, for instance:
We can see Holland's Spidey charging into battle against Sandman, Electro and Lizard, but neither Electro nor Lizard seem to be leaping at Spidey directly. We could easily believe there are supposed to be more Spider-Men in this shot who have been edited out. It would hardly be the first time MCU trailer footage has been doctored to hide major spoilers.
Even more telling is the fact that the Brazilian version of the trailer shows Lizard seemingly being punched by an invisible character. Either Spider-Man is teaming up with Drax in this movie, or someone was edited out of the frame.
There's no guarantee Marvel and Sony are trying to cover up a Spider-Verse team-up here. If those Daredevil rumors are true, it's entirely possible he's the character being CG'd out of this footage. Still, the second trailer directly acknowledges Maguire's Spider-Man when Doc Ock reacts to seeing Holland's Spider-Man unmasked. Ock has a history with that other Spider-Man. Why bring it up if Maguire isn't going to appear in the film? Why introduce these villains if No Way Home isn't going to fully commit to the Spider-Verse concept?
The moral of the story is this - don't be surprised if Holland isn't the only actor decked out in red spandex this time. Spidey is going to need a lot of help dealing with this new threat, and who better to help than more Spideys?
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Continue reading...