What just happened?

Note: There are spoilers that follow for MCU films and TV shows. You’ve been warned!

It is standard practice that before any major blockbuster movie releases, we are treated to a slew of trailers and marketing materials. This ensures that studios pump up the hype to get as many ticket sales as possible when their film hits theaters. But the first trailer is arguably the most important piece that releases prior to a movie’s release—it sets the tone, establishes some of the story, and teases more to come. The first trailer can come out at any point leading up to a movie’s premiere date, anywhere from a year and a half to a few months before release. However, as we get ever closer to the December release of the MCU’s third solo-Spidey outing, it seemed that we were having to wait longer than normal to see the first trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home. 

During production of the film, countless rumors and speculation released about the film, with only a few things officially announced. Even some of the ‘official announcements’ seemed suspect, as we started to hear that actors from previous, non-MCU Spider-Man films were reprising their non-MCU roles. With every piece of rumor and news, it increasingly appeared that this film was going to be jam-packed with characters from the pantheon of Spider-Man on film—a live-action version of Into the Spider-Verse. But there was a lot that needed to happen in the MCU before even a trailer could be released. 

And release it did. Over the weekend, a grainy, blurry video that was taken of a cell phone from another cell phone released: the leaked trailer for the film. In response, Marvel and Sony officially released the trailer last night. And what a trailer it was. There is a lot to unpack, so let’s take a look at some of the major reveals and try to determine what the storyline of this movie could be.

Fallout from Spider-Man: Far From Home

At the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) has successfully defeated the master of drone-produced illusions Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) and is seen swinging through New York City with MJ (Zendaya) by his side. All seems right in his world when a broadcast starts playing on TV screens all around him and we are greeted with the familiar—and a bit bewildering—voice of J. Jonah Jameson (J K Simmons). It was quite the watershed moment because this was the first hint of Marvel’s plan for Phase Four, and we had no idea it was coming. Casting an actor to reprise his role from a non-MCU Spider-Man film was unheard of at the time, and the possibilities it created were endless. 

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Jameson releases a bombshell video to everyone watching: a video that shows Spider-Man killing Mysterio, who everyone thought was a hero. The video, and the movie itself, ends with Mysterio announcing to the world that Spider-Man is… Peter Parker. 

Spider-Man: No Way Home seems to pick up right after this massive moment. Parker is both a public hero and a public menace. We see shots of protestors holding up signs with devil horns on pictures of Parker’s face, while his classmates at school crowd him in the hallway trying to get a picture of him. He is being questioned by the police, as are Ned (Jacob Batalan), MJ, and Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). Parker’s whole world seems to be coming down around him, and he is absolutely miserable. 

Spider-Man: One More Day

Spider-Man: No Way Home seems to be taking major story points from the comic book story One More Day. In the comics, Aunt May has been shot and is slowly dying. Desperate to save his aunt, Parker turns to Tony Stark and Dr. Strange for help. He even (incorrectly) uses a spell to go back in time but fails in stopping Aunt May from getting injured. After Dr. Strange cleans up his time traveling mess, he tells Parker to go be with his aunt in her final moments before she dies. On his way to see Aunt May, Parker encounters a little girl who says she can help save his aunt. The girl then transforms into none-other than Mephisto, the magical demon, who offers him a deal: he will spare Aunt May’s life if Parker gives up his marriage to Mary-Jane. After several grueling hours where Parker and MJ go over their options, they decide to agree to Mephisto’s deal, and Aunt May is saved and Parker wakes up alone in bed, having never married MJ. In one last twist of the knife, Mephisto reveals that the girl he originally appeared as to Parker was his and MJ’s future daughter who would now never exist. 

Pretty dark for a superhero story.

We see several pieces of the comic storyline play out in this first trailer:

• Peter Parker turns to Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help.
• While Dr. Strange is casting his spell, Parker keeps interrupting him, making the spell unstable.
• Dr. Strange explains that no one, not even MJ, will remember that Peter Parker is Spider-Man.

Will Mephisto finally make his MCU debut after much rumor and speculation from WandaVision? We’ll have to see when the movie releases later this year. 

Multiverse

In the trailer, after the spell goes awry, we hear Dr. Strange talk about how they are messing with things that they know frighteningly little about. The multiverse has been playing a huge role in the MCU’s Phase Four, especially in the Disney+ shows. Let’s take a look at what we know so far about the multiverse.

• The multiverse is first mentioned in Spider-Man: Far From Home when Mysterio claims that he is from a different Earth. Turns out it was all a lie and a ruse, just another one of Mysterio’s illusions.
• In the Disney+ show WandaVision, it was heavily speculated that as a result of Wanda’s (Elizabeth Olsen) actions, the multiverse would be created. That didn’t happen in the show, but there were still several hints of what was coming. 
  • The casting of Evan Peters as Pietro/Ralph Bohner was a curve ball concocted by the show’s creators to make us think that Wanda was messing with the multiverse.
  • In the post-credits tag at the very end of the series, we see Wanda learning from the Darkhold, and we hear the screams of her children calling for her. Could they be calling from somewhere else in the multiverse?
• The TV show Loki is all about the multiverse. Through the show’s six episodes, we see how Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) eventually work to splinter and fracture the sacred timeline into endless universes. 

• The animated anthology series What If…? takes a look at those endless universes to tell one-off stories of how even the slightest change can take beloved characters into completely new directions. 

However, there is some confusion about the creation of the multiverse. We learn in Loki that He Who Remains (Johnathan Majors) accidentally created the multiverse and then created the sacred timeline to protect all out multiversal war. It appeared that by the end of that show, Sylvie worked to re-create the multiverse by killing He Who Remains. However, in the trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home, does the multiverse appear to be created again when Parker disrupts Dr. Strange while he is casting his spell? 

Disney+ may hold the answers to our timeline questions. If you look at the Marvel section of the streaming service, they have an area that lists all of the MCU content in “Timeline Order”. You can see that they’ve placed Black Widow between Captain America: Civil War and Black Panther even though Black Widow came out this year. That’s because the story of the film takes place immediately after Civil War.If you scroll all the way to the right, you can see that after Avengers: Endgame, the projects are in the following order:

• Loki
• What If…?
• WandaVision

This officially means that Sylvie does create the multiverse in Loki, then The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) takes us through one-off stories in What If…? and finally, Wanda is able to hear her kids after they have been eliminated because she is accessing the multiverse. Now where does Spider-Man: No Way Home fit into this? 

My theory is that the multiverse already exists, and because of this, Parker interrupting Dr. Strange’s spell makes him pull different universes together. They didn’t create the multiverse, they just were able to accidentally access it. 

Sinister Six

This brings us to the villain of the movie. We all know that a superhero is only as good as their nemesis is bad. So, who will be the main villain of Spider-Man: No Way Home? The trailer seems to be heavily hinting at not one baddie, but multiple baddies. As in six. In the comics, the Sinister Six is a group of Spider-Man villains who join together in an effort to bring Spider-Man down once and for all. The line-up has changed many times over the years, but it looks like for this film, the MCU is pulling from previous Spider-Man movies to fill the group’s rosters. Let’s take a look at who is hinted at in this trailer.

• Dr. Octopus– the most obvious member of the Sinister Six. In the biggest reveal of the trailer, it ends on a shot of metallic tentacles emerging from the dust as Alfred Molina greets us with “Hello, Peter.” Molina originally portrayed Otto Octavius in 2004’s Spider-Man 2, starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. The trailer officially confirms that he is reprising his critically acclaimed role in this film.

• Electro – it was previously announced that Jamie Foxx would be reprising his role as Electro from 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which featured Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. While we didn’t see him in this trailer, there are a couple of shots of lightning, which is believed to be hinting at his return.

• Green Goblin– there is a shot in the trailer that shows an orange bomb rolling down the street past some cars while a familiar sounding cackle plays in the background. This all but officially confirms that Willem Dafoe will be reprising his role as Norman Osborne/Green Goblin, the main villain from 2002’s Spider-Man.

• Sandman– in a blink-and-you-missed-it shot, there seems to be a sandstorm in the trailer, hinting that Thomas Haden Church could be reprising his role from 2007’s Spider-Man 3.

There are four villains—who will the last two bad guys be? Because this movie is going to be so jam-packed with characters, I highly doubt they are going to have a brand new villain pulling all the strings. My best bet is that the final two spots will be filled by villains we have seen before. Let’s do a quick run-down of who is left.

• Venom– we’ve seen Venom twice on film. The first time was in Spider-Man 3, played by Topher Grace, and the second time was in another non-MCU film Venom, where he was portrayed by Tom Hardy. Grace’s version of the character was deemed a failure by critics and audiences alike, so I doubt he will be returning in this film. Tom Hardy’s Venom is a possibility, especially considering the MCU-related ties from Venom: Let There be Carnage’s trailer. 

• The Lizard– Rhys Ifans played the main bad guy in The Amazing Spider-Man, the first reboot staring Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. He is a viable option for one of the remaining spots, as the movie he debuted in has not been represented yet in the Sinister Six’s roster.

• Rhino– essentially a glorified cameo at the beginning and end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Paul Giamatti portrayed the Russian gangster in a giant rhino suit. He was visually impressive and clearly relished the role, but they are already using Electro from that film, so I doubt Rhino has a role in this one.

• Vulture– brilliantly played by Michael Keaton in Tom Holland’s first Spider-Man film, Vulture is still alive and has shown up in the trailer for the second Venom film. And he knows that Peter Parker is Spider-Man—he knew that before Mysterio spilled the beans. Does that mean Dr. Strange’s spell doesn’t apply to him and he is the leader of the Sinister Six?

• Scorpion– a minor character from Spider-Man: Homecoming portrayed by Michael Mando, he did show up in the post-credits scene with Vulture, where it seemed like the groundwork was being laid to form a villain team. Nothing has come from that yet, but to be honest, Scorpion seems like too minor of a character from the films to fill one of the remaining spots.

• Shocker– another minor character from Tom Holland’s first solo film played by both Logan Marshall-Green and Bokeem Woodbine. Again, the role was so small in the first film that I doubt the character will return. 

• Mysterio– the main villain of Spider-Man: Far From Homeand the whole reason Parker finds himself in this mess in the first place. Sure, he died at the end of the movie, but he is the master of illusion, right?

My hunch is that we’ve had representation from Tobey Maguire’s three Spider-Man films, and we’ve had representation from one of Andrew Garfield’s films, so my money is on two Tom Holland baddies filling the rest of the roster. These are his movies, after all, and I think he needs villains he has faced before to really up the stakes. My money is on Mysterio and Vulture. 

Easter Eggs and Unanswered Questions

This is only the first trailer for the movie—there is sure to be a lot more revealed before December 17, and knowing Marvel, there will be a lot that will still be a surprise when we are in theaters watching for the first time. That being said, there are a couple of Easter eggs and unanswered questions from the trailer, so let’s quickly discuss those.

• Why is the Sanctum Sanctorum covered in snow? When we first see Dr. Strange, someone is seen shoveling what appears to be snow in the left of the picture below. Plus, Dr. Strange is wearing a hoodie and sweatpants under his cloak of levitation. What happened here? 

• There is a quick shot of Parker being interrogated by the police for his role in the murder of Mysterio. In another blink-and-you-missed it shot, we see the torso and arms of what appears to be a lawyer. A very familiar looking, blind lawyer…. Could this (finally) be the return of Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdoch from the Netflix series Daredevil? I sincerely hope so.

• What’s the deal with Ned? During the filming of this movie, headlines were made when the actor portraying Parker’s best friend starting losing a ton of weight. However, in the trailer, he appears as he has during his entire time in the MCU. Are we going to have some major time pass in this film?
• Finally, let’s talk about the date that the trailer released. August 23. Does that ring a bell? It probably does to Wanda and Vision. 

Phew. That was a lot to unpack. I’m sure there is a lot that was missed and a lot more to discuss. What did you see in the trailer? Let us know in the commends below or join the conversation on the Boss Rush Discord.

Mark Pereira is a staff writer for Boss Rush Network. He loves all video games, but his top three favorites are Skyward Sword, Super Mario 3D World and Batman: Arkham Asylum. You can find him on Twitter where he’s usually talking about Nintendo, video games, movies, and TV shows.