Once the dust has settled on Spider-Man: No Way Home after the Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster comes to theaters in December, we’ll have a much better idea of how the single most ambitious standalone superhero movie ever made came together behind the scenes, because secrecy will be the order of the day up until that point.
A lot of people are under the impression that Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus is the only villain seen in the footage because the actor confirmed his involvement months ago, something that evidently rankled with Kevin Feige. What we definitely won’t be seeing for a long time is Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield, which is of course entirely dependent on their as-yet-unconfirmed involvement.
Marvel and Sony know full well that audiences are expecting the former Spideys to show up, and they’re going to be very disappointed and even more p*ssed off if it doesn’t happen. However, one eagle-eyed fan has spotted a potential nod to Maguire and Sam Raimi’s trilogy in the trailer, and the doomsaying has already begun.
Could you imagine if that’s the direction Spider-Man: No Way Home takes? There would be uproar online, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria and almost everything in between. Having Tom Holland play all three versions of the same web-slinger while the bad guys wear multiversal blinders would be a very bold and even more risky move, so for the time being we’ll continue to cross our fingers and hedge our bets that the Holy Trinity of friendly neighborhood crimefighters will be united.