In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker had an extremely difficult decision to make, one that left most of us in tears as he said goodbye to everyone he loved. In order to fix the botched-up spell that had caused the multiverse to collide, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange cast another spell, one which resulted in everyone forgetting all about Peter Parker. Now some fans on Reddit are wondering how this is even possible.
At the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, audiences were just as shocked as Peter when his identity was outed to the entire world by Mysterio. The third film opened with him and his friends dealing with the ramifications of this, as they struggled to go about their daily lives with the complication even getting in the way of their college applications. It was all too much for Peter to deal with and so he sought the council of the sorcerer Dr. Stephen Strange.
Of course, the spell goes wrong when an over-enthusiastic Peter tries to make adjustments to it in the middle of Strange’s casting, causing a rather extreme error. The spell instead caused the multiverse to collide as all those who knew of Peter’s identity were brought out of the woodwork for one hell of a crossover. Mayhem ensues, but at the end of the day, the only thing for it was to erase the memory of Peter from everyone’s minds, including his girlfriend MJ and best friend Ned.
This fan wonders how on earth anyone could forget him though, when his pictures are kind of plastered everywhere. Though, they seem to forget the most salient point – it’s magic.
This response gave the most succinct answer.
One fan had a decent suggestion for what might have happened to this display.
Doctor Strange’s spell may have been too strong if it is already effecting the real world.
According to this fan, this was actually addressed in the extended cut Spider-Man: No Way Home: The More Fun Stuff.
Some people think the author is really overthinking this one.
This explanation actually has us a little worried for MJ who must be very confused as to why she was spending so much time with Spider-Man.
Let’s just ignore all the stuff that doesn’t quite make sense and enjoy it for what it is, a fun MCU romp that had us cheering in our seats and crying into our popcorn.
If you are still confused about the whole thing you could always go back and rewatch it either on the streaming platform Starz or by purchasing the film.