Fair warning: this analysis will discuss (but not show) spoilers about the movie in the form of rumors and leaked on-set footage and photos, as well as spoilers from ALL current MCU films and shows. If you wish to be spoiler-free, then turn back now. This one’s not for you!
It’s here! The newest, and possibly last trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home. So what’s new from the previous trailers?
00:01
We see Tom Holland’s Parker, looking beaten down and worn out in front of a backdrop of what appears to be New York Harbor. Based on scenes appearing later in the trailer it appears that a significant battle involving the Sinister Six will take place on the Statue of Liberty. More on that later. A note on this scene of Peter. First, this shot is clearly keyed, meaning Tom is likely in front of a blue screen, not New York Harbor. For those of you who can’t help spoiling themselves, like me, hear me out. This scene looks remarkably like a nearly-finished version of the leaked set photos and video featuring Andrew Garfield, purported to be from the set of NWH.
Could those leaks be fake or misrepresented? Of course. Of course.
Those leaked images show Andrew Garfield in his Amazing Spider-Man suit on a blue-screened set with scaffolding that looks remarkably like this first image of Holland we see here. Another leaked image from John Campea shows all three Spider-Men against the same backdrop of New York Harbor, on a similar looking scaffolding. So, uh, yeah. Let’s call it ‘tentatively confirmed.’
00:11-00:23
At 00:11 we see another shot of Peter Parker and MJ swinging through New York City, with electronic billboards showing J. Jonah Jameson’s Daily Bugle show unmasking Spider-Man as Peter Parker. If I had to speculate, I’d say this is from the opening minutes of the film, picking up right where Far From Home (FFH) left off. Holland can be heard saying “Ever since I got bit by that spider I’ve only had one week where my life has felt normal…that was the week you found out.” He’s talking to MJ via video-call on their phones. This scene appears to take place after the initial scenes of swinging through NYC. Here, Parker appears to be in hiding, only communicating with his friends digitally. Perhaps he is trying to weather the media storm and stay out of the public eye.
This cuts around more shots of Parker and MJ swinging through the subway system, trying to get away from the surface where Peter’s face is now plastered everywhere you look.
00:27-00:44
Here we get some overt exposition from Doctor Strange, hinting at the movie’s trajectory.
“When you botched that spell where you wanted everyone to forget that Peter Parker’s Spider-Man … we started getting some visitors … from every universe…”
Doctor Strange, NWH
It’s heavily cut together (see the above ellipses denoting where they splice together different sentences) from other scenes, or they cut out some of the audio to avoid spoilers. Parker is seen walking into the Sanctum Sanctorum. It appears covered in snow and in disrepair. But where Parker and Strange are actually talking is somewhere else. It’s a large, stone set-piece that looks like the basement of a castle. Ancient, open, abandoned. Spliced into this dialogue is a shot of Doctor Strange struggling to keep the spell stable.
As he loses control, rings of his signature golden, magical rings are shaking, expanding, and destabilizing their surroundings. We see a shot of this castle-like setting breaking apart, revealing a cosmic-purple backdrop. The purple brings to mind things like Dormammu’s dark dimension, Agatha Harkness’s powers, or even the purple of the Power Stone. The floating-island thing this scene’s got going really reminds me of the castle at the end of the universe where He Who Remains was waiting for Loki and Sylvie.
One last point on this exposition. Strange tapers off as he says “from every universe…”. I suspect the full scene will have him finish it with “where Spider-Man exists.” Villains aren’t being pulled from every universe in the MCU reality. That would be bonkers, and we already know the main course of villains will be the Sinister Six; villains who fought Spider-Man in their respective universes.
00:45-01:00
At 00:45 we get a wonderful look at the Strange Suit. At some point in NWH, Peter will don a Spider-suit that allows Peter to harness some of Doctor Strange’s abilities. In this scene he’s somewhere heavily forested, perhaps upstate New York, fighting Electro. More on this later.
What we see next hints at why Spider-Man will need a new suit…Again. We return to the now infamous George Washington Bridge scene, revealed in the first trailers for NWH, where it appears MCU’s Parker will first encounter Otto Octavius and Norman Osborn returning to the big screen. This new trailer gives us a couple more seconds from that scene, revealing something huge for those who have chosen the path of the Spoiler-Free experience.
We see Doc Ock pin Peter to a concrete overpass support. The first essential thing to note here is that the Spider-Suit’s nanites appear to be depleted. They go from covering his face, to protecting his chest as one of Doc Ock’s mechanical arms shoots toward him.
Big surprise #1: the arm appears to have absorbed the suit’s nanites, and we now see Doc Ock’s arm take on characteristics of Iron Man’s tech, notably the shiny red and gold motif.
Big surprise #2: when Peter reveals his face, Octavius becomes confused. “You’re not Peter Parker.” he says. This tells us that NWH is acknowledging that Peter Parker is Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker to Doc Ock. It means they are not ret-conning the original actors out of their movies to make them fit into the MCU. Oh shit.
TL;DR: I say this scene pretty clearly telegraphs Tobey and Andrew’s return in NWH.
The order of the scenes seems to pit the Washington Bridge fight before Doc Ock realizes that this Spidey isn’t his Spidey. The other shots from the bridge show Ock’s arms still as they were in their respective film, without the Iron Man motif. I would imagine once Ock realizes that this Spider-Man is a stranger to him, his animosity will evaporate. Other scenes from the trailer show them conversing in a much less hostile fashion.
1:30-2:00
We’re finally getting more details on something heavily speculated on: previous trailers showed Doctor Strange and Spider-Man appearing to fight. Many fans like myself were left guessing why. Now we appear to have an answer. After encountering these old (but new to MCU Peter) villains, Doctor Strange reveals to Peter that they had all died fighting a Spider-Man. If we know anything about Holland’s Parker, it’s that he will stop at nothing to save people, even villains. We can recall Peter trying to save the Vulture while being actively attacked by him.
Upon learning that these villains now have a chance at new life, and the opportunity to turn over new leaves, Parker makes a choice. There is this Strang-ean cube that Doctor Strange has given to Peter, and it appears to play an integral role in putting the villains back into their respective universes. I would imagine that once returned, they will die just as they had in past movies. Doctor Strange says it’s their fate. Peter steals the cube from Strange, and for a time it seems they will become adversaries. Surely this won’t last the entire film, but I’m dying to see how it pans out.
2:00-2:20
“Peter…You’re struggling. You can have everything you want, while the world tries to make you choose.”
– Green Goblin
The infamous Green Goblin returns. I’m so excited, purely for this. Willem Dafoe is a damn legend and to see him returned to the big screen as Norman Osborn is just *chef’s kiss.* Here we here the quote above. It’s unclear which Peter Norman is talking about. I’m curious to see if Norman actually thinks he’s talking to Tobey when he says this, even though the quote applies to Tom as well. We even get a glimpse of what might be Harry Osborn returning as well.
At 2:02 we also catch a look at what appears to be Doc Ock being shot out of a window by a blast of electrical energy, presumably coming from Jaime Fox’s Electro. Does this lend credibility to the fan theory that Doc Ock will actually be helping Peter Parker in this film? We’ll have to wait and see.
Further in we get some more scenes of Doctor Strange’s signature space-time bending magic, warping New York City this way and that. We also get a glimpse of a major battle scene on the now-infamous scaffolding featuring Electro, Sandman, Lizard and thus far, only Holland’s Spider-Man. That scaffolding is now shown to be surrounding the Statue of Liberty. Post-Endgame the statue is under construction, being rebuilt as Lady Liberty holding the shield of Captain America. A fitting tribute to an American who quite literally helped save half of the universe.
There’s a MASSIVE discussion going on regarding this scaffolding battle and the possibility of Marvel pulling a fast-one on us with more trailer-editing-tomfoolery. That’s a whole article unto itself, so I’ll just leave this right here for you.
Something to note at 2:17, it appears Tom is wearing his Far From Home Spider-Suit with some Iron Spider elements present. Something has happened in the film regarding his suit. At first glance I thought it was the Iron Spider but it’s not, at least not completely.
2:20-Fin
We get a haunting cliffhanger of a scene with Ned trying to catch MJ as she falls from the Statue of Liberty. This scene has led to rampant speculation that perhaps Andrew Garfield will make his debut in this moment, redeeming himself for the death of Gwen Stacy by rescuing the MCU’s MJ from a similar fall.
We end the trailer with Doctor Strange, sounding tired and anxious, telling Peter “They’re starting to come through, and I can’t stop them!” Another spell is being cast, similar in appearance to the one that caused all the trouble in the first place.
Now, you’d think this means the Sinister Six…or Four…or…whatever. But there’s something weird going on.
Earlier in the trailer we get the above shot of Doctor Strange’s magic expanding out from atop the Statue of Liberty. In that scene, the scaffolding is intact, the Great Battle has yet to occur. Now at the end of the trailer, we get this wide-shot of the universe seemingly tearing open in cracks of orange and purple all around Peter and Strange from atop the Statue of Liberty. But from this shot we can see the scaffolding is already completely wrecked, Cap’s shield having already toppled. This means the scene takes place after the fight with the Sinister Six.
Another thing: I said the purple and orange portal-stuff is happening around Peter and Strange but that’s just what they want you to think. We hear Peter say “What’s happening?” to which Strange responds, “They’re starting to come through, and I can’t stop them!” They even show us a tight reaction shot of Peter looking concerned. But when we see this shot of the universe breaking open, it’s actually only Stephen Strange standing on top of the Statue of Liberty.
Where is Peter? Was that dialogue taken from elsewhere in the movie? After the infamous fight atop Lady Liberty, has something happened to our Peter Parker that might explain the ominous title of No Way Home?
Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Tickets for Spider-Man: No Way Home will be available November 29th, Spider-Monday. The film officially releases December 17th, 2021.
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Cody Elliot Szaro 