Click to Skip Ad
Closing in...

Marvel’s crazy surprise in ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ is definitely ruined

Published May 5th, 2021 2:29PM EDT
Spider-Man No Way Home
Image: Sony Pictures

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.

Spider-Man: No Way Homepremieres on December 17th

, assuming nothing unexpected forces Sony and Marvel to delay the film again. And Sony already has a challenging task at hand. The studio will soon have to start the official marketing for the movie and release the first trailer. From the looks of it, Sony will try to protect the worst-kept Spider-Man 3 secret to the very end, a task that’s more difficult than it was a few years ago when Far From Home debuted. Spider-Man 2 concluded the Infinity War saga, launching a few months after Avengers: Endgame. But marketing for Far From Home started before Endgame premiered, further fueling speculation that the dead Avengers would return to life. At the time Sony released the first Far From Home trailer, months before Endgame, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker was still very, very dead. But we knew that Far From Home took place after Endgame in the MCU’s chronology, thanks to older comments from Sony execs. That meant that people who were snapped away by Thanos in Infinity War were obviously going to be brought back to life in Endgame.

No Way Home will be an even more critical Spider-Man film than the previous episodes, setting the stage for a massive storyline that will span across various MCU movies and TV series. That’s what all the leaks say, and we have plenty of evidence to support them. But Sony might try to protect the worst-kept Spider-Man: No Way Home secret until the very end. Mind you, plenty of Spider-Man 3 spoilers follow below.

Andrew Garfield’s denial that he’s playing his version of Spider-Man in No Way Home is absolutely hilarious. It’s also on par with what other actors hired to play MCU superheroes have done in the past, so we can’t blame him. But we saw evidence that indicates Garfield is in the movie. So is Tobey Maguire, who will also play his Spider-Man in the film.

We’ve known for months that villains from Sony’s previous Spider-Man films will be back for No Way Home. Jamie Foxx famously confirmed that he’d play Electro. We then learned Alfred Molina will return as Doc Ock, and the actor confirmed it all in an interview a few weeks ago, joking that his involvement in the movie is an open secret.

Garfield’s denial prompted Skyler Shuler to say on Twitter that “Sony is doing everything in their power to get these actors to deny their involvement, they likely won’t be shown in marketing, all to try [to] keep the element of surprise.” Shuler is from TheDisInsider, but it’s unclear whether he’s just speculating or he has access to inside information that confirms Garfield and Maguire are joining Holland in this Spider-Man 3 multiverse story.

Tom Holland denied having met Garfield and Maguire as well, so Garfield isn’t the first Spider-man actor to field this line of questions.

It’s evident at this point that Sony is nowhere near ready to start promoting No Way Home. The film only got name drops in Disney’s mid-December Investor Day event, and in Marvel’s promo video that was released a few days ago. Marvel used the clip to release the first Eternals footage ever shown, but it didn’t include any imagery or scenes from No Way Home. This seems to indicate that Sony is indeed trying to protect this massive Spider-Man 3 secret that’s not so secret anymore.

Spider-Man: No Way Home will be a multiverse film that will advance the interests of both Sony and Marvel. Kevin Feige and Co. have already laid the multiverse’s foundations with Doctor Strange, the Ant-Man movies, and Endgame. MCU Phase 4 will dive even deeper into the multiverse, and that much is clear from the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness movie title. Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is also going to appear in Spider-Man 3.

On the other hand, Sony has an impressive multiverse success on its hands already with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Spider-Man 3 will give it a chance to offer fans a live-action version of that. It’s not going to be a Mike Morales story, but No Way Home will help Sony tie the previous Spider-Man films to the MCU and enrich its own Spider-Man-based cinematic universe, the SPUMC.

With all that in mind, it’s not unexpected to see Sony try to protect this massive No Way Home plot surprise. The whole thing benefits Marvel as well, which is notorious for doing everything possible to keep its secrets. But the surprise is already ruined. Just like we knew back in 2018 that the dead Avengers would be resurrected in Endgame, including Peter Parker, we know now that No Way Home will feature three different Spider-Man versions battling multiverse foes. This doesn’t make the next Spider-Man sequel any less interesting. After all, Endgame was incredibly entertaining even though we knew that most heroes would be resurrected.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.