Eternals
is still playing in theaters and Hawkeye is about to launch in Disney Plus, so the MCU is getting more exciting than ever. But if you’re a Marvel fan, it’s probably Spider-Man: No Way Home that’s on your mind right now, thanks to that massive trailer 2 release. That’s the MCU subject that has everyone talking these days. It’s a trailer meant to deceive fans, especially when it comes to hiding Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. However, the clip might also contain a big plot twist that’s hiding in plain sight, and we’ll explain. But not before making sure you know that big spoilers might follow below.
Not all the No Way Home villains might be evil
The two No Way Home trailers deliver the movie’s premise. Peter Parker (Tom Holland) wants Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to make everyone forget that he is Spider-Man. The good doctor obliges, choosing to ignore Wong’s (Benedict Wong) warning. Peter is a talkative, stressed-out teenage superhero who messes up that spell, and he cracks open the multiverse in the process.
Villains from other realities infest the MCU, and Peter will have to capture them all. Strange won’t be too keen to help, although we know he’ll grant some magic powers to Peter. But Peter will have to pair up with his friends MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) to “Scooby-Doo this crap”.
That’s until Peter realizes that the villains he’s capturing will be sent back to their realities, where they’ll die at the hand of other Spider-Man versions. It’s in their fates, Strange explains.
Peter will then free the villains, who will unsurprisingly turn against him. Somehow, he’ll have to defeat all of them. We know from the leaks that Maguire and Garfield’s Spider-Men will be there to help, but the trailers do not show the two superheroes.
But what if there’s one more superhero hiding in plain sight in trailer 2? That’s the plot twist that trailer 2 might conceal, as it contains some scenes that don’t necessarily make sense. Before explaining the twist, I’ll remind you that MCU trailers usually deceive fans, and the No Way Home trailer 2 is proof of that.
The No Way Home fight scenes are key for the twist
The two trailers helped us figure out several fight scenes in the movie, which are important for this plot twist. First of all, we have Tom’s Spider-Man fighting Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) on the bridge and capturing him.
Secondly, we have the same Spider-Man fighting and likely capturing Electro (Jamie Foxx) and Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) somewhere out of town. Those are the scenes where Peter wears an inside-out black-and-gold Spider-Man suit.
Then there’s the fight between Avengers, where Strange chases Peter across the mirror dimension to capture the cube thingy, an essential piece of magic that should help Strange send the villains back.
Another major battle occurs at an apartment building complex, where several villains are involved. That includes Green Goblin, Electro, Sandman, and Doc Ock. The Lizard is probably there as well.
Finally, the climax fight is set at the Statue of Liberty, where the three Spider-Man will face at least three villains. We only see Electro, Sandman, and The Lizard in the trailer.
How is this important to the plot twist that might be hiding in plain sight? Well, it so happens that Molina’s Doc Ock interpretation has fans talking about whether he’s truly a bad guy or if he might actually help Peter Parker again.
The Doc Ock plot twist that we might not have seen coming
Otto last helped Maguire’s Spider-Man in Spider-Man 2. He realized the mistakes he made and saved New York, even if that meant dying in the process. That Doc Ock version supposedly appears in No Way Home.
From the moment we see him in the trailer, it’s clear that he’s up to no good. There’s a villainous arrogance about him. He sees a Spider-Man, and he thinks it’s the Peter Parker he knows. But he’ll later discover it’s not the Peter he thought.
Otto fights Peter on the bridge, which must be a fight early in the movie, right after Spidey interferes with the spell. Doc Ock manages to subdue Peter, and his AI tentacles extract nanites from the Iron Spider suit. The tentacles get a red paint coating, much to the surprise of the villain. But what if instead of the tentacles capturing the nanites, it’s the other way around.
It’s not just Otto that builds AI features into his robots. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) made a sophisticated suit for Peter, who later upgraded it. What if the nanorobots infect Doc Ock to the point of restoring control over the tentacles?
As a reminder, the tentacles’ AI influence Otto’s actions in Spider-Man 2. Stark’s nanites might free him of that burden, allowing him to be in full control of his decisions. That’s what some fans think, and this plot twist might be hiding in plain sight in the trailer.
As you might have noticed, we’ve featured only trailer screenshots that have Doc Ock in them, as well as the apartment building fight in this post.
Otto’s full redemption would be a great No Way Home twist
The trailers seem to suggest that Otto’s arrogance changes to humility after Tom’s Peter captures him. The red nanites are all over those tentacles. And the tentacles are shut in some scenes. That might be an indication that Otto or the tentacles aren’t looking for a fight.
As for that apartment building fight, there is one puzzling scene that we can’t explain. We see Otto falling from high up following an explosion. But Electro also seems to attack him.
Is it possible that Doc Ock will ultimately decide to help and/or protect Peter in that particular fight? We have no way of knowing, but it’s certainly peculiar to see the villains hurt each other. Whatever happens in that apartment, Otto ends up falling. One explanation for that battle scene is that it’s the scene where Goblin will eventually kill Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), but we don’t have enough evidence to back that up. But if that’s not Aunt May’s apartment complex, where Peter also lives, why is J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) there before the police arrive?
What’s also strange is that we have no Doc Ock in that final battle at the Statue of Liberty.
Sony already showed us that not all villains are entirely bad in Spider-Man movies. Having Otto turn against the Green Goblin mid-way through the film would complete Doc Ock’s arc better than Spider-Man 2 did, even if that means Sony going for the same sort of plot twist.
