Why I'm Worried About Spider-Man: No Way Home

Entertainment Movies
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Let me say right up front that I love the MCU Spider-Man movies. I really do. They’re tons of fun to watch, with arguably the best live-action Spider-Man, well-written villains that trump anything the Marc Webb films could’ve thrown at us, really original stories, and…yeah, is there anything I can say about them that everyone on the planet hasn’t already said?

So naturally, you’d expect me to be excited about another movie with Tom Holland, especially after the cliffhanger that the last one had. And…yeah, I am, but at the same time, I feel a lot of apprehension building up inside me. Why is that? Well, for months, I’ve been trying to put my finger on it, and now I think I’ve figured it out: it’s the multiverse aspect. Sort of.

Even though Marvel and Sony haven’t officially confirmed this, there have been a LOT of rumors of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprising their roles as the Spider-Men from their universe. The idea is that Tom Holland’s Spidey would somehow access their universes and team up with them. Again: there hasn’t been any official word on this. But what Marvel/Sony DID confirm is that Alfred Molina and Jamie Foxx would be back as their own versions of Dock Ock and Electro, respectively. Although, it was said that Electro wouldn’t be all blue like he was in TASM2, so…is it really the same Electro from that universe?

Regardless, the trailer for No Way Home dropped today, and it looks to be following the exact route everyone thought it would: Peter’s been branded as a fugitive, so he’s going to Doctor Strange for help. But somehow Doctor Strange’s spell is gonna go wrong, and that’s how this whole multiverse thing is gonna happen. In the trailer, we saw a pumpkin bomb being thrown while Green Goblin laughed. And we saw Dock Ock-de-aged to look like Alfred Molina’s 2004 self. It’s even been confirmed that they got Willem Dafoe to play Green Goblin again…even though both him and Alfred Molina’s Dock Ock died in their introductory movies. WHUT?

I guess it’s not as big of a problem as I’m making it out to be. It’s possible that the villains’ apparent resurrections will be explained in the movie, or maybe they aren’t even the same villains from the Raimi films (same kind of deal as J. K. Simmons playing Jameson in the MCU). But what concerns me is that the MCU seems to be doubling back on their villains. Like, think about it. The first two Spider-Man movies had entirely new villains (Vulture, Mysterio) that had never been done in movies before, and were given entirely original takes on their characters. But now, for No Way Home, it seems that they’re using the multiverse thing as an excuse to grab villains from older movies to use in the MCU.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against Green Goblin and Dock Ock being in the MCU. On the contrary, since they have been Spider-Man’s chief villains throughout his history, including them in the MCU would be a very wholesome choice. But if they’re lifting the exact same characters from a different universe, then doesn’t that kind of show a lack of originality? Like, you want to bring this one character into your universe, then set him up within that universe. Don’t suddenly introduce the multiverse and then use it as an excuse to drag in characters from a separate franchise.

But it’s possible that I’m wrong. Maybe these villains from another universe will just be a sideshow next to the real villain, whoever that might be. Maybe it’ll be like the J. Jonah Jameson situation, where they’re different iterations of the characters that just happen to have the same actors. Maybe the movie’s writers will have figured out a way for this to somehow work. Whatever the case, I hope that the movie (and its villains (s)) will be good. After two solid films, I feel Tom Holland’s Spider-Man deserves a strong third chapter.

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Yeah, I definitely think that the returning villains will be alternate versions who are slightly different than what we saw in the old movies. My guess is that the general idea of their characters will be the same, but with a few key differences that give them new motivations. I hope it’s more extreme than this though, since I would also like more original ideas, but that would also risk ruining the established characters. I’d like to think we’ll get a completely new villain as well, but I’m not going to go in with high expectations.

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While I have reservations over where they’ve decided to go with the story, I’m confident that it’ll be at the very least entertaining - which I’ve been striving to have be sufficient recently, instead of nitpicking so much. Especially with the current quality of entertainment content recently.

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I have different reasons to be worried entirely. It is because they are basing the storyline off One More Day, the worst Spider-Man story ever. That, and they seem to be going down a trend where Peter does not take responsibility for his actions… Again. Getting a bit sick of that.

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Spider-Man 3: Everyone’s complaining that there are too many characters and villains and it’s overly bloated and crowded.

Spider-Man 3: Everyone’s championing how it will have every villain, every Spider-Man, every Mary Jane, every-

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The only other question is, who might that be?

Oh yeah, I totally agree with you there. Even though I’m worried about the villain situation, I have a feeling that my worries might end up being for naught. Just so long as I keep my fingers crossed…

Reading about it on Wikipedia, yeah, I can see the parallels. And I’m also starting to see some parallels with It’s A Wonderful Life and Shrek Forever After (in that they make a wish to change something they think they want to change, but their wish ends up completely screwing up the timeline/reality).

A while back, I even heard a rumor that Emma Stone would come in to play Gwen Stacey turned Spider-Gwen from TASM. Wow.

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Scorpion was in homecoming, so it might be him.

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They missed the chance to have him team up with Venom to fight fake news. I mean, FFH ended with JJJ in an InfoWars parody, and Eddie makes “honest journalism” his life’s work, you’d think it’d be the perfect way to bring Venom to the MCU.

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Eh…after Vulture and Mysterio, Scorpion just doesn’t seem like a “big” enough villain. Really, he feels more like a “minion”-type of character.

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They could make the sinister six be the threat.

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Except Mysterio’s dead.

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Or, is he?

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Yes, he is. EDITH confirmed that all the holograms were shut off.

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Oh yeah, forgot about that.

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Mysterio has faked his death several times in the comics. It’s a trait he’s known for. I would not be surprised if he did it again.

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Only question is: how? Based on what we saw at the end of FFH, I don’t see how he could still be alive. Then again, I didn’t see how Han could be alive after Tokyo Drift/Furious 7, either.

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Easily. Using decoys (the MCU has confirmed technology to put faked faces on people, as seen in The Winter Soldier), special effects (as Mysterio is known for), and the fact that somehow he recorded the moments when the drones attacked a video to frame Spider-Man, somehow knowing he was going to die or lose.

He also could have just easily programmed EDITH to lie about the illusions being gone. Peter did not check himself.

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I mean, we DID see one of his goons escaping with the data. So there’s that.

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Perhaps, but then we have him not physically checking Quentin Beck’s body if he had died. He just… Kinda leaves. We never actually see Quentin pass away, do we? We just see him stop breathing. But no pulse was checked, nothing to confirm his death. It is so easy for an actor to pretend they are dead.

#1 rule in comics: if you don’t see someone physically die in comics, they’re likely not actually dead. Oldest trick in the book.

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That’s fair, but in FFH’s mid-credits scene, it was said that someone other than Mysterio leaked the video. Not Mysterio himself-one of his associates. On the other hand, that doesn’t rule out Mysterio planning something like this out in case he died/lost.