The hype levels for the new Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer are off the charts, even by Marvel standards.
Fans have been speculating for months that Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire will reprise their roles as different versions of Peter Parker. But with one month left before No Way Home‘s release date, Garfield is still denying that he’s in the movie—and neither he nor Maguire appear in the new trailer.
This probably disappointed the fans who attended Sony’s in-person trailer premiere Tuesday night. But don’t give up hope! The trailer includes some potential clues pointing toward those other Peter Parkers. Some fans even believe that Garfield and Maguire were digitally removed from one of the action scenes—a scene that currently involves one Spider-Man battling three villains, one of whom seemingly gets punched by an invisible character:
The main evidence for the “three Peter Parkers” theory is, of course, leaks. There are some very convincing clips and photos floating around from behind the scenes of No Way Home, showing all three Spider-Men teaming up—plus a cameo for Daredevil‘s Charlie Cox.
There’s still a possibility that these leaks are a very elaborate hoax. However a Spidey crossover team does make sense in the context of the movie, which already includes villains from Garfield and Maguire’s Spider-Man franchises. So while Garfield has repeatedly (exhaustively!) denied any involvement in the film, Spider-Man fans generally assume he’s lying because Disney and Sony want to keep his role a secret.
Alongside that Lizard scene, there’s one other moment in the trailer that has fans screaming for Garfield’s Peter Parker: A shot of MJ (Zendaya) falling off a building. This is an obvious reference to Gwen Stacy’s death in the comics and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, where Garfield’s Spidey failed to save her life. Fans are speculating that Andrew Garfield will be the one to save MJ in No Way Home, redeeming his guilt over Stacy’s death.
“Andrew Garfield saves MJ” is quickly gathering steam as a fan theory, which says a lot about the fandom for this movie. While No Way Home has a pretty similar concept to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the surrounding hype is more about nostalgia than the film itself. People really want to see those two classic Spider-Men return. And with no official confirmation that the Spidey team-up is actually happening, much of that enthusiasm is now being channeled into conspiracy theories.
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