Arguably the most anticipated premiere since Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: No Way Home is continuing to excite fans. On Monday, Aug. 23, Marvel released the first official teaser trailer for the new film and fans are reeling.
Though it’s been previously confirmed that this film plays into the multiverse for Spider-Man after the events of the Loki television series (also previously seen in Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse), nothing is ever set in stone with Marvel. That’s what makes this first trailer so exciting to fans: we finally get visual confirmation of the multiverse bringing back old characters.
“I was ecstatic,” Laura Wininger, a senior studying playwriting, said. “I was so excited and was texting my sister the second I saw it.”
The film follows Peter Parker (Tom Holland) as he seeks out Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to help him rectify his identity crisis – literally, as his Spider-Man superhero persona was revealed in the previous film, Spider-Man: Far From Home. However, Doctor Strange advises him to “be careful what you wish for,” as the spell to hide his identity also will erase memories from his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon).
“I was really anticipating it, and when I finally watched it I was geeking out,” Holden Evans, a junior studying musical theater, said. “I think it’s going to be amazing.”
Though the most recent trailer is just the first of what will probably be a few, there are many hidden details if watching closely. With opening the film to the multiverse, who knows who might pop up for fans to see. References to the Green Goblin, Sandman, potentially using deep-fake technology to superimpose Holland’s face on what might be Tobey Maguire’s body can all be spotted and are already being theorized by fans.
“I think it will be almost as popular as Endgame when it comes out,” Evan said. “Because of the multiverse, since Loki did the multiverse, it’s going to be crazy.”
Not to mention the first confirmation of multiverse appearance from Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock, featured in the Maguire Spider-Man films.
“I’m kind of a sucker for Doc Ock,” Wininger said. “Spider-Man 2 was my favorite of the originals, so I was really excited.”
There are other rumors of Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man making appearances in the film, which as exciting as it sounds, fans are hoping the film won’t simply be fan-service, and that the creators will remember that it’s Holland’s film and time to shine, not Maguire and Garfield’s.
Though there is a lot of anticipation around the performances of the actors playing the old characters, many are also anticipating Holland’s performance in the film, including Tessa Skinner, a sophomore studying finance and entrepreneurship. But in keeping with the multiverse theme, she’s excited to hopefully see Maguire and Garfield make their cameo appearances.
“Personally, I’d love it if, like in that one Avengers movie where Captain America is fighting old Captain America, it’d be kind of cool to see Tom Holland fighting Tobey and Andrew,” Skinner said. “I think if they made a comeback and they were all Spider-Man fighting each other, that’d be really cool.”
The opportunity for fans' wildest conspiracies – including ones as wild as Mephisto taking over Doctor Strange’s body – is high. However, fans are simply excited to see more Spider-Man films in theaters.
“I’m just so excited they’re doing more Spider-Man movies because there was that whole thing where they weren’t going to do anymore,” Wininger said, referring to the studio rights over the Spider-Man character. “So I’m just really glad they’re doing more.”
Additionally, Evans believes people shouldn’t look closely into the comics or other potential spoiler content. Rather, he believes people should walk in with as little knowledge as possible.
“I think if you watch the trailer, don’t watch anything else,” Evans said. “If there’s more trailers, don’t watch them. It’ll be so hard, but I think it’d be great to go in there blind, not knowing much.”
