The new Spider-Man No Way Home trailer has swung in and unsurprisingly caused quite a stir – so right from the start, let’s get the obvious things out of the way. There’s no sign of Toby, no Andrew either, no Charlie Cox and not even a whiff of the snooty usher from Spider-Man 2 – but before all the people who’s based their entire existence around these reveals rise up to vent their collective spleen, there’s something the trailer does have in abundance. VILLIANS. Bloody tons of ’em. So let’s arm our pumpkin bombs, adjust our tentacles and pour sand out of our shoes as we take a dive into the Multiverse to see what tidbits Marvel and Sony has thwipped over to us this time…
5) Spider Threads
Continuing the MCU thread of giving their heroes more costume changes than the final of Ru Paul’s Drag Race, No Way Home gives us a clearer look at Peter’s swanky, black and gold, magic infused costume – although we’re yet to see definitively what it actually does, but it seems to be created for the purpose of rounding up Spider-Man villains from other dimentions (more on that later). Notice Electro hovering in the background (more on him too) while Peter activates his magic, wrist, thingy – is the suit Electro proof? Can it teleport? Is black with gold webs slimming? We may have to wait until the movie to find out everything but one thing’s for sure, the upcoming Spider-Man 2 game won’t be short of unlockable costumes…
4) Armed & Armed & Armed & Armed & Dangerous
While the first trailer dealt mostly with the after effects of Peter’s superhero outing at the hands of Mysterio and Doctor Strange seemingly having concentration issues while casting a spell that could have disastrous consequences for reality itself, this trailer gives us more of the actual plot told mostly through the actions of Doctor Octopus. Seemingly confirming rumours of Parker successfully rounding up a bunch of bad guys who’ve tumbled through the multiverse, only to have a crisis of conscience when he finds out that they’ve all been killed by their universe’s respective Spider-Men, this creates obvious friction with Strange who winningly demands that he “Scooby-Doo this crap!”. But it does seem that Otto Octavius has quite a lot to do in No Way Home when Peter, MJ and Ned aren’t chuckling at his name; not only does he get that massive bridge-set action scene, but he even upgrades his arms by having them absorb the Iron Spider suit to get a bitching red trim to his extra appendages and a shot of him getting blown back by an Electro might even hint at a change of heart… and speaking of which…
3) The Gang’s (almost) All Here
As I stated before, bad guys are the order of the day here and boy, do we get a lot of them. Doc Ock aside, we get our first proper looks at Sandman – still rocking that Sandstorm with a face look – and The Lizard, although it’s uncertain if Thomas Hayden Church or Rhys Ifans have returned from Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man respectively for cameos. However, the most impressive of this group is Jamie Foxx’s returning Electro, who has turned in his honorary Blue Man Group membership from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and somehow has become surprisingly comic accurate. Think Far From Home’s version of Mysterio was an awesome attempt to realise a ridiculous costume on film? Behold Max Dillon rocking sparks that resemble his comic book alter ego’s questionable choice in head gear. Shockingly perfect.
2) The Osborne Supremacy
As impressive as this roustabout roll call is, what really should be making Peter’s arach-nads shrivel is the return of uber-nutter Norman Osborne, aka. the girlfriend killing, glider riding, pumpkin bomb throwing, super-bastard Green Goblin. Hinted in the previous trailer by a trademark cackle and a shot of his particular brand of vegetable themed explosive (not to mention photo bombing two official posters), we finally get to see that infamous, jade Power Rangers suit once again as a Willem Dafoe voice over rumbles over the soundtrack. But wait, what’s this? Does Norman also get a wardrobe change in the film? Judging by the second screenshot, it seems he ditches the mask in favour of goggles to make things extra personal (unless it’s another Goblin, but we won’t go there…). However, any of you maths geniuses out there may have noticed that we only (only?) have five villains when the comics boast a reoccurring super group of Spidey hating wrong ‘uns known as the Sinister Six. Is there a mystery bad guy waiting in the wings? Mysterio? Vulture? Venom? Textbook Marvel: giving us answers that lead to yet more questions…
1) Massive Climax…
The movie’s climax seems to be going for broke, setting all of its main players against each other on the Statue Of Liberty no less (take that first X-Men movie), but throughout all the bolts of electricity, sentient sand storms and frantic web swinging, two things stand out. The first is Zendaya’s MJ taking a plunge off Lady Liberty’s structure (never a good thing for a Spider-Man actress – just ask Emma Stone) while Peter desperately tries to reach her. Would a major death tie into Tom Holland’s recent remarks that No Way Home isn’t a “fun” watch, or even that this film is being described as the “end” of this particular trilogy – even though that’s exactly what the third of a trilogy is. The other thing is the sky noticably opening up with purple streaks of Kirby crackling energy, which not only plays into the reality weakening theory from Into The Spider-Verse that visitors from other universes is bad for – well – everything. Is this how and when Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Peeps finally make their appearance? Is this the Multiverse Of Madness finally happening just like He Who Sits Above warned of in Loki? Will hundreds of Marvel characters from other universes suddenly come spilling through? Has Mephisto finally been confirmed? Whatever it is, it’s enough to make Strange lose his shit with a panicked “They’re Coming!”. Whatever happens; something’s looking fishy – the Brazilian version of the trailer briefly shows The Lizard reacting to an impact from an unseen combatant, which basically means Marvel’s been cheekily editing people out of trailers again.
Read into that what you will, but whatever happens, No Way Home is the biggest Spider-Man movie yet and it’s tangled web will finally unravel in December for all to see.
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