Spider-Man: No Way Home probably has to be one of the most anticipated Marvel movies, rivaling the likes of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Why? There’s not only an interesting set of stakes, but many highly anticipated cameos. In addition to that, the implications of one of these cameos mean big things are afoot concerning Spider-Man’s future.
The Cameos Of The Century
Confirmed to appear in the movie are a number of characters that are not “indigenous” to the current Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). There are two other alternate “film universes” the movie will be drawing characters from. The first we’ll mention is one that fans affectionately call “The Raimiverse”, which refers to the Spider-Man movies made by Sam Raimi (a total of three films). From this universe, the characters (we know of) that will be making an appearance include Green Goblin/Norman Osborn (Willem Defoe), Doctor Octopus/Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), and the Sandman/Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church). The other alternate film universe in play is the Amazing Spider-Man films (a total of two movies). Characters from this universe will include The Lizard/Dr. Curtis Connors (Rhys Ifans) and Electro/Maxwell Dillon (Jamie Foxx).
As the reader, you might be wondering why the appearance of these characters and the actors tied to them matter so much. To help you stop wondering, picture this. The MCU doesn’t exist. Marvel’s properties are scattered in the wind, some with films that were well received, and others not as much. It was during this time that Sam Raimi made his Spiderman movies. For the most part, Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 were pretty good, and the fans liked them too. Willem Defoe’s performance as Green Goblin was fantastic, as was everyone’s favorite villain of the two movies, Doctor Octopus, who was played by Alfred Molina. Spider-Man 3 wasn’t as good as the two preceding it, but there was still something there. That something was the Sandman and his alter ego, Flint Marko, who was surprisingly a very deep and interesting character.
The same can be said of The Lizard from The Amazing Spider-Man. Electro, both as a character and character design, on the other hand, was not received well by fans when he appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. For Electro, it’s a redemption arc of sorts, a redemption in that the character can be done right and that Jamie Foxx can be a great Electro, he just needs a chance.
Now here’s the kicker. By the time the hugely popular MCU came around, it wasn’t hard to imagine that fans were disappointed that these phenomenal actors and the characters they played would never get to interact with the Marvel universe we were growing to love. Not to mention that those Spider-Man movies are owned by Sony and not Disney, so there was always that additional hurdle when it came to leasing. But lo and behold, the stars have indeed aligned, both narratively and in the proprietary realm. Fans have come a long way from Spider-Man’s first appearance in the MCU all the way back in 2016 with Captain America: Civil War. Who knew we’d more or less be getting a Sinister Six movie (and you’ll see why I say that) featuring the breakout cast of the older Spider-Man films, IN the MCU no less. It’s wild.
The last infinity stone, if you will, that we need for this Spiderverse gauntlet Disney is gift-wrapping for fans is the possibility of seeing the two Spider-men from their respective film universes (Raimiverse and The Amazing Spider-Man films). On this note, there is some division among fans concerning who was the better Spider-Man, but barring that, there is no doubt that both iterations were loved. There hasn’t been much in the way of solid confirmation as to whether or not they’ll be appearing in the latest Spider-Man film but fans will be holding out hope. There is, however,…one more character we haven’t gone over who will be appearing in Spider-Man: No Way Home who might have one of the most influential roles in the movie.
There Is…Another?
Strap in your seatbelts, because this last one is a doozy. If you haven’t seen the end of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, there exists an after-credits scene where Eddy and Venom suddenly phase (I guess?) their way into the MCU. Speaking as a fan, the many narrative hula hoops you have to fly through and accept to begin processing this information are a bit odd. Whether you agree with it or not though, it has been confirmed by Kevin Feige himself (the primary producer of the Marvel Cinematic Universe) that, at the very least, Venom is actually in the MCU. For more on Kevin Feige’s comments,check out this article by Collider. That being said, there is every possibility that Venom will be joining the fray in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Insider Marvel comics time. If you’ll recall, it was mentioned earlier that this could be some form of a “Sinister Six” movie. To briefly preface it, the Sinister Six is a group of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery (numbering six of course) who only have one goal. That goal is to confront and beat the tar out of Spider-Man for being such a quippy pain in the butt. It probably seemed a little awkward that this group was brought up before, seeing that there are only five confirmed villains. Well, we present to you the sixth possible member out of Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, The Lizard, The Sandman, and Electro…Venom! It’s a pretty cheesy (and personally, kind of lazy) way to do it, but Venom utters a little throwaway line as he watches Tom Holland’s Spider-Man on live TV. Essentially, due to how this line is delivered, it doesn’t appear that helping Spider-Man is on his to-do list during his stay in the MCU. Venom’s more likely to join in on the clobbering.
Final Thoughts
We’ve discussed the villains you’re going to see in this film, and the (potentially) last-minute addition to the villain RSVP. The bigger question you as readers should be asking yourselves is this, what does all of this mean for the “Spiderverse”? This is just a theory, but if you just take a look at the title “No Way Home”, that might not just refer to Spidey’s rogues gallery being stuck in the MCU with no way back. It may very well mean that Spider-Man might just walk on out with these villains back to what we can presumably start calling the “Sonyverse” or “Sony’s Spiderverse”…with no way “home” so to speak. Whatever the case may be, the hype for this movie is way up there, and it will be interesting to see just how Spider-Man: No Way Home ends up unraveling (see what I did there? Because the multiverse is unraveling in the movie too…). Spider-Man: No Way Home comes to theaters on December 17th, 2021.