With Spider-Man: No Way Home out now (exclusively in theaters), it seems like the perfect time to catch up on where the story left off. In this article we’ll tackle the ever growing mountain of rumors which surround the film and have caused it to be the most hyped-up MCU film since Avengers: Endgame.

Where we left off:

Last time we saw Peter Parker, he was going through a bit of a crisis. After one helluva field trip (in which MJ discovered his secret identity) Peter, seemingly defeated Quentin Beck, AKA Mysterio, Peter recovered the E.D.I.T.H Glasses (Contains an AI that can do everything from delete pictures from a phone to control killer drones from space) and, with both his class and London safe from harm, returned to New York seemingly putting the conflict to bed. However, in the film’s mid-credits scene, J. Jonah Jamison (played once again by J.K Simmons) reveals footage to the whole of New York which not only frames Spider-Man for the murder of Quentin Beck but also reveals his secret identity to the world.

Based on the information we can gather from trailers, No Way Home picks up right where we left off with Peter’s identity now revealed to the world. Peter is facing the legal consequences of being framed and is being persecuted by both the public and the media (or at least J. Jonah) as a murderer. His life is forever changed… or is it? Peter in an attempt to fix the situation seeks the help of Dr Strange (or as Peter calls him Steven… it’s weird) and asks if he can make everyone forget his identity was revealed. Strange agrees but when Peter discovers that everyone will forget his identity, he, to put it simply, won’t shut up, which causes Strange to lose control of the spell, tampering with the stability of space time and opening Peter and his friends to numerous multiversal threats.

The Rumors:

With the inclusion of Dr Strange and the multiversal possibilities opened up by LOKI, rumors have run rampant about the film, specifically surrounding the film’s cast. With the introduction of new worlds, rumors began to swirl that the cast would include characters from the past two Spiderman franchises – both heroes and villains. Since then we’ve received confirmation that Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), Sandman, Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Lizard, and Electro (Jamie Foxx) will all be returning to comprise our five villains… five? Really feels like it should be six. That’s Great! But we’ve yet to see the past two live action spider-men, Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield! Despite a mountain of rumors and a boatload of supposed leaks they continue to deny their involvement but the rumors (furthered by an invisible punch in the latest trailer) have only grown larger. Other rumors have existed around the film as well, such as the revival of Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock otherwise known as Daredevil from the fan favorite Netflix series, or Mephisto (although that one is more so the result of a fan theory that refuses to die, rather than rumors with any actual merit.)

Charlie Cox has since been confirmed to be reprising his role as Daredevil in any future MCU projects relating to the character, however it is still uncertain whether or not Cox will be appearing in No Way Home.

In Conclusion:

Spider-Man: No Way Home is the most anticipated MCU film in years, boasting the highest ticket presales since Avengers: Endgame. The hype has grown to such an extent that the day tickets became available for sale, Theaters such as Cinemark and AMC had their websites crash due to the high demand. Regardless of whether or not the rumors are true, whether we get Andrew and Tobey in No Way Home or not. The one thing we can be sure of is that we’re all in for a wild ride.

I just wanna see Norman Osborn talk to himself…