What Does Spider-Man: No Way Home Mean For Marvel?
Updated: Apr 9, 2022
Plus, what does the multiverse have to do with everything?
*Warning: Major Spider-Man: No Way Home spoilers ahead, proceed at your own risk*
Spider-Man: No Way Home was a major box office hit for Marvel — it’s still breaking box office records. After many twists and turns throughout the movie, including Aunt May’s death, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s appearances, and the spell that caused everyone to forget Peter Parker, No Way Home left fans with a lot of questions. Not only what is next for our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, but also what's next for Marvel now that we’ve seen what the Multiverse can do.
Spider-Man’s Future
Even though No Way Home was the final movie in the Tom Holland-led trilogy, the ending definitely seems to set us up for more Spidey movies. Spider-Man producers, Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal, all but confirmed there will be more MCU Spider-Man movies on the way in an interview with The New York Times. However, Tom Holland’s contract is up, so whether or not he will reprise his role is still up in the air.
Either way, a fourth Spider-Man movie would have to dive into how Peter is coping in a world where nobody knows him. In the final scenes, we see him alone and choosing not to reveal himself to MJ and Ned, which begs the question: will MJ and Ned go off to MIT never to be heard from again? We hope not — Peter and MJ’s relationship is cute, but Peter and Ned’s relationship is even cuter, we can’t imagine a world without it.
We also can’t forget about the mid-credits scene with Eddie Brock and Venom. Brock is drinking at a tiki bar with Ted Lasso’s Dani Rojas (Cristo Fernández) as the bartender. Just as Brock has the idea to pay Peter Parker a visit, he’s sucked back into Sony-land. But a blob of symbiote goo is left behind at the Marvel-universe bar. This could mean we see Venom making a real appearance in the next Spider-Man film.
The Multiverse Future
We sort of saw what the Multiverse was capable of in Loki, but wowie is it powerful. If it has the power to bring every Spider-Man and villain Spider-Man fought to one world, what other damage can it do? In the trailer for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, we see the Multiverse bring a second version of Doctor Strange to the current MCU world. This Doctor Strange is a major threat and Doctor Strange, Wanda Maximoff, and Wong will have to take him down. If Loki’s He Who Remains taught us anything, it’s that you don’t want to fight an evil version of yourself.
Additionally, if the Multiverse can pull other universes’ Peter Parkers, does that mean the same for other characters — like Bruce Banner, for example? While it’s probably not likely, we’d love to see Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk try to figure out Eric Bana’s and Edward Norton’s Hulk.
Now that the Multiverse has been revealed, and it’s playing a major role in Marvel’s Phase Four release, how long are we going to see the Multiverse as a pain point for our favorite heroes? It’s ruined Variant Loki’s life, Peter Parker’s life, and now it’s coming after Doctor Strange. How long until they find a way to fix whatever is causing all of this to happen? Hopefully, it’s soon because we can only handle so much heartbreak (and boy has the MCU caused us a lot of heartbreak recently).
Marvel’s Future
Marvel has lost many of its original Avengers, including Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, Chris Evans’ Captain America, Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, and Paul Bettany’s Vision, but they have made up for this loss in a big way during Phase Four. This new phase of Marvel movies and series seem to be passing the torch to a new generation of superheroes, like Shang Chi and Kate Bishop, while still sprinkling in cameos of other heroes we know and love.
Endgame’s departures were definitely hard to swallow for many fans, but Marvel’s future is bright. They know just how to keep us engaged with old characters, like Bruce Banner and Captain Marvel making an appearance in Shang Chi or Laura Barton’s small S.H.I.E.L.D. storyline in Hawkeye, while developing new characters that we’re falling in love with, like Yelena and Agatha Harkness.
Of course, there are many questions and uncertainties regarding our favorite heroes’ futures in the MCU, but for now we just need to take it one movie at a time and hope the Multiverse doesn’t claim any more victims.