22 things we learned from the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer

It's time to dive back into the Spider-verse, albeit a slightly different one.

Following the events of the Disney+ series Loki, which cracked open the Marvel Cinematic Universe's multiverse of parallel timelines and realities, here now comes the trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home, which complicates things even further.

The footage revealed familiar faces from Spider-Man movies past, Easter eggs, and implications for the MCU at large. We dig into it all.

01 of 22

Steve Ditko

Zendaya, Tom Holland Spider-Man: No Way Home — Zendaya and Tom Holland in 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'. Sony Pictures

The first scene we see in the trailer is MJ (Zendaya) and Peter (Tom Holland) on a roof. The whole world now knows this teen from Queens is really Spider-Man and he's been painted as a menace by the Infowars-esque Daily Bugle personality J. Jonah Jameson, played by J.K. Simmons. This we all know from the post-credits scene in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice the graffiti in the background of this moment reads "DITKO," which is a nod to Steve Ditko, the comic book illustrator who co-created Spider-Man with Stan Lee. Ditko's comics also include very trippy, reality-bending Doctor Strange comics, which is important to note for this film.

02 of 22

Spider-Minions

MJ is reading an issue of The New York Post, which is reporting Spider-Man can mimic a male spider's ability to hypnotize females. The front page reads, "Spider-Minions." Given that Pete's best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and aunt May (Marisa Tomei) are later interrogated, this kind of claim feels more serious than silly gossip.

03 of 22

Recreating a scene

This appears to be the same sequence that we saw in the post-credits scene of Far From Home, only now the billboards have changed around Peter and MJ to show Jameson and an image branding Peter as "Public Enemy #1." Perhaps this is some kind of dream. In any case, it appears that No Way Home picks up shortly after the events of Far From Home.

04 of 22

Interrogations

Tom Holland Spider-Man: No Way Home — Tom Holland in 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'. Sony Pictures

Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) did more damage than Peter realized. In addition to revealing Spider-Man's identity and faking a video tape that depicting the web-slinger murdering him, Mysterio set it up to look like Peter owned the drones the villain used to terrorize the world. All this is to set the stage. Peter is backed into a corner and would do anything to change his reality.

05 of 22

Fake news

The ripple effects of Jameson's claims are fast and nasty. Peter can't go to school without being mobbed by people who believe The Daily Bugle's claims of his villainy. One angry protestor paints him as the "Devil in Disguise." Something good to come out of this is Pete's seeming newfound friendship with his former bully, Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori). Now blonde, Flash is seen walking behind Peter into the school in this sequence, along with Ned and MJ. Flash was always a big Spider-Man fan, and it appears knowing Peter is the wall-crawler has made him change his ways.

06 of 22

Queensboro Bridge

Zendaya and Tom Holland in 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'. Sony Pictures

Here's an Easter egg to director Sam Raimi's 2001 Spider-Man movie, starring Tobey Maguire. The climax of that film took place on the Queensboro Bridge in New York City. The trailer shows Peter and MJ on top of the same bridge in No Way Home. This could just be an Easter egg, but there have been rumors theorizing that Maguire and another Spider-Man actor, Andrew Garfield, might be appearing in No Way Home as alternate dimension Peter Parkers. That hasn't been confirmed at this time.

07 of 22

Betty Brant's return

Amid the mob scene at Peter's school, we see the return of Betty Brant (Angourie Rice), who's doing a student news report. Three guesses what her top story is.

08 of 22

"How to fix all this"

Benedict Cumberbatch Spider-Man: No Way Home — Benedict Cumberbatch in 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'. Sony Pictures

Spying a witchy Halloween decoration, Peter gets the idea to ask Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help fixing his situation. For whatever reason, the Sanctum Sanctorum is covered in snow, perhaps from a spell gone awry, which would then be foreshadowing of things to come in this movie. The pair have a fun exchange with Peter calling Doctor Strange by his birth name Stephen, which is a callback to the "we're using our fake names" joke in Avengers: Infinity War. Strange is also holding an "Oh for fox sake" coffee mug, which might be another Easter egg to the fact that Disney purchased 20th Century Fox and now has the rights to use whatever Marvel characters the studio owned in the MCU.

09 of 22

Wong peaces out

Benedict Wong Spider-Man: No Way Home — Benedict Wong in 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'. Sony Pictures

Benedict Wong also returns as Wong, but he's going on vacation. He does warn Strange not to perform the spell he's thinking of before jetting. Of course, Strange doesn't listen.

10 of 22

A Feast for the eyes

As Peter is explaining how his life has been ruined, we see a scene in which he's wearing his black-and-gold Spider-Man suit. A flyer in the background confirms he's running through the Feast homeless shelter, which is a location from the Marvel's Spider-Man Playstation video game.

11 of 22

Chaos magic

Strange performs a spell that would make everyone in the world forget that Peter is Spider-Man, but Pete realizes he wasn't specific enough about who he wanted to forget. He tampers with the spell mid-casting and things go haywire. The walls of the Sanctum crack open, revealing a purple void, which is the same kind of space surrounding Kang (Jonathan Majors) in Loki. It's the space beyond timelines.

12 of 22

Visions of the multiverse

Peter and Strange see a vision of rainbow streaks, which could signify the different strands of the timeline branching off to form alternate realities. It's similar to what the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) showed Strange in a vision in the first Doctor Strange movie.

13 of 22

Sinking city

This could be a moment where Peter's reality is collapsing in on itself because of the multiversal spell, but this looks more like the mirror dimension from Doctor Strange. "We tampered with the stability of space, time," Strange says. "The multiverse is a concept about which we know threateningly little."

14 of 22

Electro

It's been previously reported that Jamie Foxx will be reprising his Electro character from Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a film that isn't part of the MCU. His presence suggests that all these movies could in fact exist cohesively together, just in different realities. Electricity striking a car hints at Electro's return in No Way Home, although the energy is yellow, whereas Foxx's Electro fired blue electricity in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Another theory here: Maybe this is a different Electro, also played by Foxx, but from another timeline.

15 of 22

Train trouble

Spider-Man and trains go well together, ever since Maguire's Spidey stopped a runaway train in Raimi's Spider-Man 2. (More on that later.) Here, it appears Strange is using his magic to educate Peter on the multiverse. Similar to how the Ancient One illustrated it to Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) in Avengers: Endgame, Strange could be showing how timelines can branch off and form new realities.

16 of 22

Bad Spidey!

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Doctor Strange and Tom Holland stars as Spider-Man/Peter Parker in Columbia Pictures' SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME. — Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Holland in 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'. Courtesy of Sony Pictures

Peter must have taken something that didn't belong to him. He's seen here holding some kind of mystic artifact, the kind that litter Strange's Sanctum. As the Ancient One did to Strange and Hulk in the past when they got too unruly, the Sorcerer Supreme pushes Peter's astral form out of his body. "The problem is you trying to live two different lives," Strange says. "The longer you do it, the more dangerous it becomes." Maybe this artifact is something Pete thought could help him in that regard.

17 of 22

Iron Spidey

Spider-Man from Columbia Pictures' SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME. — 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' continues box office reign. Courtesy of Sony Pictures

New Spidey suits have been hinted for Peter in No Way Home, but here's an oldie: Pete's threads he got from Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.).

18 of 22

Happy

Jon Favreau Spider-Man: No Way Home — Jon Favreau in 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'. Sony Pictures

Jon Favreau's Happy Hogan looks on in fear as authorities close in on a target. Is that target Peter?

19 of 22

Leaping lizards!

Now, this one is a little difficult to see, and maybe we're totally far off, but this scene might be teasing another Spider-Man villain. Could this be the Lizard? The character featured in Webb's first Amazing Spider-Man movie, but the origin story was changed a bit more to have a more direct connection to Garfield's Peter. We (think we) see him here burning a hole in a wall to surprise Holland's Pete.

20 of 22

Sandstorm

More lightning being hurled at Spidey again points to Electro, but could we also be seeing hints at the comic book baddie Sandman? Either that or the electricity is just kicking up a lot of sand. Let's go with the former theory for now. This would mean another character from a previous non-MCU Spider-Man movie would be appearing in No Way Home. Thomas Haden Church played Sandman in Raimi's Spider-Man 3.

21 of 22

Green with envy

The most exciting Easter egg is actually shaped like an egg. In the final moments of the trailer, a pumpkin bomb rolls its way onto the highway near the George Washington Bridge before exploding. Only one character who hurls pumpkin bombs comes to mind: Green Goblin. It's unclear at this point whether the villain will be played by Willem Dafoe, who portrayed him in the Raimi movies, or if another familiar face will be taking the role. Our money is on Dafoe because, shortly after this moment, we see...

22 of 22

Doc Ock

Alfred Molina Spider-Man: No Way Home — Alfred Molina in 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'. Sony Pictures

... Doctor Otto Octavius. The worst kept No Way Home secret is that Alfred Molina will return as Doc Ock, his character in Raimi's Spider-Man 2 — mainly because Molina himself confirmed it. But if this scene features Raimi's villain, it lends juice to the theory that another of the director's villains, Dafoe's Green Goblin, would join him. Now, let's count how many alternate dimension villains we have so far: Electro, Sandman (unconfirmed), Lizard (unconfirmed), Green Goblin, Doc Ock. That's five. All we need is one more and we would get the Sinister Six, a team of Spider-Man's most famous adversaries from the comics.

Spider-Man: No Way Home will open in theaters this Dec. 17.

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