Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s second trailer has caused a lot of buzz. It confirmed that Doctor Octopus, Electro, and Green Goblin are being joined by Sandman and Lizard, and also revealed that some of the supervillains may have changed their evil ways. Sadly, one aspect that wasn’t directly addressed was whether Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield will be swinging their way into the movie.
But while we don’t have actual footage of them, there’s mounting evidence that they’re in the movie. One of the late scenes shows Holland’s Spidey battling Electro, Sandman, and Lizard simultaneously. That’s a lot to take on for one web-swinger, though eagle-eyed fans soon spotted that the villains appeared to be reacting to invisible presences.
These are almost certainly Maguire and Garfield’s Spider-Men, who’ve likely been digitally edited out of the shot. It’s difficult to imagine they thought they could slip this one by fans, but there are rumors of late disputes between Sony and Marvel’s marketing teams.
Gossip online is that Sony wants to capitalize on the massive hype for past Spideys by showing them off in the trailer, while Marvel Studios wants to preserve the surprise for the final film. This seems quite plausible, given that the relatively crude nature of the edit may indicate this was a last-minute alteration.
Then again, if a trailer was to make this reveal, they’d do it with a bit more drama than simply showing them in an action scene. Whatever the case, I think most skeptics should reconsider their position. Sure those leaked images could be fan edits, but something is clearly being kept hidden in this trailer and I can’t imagine what else it could be.
Whatever Marvel and Sony want, I’m sure we’ll have some kind of confirmation on Maguire and Garfield soon as the merchandise and marketing campaigns kick into high gear.
Spider-Man: No Way Home hits theaters on December 17.
