Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s second trailer 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. But Marvel fans still have blue balls, as it didn’t reveal whether Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are swinging their way into the movie.
However, while we don’t have actual footage of them, most have now concluded they’re in the movie. One of the trailer scenes shows Holland’s Spidey simultaneously battling Electro, Sandman, and Lizard at the Statue of Liberty. That’s a lot to take on for one web-swinger and eagle-eyed fans soon spotted that the villains appeared to be reacting to invisible presences.
Everyone’s first assumption was that these are Maguire and Garfield, though a competing theory says we might all be mistaken. After all, we have Kevin Feige warning audiences not to get their hopes too high, no comment from previous actors, and those ‘leaked’ shots could have been faked. So, if they’re not other Spideys, could the edited-out characters actually be Tom Hardy’s Venom and Jared Leto’s Morbius?
This isn’t as unlikely as it might sound. The post-credits scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage showed that Venom has made the leap to the MCU, and we’ve seen Morbius running past a Spider-Man poster and meeting with Micheal Keaton’s Vulture. All that means their MCU status may have been established in advance, cueing them up for their appearances here.
I think it’s in the realm of possibility, though it’s still far more likely the missing combatants are the previous two Spider-Men. After all, Morbius won’t even have released by the time No Way Home hits theaters, and cramming a Venom arc into this movie seems like a stretch.
Even so, it’s extremely likely that one or both of these Sony characters will indeed pop up or be referenced, so keep an eye on leaks for more.
Spider-Man: No Way Home hits theaters on December 17.
