This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home
The interactions between Maguire, Garfield, and Holland in Spider-Man: No Way Home were the highlight of the movie. One of their best moments came towards the end, where the three were struggling to work as a team. Holland chimes in and says “I don’t want to brag, but I will: I was in the Avengers”, only to be met with blank stares from the other two.
Maguire has no idea who the Avengers are, and Garfield wonders if they were a band. This is a fun reference to the fact that Maguire and Garfield were (as far as we know) the only superheroes in their respective universes, with only Holland’s existing in the wider context of the MCU. But since then, fans have been wondering if there could have been a Raimiverse Avengers.
The only concrete evidence of other Raimiverse heroes comes in a throwaway line in Spider-Man 2 when Jameson is trying to name Doc Ock. His assistant suggests Doctor Strange, though Jameson reminds him that it’s taken. That implies that at least he exists in some form, but what about the other heroes?
Well, going by the MCU timeline, most of them won’t be in action by the time of Spider-Man 3. Steve Rogers is still frozen in ice, Thor hasn’t arrived on Earth, Bruce Banner won’t have become the Hulk, and Tony Stark would be just another arrogant billionaire. Versions of Black Widow and Hawkeye should be around, though their black ops work would mean they keep a very low profile.
The hitch in this theory is that the No Way Home Maguire has obviously aged in real-time, so if it’s 2024 in the Raimiverse you’d expect him to know the other heroes and have interacted with them.
So perhaps the smartest conclusion is the most obvious one – the Avengers just don’t exist in the Raimiverse.
