Fans are picking apart every frame of Spider-Man: No Way Home’s trailer, trying to work out what is in store for their favorite hero and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. One of the most talked-about parts of the trailer is a mysterious object that Doctor Strange and Peter Parker are seen fighting over.Â
One fan went into Reddit’s Marvel Studios subreddit with a theory about what this box could be. The user T00s00 posted that they think the item is the “Siege Perilous or a holding box case for it.”
This item has a long and fascinating history in the Marvel universe. It first appeared in Mighty World of Marvel (Volume 2) #13 in 1984. This object was gifted to the X-Men by Roma, the Omniversal Guardian, and the daughter of legendary wizard Merlyn. She gave it to the X-Men as a reward after they defeated the Adversary.
When activated, the Siege Perilous opens a portal. And, when someone steps through this portal, they get a new chance at life, with a new career, home, and relationships. Sometimes using this object would remove the user’s memories of their old life. However, this wasn’t guaranteed, and the process of stepping through the portal often caused unpredictable transformations as the person was changed to fit the new life they were entering.
T00s00 says that they “think that Doctor strange uses this to give peter a second chance, but it somehow messes things up causing the multiverse shenanigans.” This would perfectly explain why Peter and Strange are fighting over the box and why villains from other worlds are besieging the MCU.
In fact, this wouldn’t be the first time a person with the Spider-Man mantle has used the Siege Perilous. Across Marvel history, 7 different Spider-People have used it, including Kid Arachnid from Earth-TRN457, Spyder-Knight from Earth-TRN458, and Spider-Girl from Earth-TRN454, so there is precedent for this theory.
One of the most fascinating things pointed out by T00s00 is that, because the Siege Perilous is originally an item from the X-Men comics, “it could also maybe help set up the mutants going forward, but that I’m a lot less sure about.”
We’ll have to wait and see what the box actually is and what link it has to the multiversal crisis and what role it plays in Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s story. However, it would be fantastic to see this legendary item appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But, until the film comes out on December 17, we’ll have to settle for fan theories and speculation.
