Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer – 5 things you may have missed

A screenshot from the second Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer
(Image credit: Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios)

After what feels like an eternity, the second Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer has dropped online. The next MCU movie arrives in theaters in a month's time and, given the number of leaks and rumors surrounding it, fans' expectation levels were through the roof ahead of the trailer's release.

Disappointingly for some diehard fans, No Way Home's latest trailer didn't deliver everything that they'd hoped to see. But, there are some surprises within the three-minute long trailer that you might have missed on your first (or 10th) viewing.

If you're wondering what you could have overlooked in Spider-Man: No Way Home's second trailer, allow us to help. Below, you'll find five things you may have missed, including a couple of very tasty teasers – if we don't say ourselves.

Beware, though, dear reader: we're about to dive into potentially big spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home. If you'd prefer to go into the film with no prior knowledge of anything outside of what's been shown, don't read past the bullet point below.

1. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are in the trailer

Spider-Man attacks Sandman, Electro and Lizard in Spider-Man: No Way Home's second trailer

(Image credit: Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios)

Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way first: Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Men are in No Way Home's second trailer.

A seemingly infinite number of rumors and leaks, regarding their appearances in Spider-Man: No Way Home, have circulated online for months at this point. Garfield and current Spider-Man star Tom Holland have continuously denied that Maguire and Garfield are part of its cast, but numerous leaks have proved otherwise.

So why didn't Sony and Marvel just bite the bullet and include them in this teaser? Well, technically, they have – we just can't see them.

To see the duo in action, we need to visit Sony Pictures' Brazilian language social media channels. The prospect of Maguire and Garfield's inclusion is only visible in this version of the trailer for some reason. You won't see anything similar play out in the US, UK or even Indian trailer cuts.

Anyway, we digress. Skip to the 0:53 mark in the video, via the tweet, below and you'll notice something that's very interesting:

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Did you notice that the Lizard gets smacked in the face by an invisible force? There's nobody near him, so why does it look like he gets punched?

The answer is simple: he's been attacked by Maguire or Garfield's Spider-Man. Sony and Marvel have previous form for removing characters from their trailers. And, in Marvel's case, they even faked us out by including a scene in Avengers: Infinity War's trailer that wasn't even in the final cut of the movie.

So we wouldn't be surprised if Sony and Marvel have removed Maguire and Garfield from this scene for the trailer. Clearly, it's set up to look like Holland's webslinger is taking on three villains, but we're not buying it. We think it's a three-on-three situation, with the three Spider-Men teaming up to tackle Electro, Sandman and Lizard together. Otherwise, Lizard's movements in the tweet above are very silly and extremely unnatural.

That's a prospect that's given greater weight, too, with a leaked image from the film that shows all three Spider-Men standing closely on some scaffolding – yep, the very same scaffolding where this fight takes place.

2. Does Doc Ock get hold of some Stark tech?

Doc Ock examines his tentacles in Spider-Man: No Way Home's second trailer

(Image credit: Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios)

A curious addition to Doc Ock's updated look is that his tentacles have had some dark red coloring added to them. This is different from the original Sam Raimi version of the character, whose robotic arms were a silver metallic hue instead.

Of course, this could just be a new look for Doc Ock, which Marvel may have wanted to use to differentiate him from the original Spider-Man trilogy. But is it possible that Doc Ock has actually got a hold of some Stark tech at some point in the movie?

That appears to be the case during his first confrontation with Tom Holland's Spider-Man. It seems that, when he first appears, Doc Ock has the same robotic arms that he has in 2004's Spider-Man 2. However, after he pins the wallcrawler to a concrete bridge pillar later in the trailer, his tentacles have turned red. Why?

Well, the answer appears to be a simple one: he gets hold of Tony Stark's nanotechnology, which is present in Spidey's Iron-Spider suit. We see him looking confused at later in the trailer, too, as the red hue spreads across his robotic arms.

It's possible that Doc Ock will use this to his advantage in No Way Home. But, we suspect that it'll be Peter's way of helping Strange to imprison him later in the film. When Doc Ock is imprisoned, we see his tentacles are locked shut, rather than being open as they usually are. This may be part of a spell that Strange has cast, but we're guessing it has something to do with an auto-defence mechanism in Stark's nanotechnology, which shuts down any machinery that it hasn't been granted access to.

Either way, Doc Ock will get some Stark tech in No Way Home – just not in the way we think.

3. Captain America looms large over New York City

Captain America's giant shield destroying some scaffolding in Spider-Man: No Way Home

(Image credit: Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios)

With so much going on in the trailer, you might have missed a cool nod to another former Avenger.

In one of the film's wide shots, we see that the Statue of Liberty is being reworked into a Captain America monument, with a giant version of the superhero's iconic shield taking center stage. This is the huge object that slams through the scaffolding as the trailer progresses, and leads to Zendaya's MJ falling in the trailer's closing moments. Here, Holland's Spider-Man tries to rescue her – and, in another throwback, it's very reminiscent of Maguire and Garfield's Spider-Men trying to save MJ and Gwen Stacey in their respective universes.

Some more time may have passed since the Avengers stopped Thanos and his minions in Endgame, but their sacrifice is still plain to see across New York City – as this Captain America monument attests to.

Online rumors have suggested that the shield is part of Green Goblin's plan to stop Strange from sending the villains back to their respective universes. But we'll see what happens when the film drops next month.

4. Will Sandman and Doc Ock swap sides?

Doc Ock falling from a building in Spider-Man: No Way Home

(Image credit: Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios)

Another interesting thing we picked up on is that Sandman and Doc Ock could change sides as the film progresses.

As we see in the trailer, Doc Ock realizes that Holland's webslinger isn't the Peter Parker he knows. He's also pretty reserved when he talks to Peter, MJ and Ned while he's imprisoned later. Is he originally out for revenge on Maguire's Spider-Man before he learns what's at stake – not just this universe or the Raimi universe, but every universe? 

If so, Doc Ock might end up helping the good guys to rectify their mistakes. He's a very clever guy, after all, so his ideas could help Strange and Spider-Man try to reverse the multiverse's effects. Doc Ock was torn between being good and evil in 2004's Spider-Man 2, but eventually turned good to save New York. A similar thing could happen here, too, as we see one of Electro's blasts knocking Doc Ock off a building around the 2:00 minute mark.

Which brings us onto Sandman. In 2007's Spider-Man 3, Sandman is a villain who is eventually forgiven by Maguire's Spider-Man for his role in Uncle Ben's death. He's another tormented villain, then, who arguably becomes a good guy by the film's end, despite him battling the wallcrawler in the movie's final showdown.

Interestingly, it seems that Sandman is a good guy when No Way Home begins. As in the first trailer, we see him stop Electro from attacking Holland's Spider-Man, so it seems that he's initially trying to protect him. 

However, we suspect that Sandman, like Doc Ock, learns that this Peter Parker isn't Maguire's version. And, if he finds out that Spider-Man and Strange are trying to send each villain back to their original universe (where they're killed by Spider-Man, no less) he might turn evil and help Electro and company to thwart the good guys' plans.

In that sense, then, Doc Ock and Sandman may end up swapping sides and helping the good and bad guys respectively.

5. Who is Doctor Strange talking about at the end?

The multiverse arrives in Spider-Man: No Way Home's second trailer

(Image credit: Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios)

The very last scene in the trailer sees the multiverse fully breaking through into the MCU. Holland's Spider-Man asks Doctor Strange what's going on, and he replies: "They're starting to break through... and there's nothing I can do to stop it."

So who is he talking about? The smart money is on Maguire and Garfield's Spider-Man who, despite Strange's pained voice, will actually help to save the day.

But what about some other secret characters also bleeding over into the MCU? As Venom: Let There Be Carnage's post-credits scene teased, the antihero could also be brought into the MCU as part of the multiverse's effect. Could he have a brief cameo in proceedings? It's possible.

And what about Morbius, another antihero whose own solo movie is coming out in January 2022? Or even Kraven the Hunter, who is also getting a standalone film and will be portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson? Both of these are unlikely, but it would be interesting if they're teased in some guise.

Finally, could we even see Mile Morales (or any of the other Spider-Men characters) from Sony's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse animated flick? Again, it's highly unlikely. No Way Home is already packed with enough characters as it is, so including more would be overkill. Still, seeing an animated Miles Morales go head-to-head with a live-action Spider-Man villain would be ridiculously fun, even if it would be outlandish.

Spider-Man: No Way Home arrives exclusively in theaters on December 15 in the UK, and December 17 worldwide.

Senior Entertainment Reporter

As TechRadar's senior entertainment reporter, Tom covers all of the latest movies, TV shows, and streaming service news that you need to know about. You'll regularly find him writing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, and many other topics of interest.


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