Three pieces of evidence that suggest that Doctor Strange's Spider-Man: No Way Home spell, intended to wipe the universe of any memory of Peter Parker, may have had some unintended consequences.
POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW Spider-Man: No Way Home, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Morbius
Remember that spell that Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) casted at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home that meant everyone in the world forgot who Peter Parker was, and at the same time sent all the other-worldly villains who had snuck their way into the MCU back to their respective universes? It worked, right? Everyone went back to where they came from, and nobody remembers Peter, as Strange had warned. But what if Stephen actually casted the spell incorrectly? Here's the evidence to suggest that this is the case, and what this could mean for the future of Tom Holland's Peter Parker and his friends.
1) Mj’s Moment of Déjà VU
Once the dust had settled on the events of that fateful day on the Statue of Liberty, Peter (Tom Holland) planned to try to help former girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and former best friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) remember who he was. When he visits the coffee shop where MJ works, he finds both her and Ned in there, chatting about their future at MIT. Neither of them instantly recognize Peter, but when he does order himself a coffee, there are multiple subtle instances of MJ questioning herself over whether she knows who this person is. Their conversation is awkward and uncomfortable, with Peter not being sure what to say or do, and MJ being confused by his odd behavior, but at the same time wondering how and why she may know him.
Unfortunately, no breakthrough is made, and Peter leaves the shop accepting his not only his fate, but his responsibility to let his former friends continue with their lives and their futures without him.
However, as detailed by the official No Way Home script, which released in early 2022, MJ apparently has a 'flicker of déjà vu on her face' and as Peter leaves, she watches on with 'a lingering sense of recognition?'. These are both clear indicators that there is a part of Michelle who recognized Peter, but she didn't work it out in time before he left the shop. No doubt it would have been something she brought up with Ned soon after Peter left to try and get to the bottom of the mystery. Maybe she'll just shrug it off, but she'll always remember it as an unsolved mystery. That is, until, her and Peter are reunited in a future Spidey movie.
Either way, this shows that Doctor Strange's spell didn't work as fully intended...
2) The Symbiote
In the post-credits scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, we saw Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) being transported from Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), as a result of Doctor Strange's first spell in No Way Home (yes, more than one spell went wrong during the course of the movie - he really needs to work on his magic skills). As we know, the first spell was responsible for bringing the multiversal villains, along with Peter 2 (Tobey Maguire) and Peter 3 (Andrew Garfield) into the MCU. In the post-credits scene of No Way Home, we see Eddie again, this time in a bar getting drunk with his ol' friend Venom. Following Strange's final spell in the movie, Eddie is sent BACK to his home universe, the same way we saw Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Sandman, Electro and Lizard being sent back to their worlds.
In theory, this should mean that all of Eddie's Venom symbiote should follow him back home as well, so there is no multiversal energy left in the MCU. Whilst most of Venom does indeed go back to the SSU, there is a small drop of the symbiote that is left behind in the MCU. This definitely means that Strange's spell was only part-complete when he stopped casting it, as it has allowed for some multiversal material to be left behind.
This could have some big implications for our Peter Parker - perhaps the symbiote latches onto him during one of the future Spider-Man movies, and this then feeds into the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars, seeing as though Peter donned the symbiote suit in this particular comic book run in 1984-85.
3) Adrian Toomes Meets Michael Morbius
In the post-credits scene of Morbius, we saw Adrian Toomes/The Vulture (Michael Keaton) being transported to Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU). We also saw the familiar purple cracks in the sky that are resonant with the final act of No Way Home. Going by everything we had learnt about the multiverse from No Way Home, there was almost no explanation as to why this had happened. Toomes finds Michael Morbius (Jared Leto), where he informs him of his wish to put a team of villains together to tackle Spider-Man, as he believes Spidey has something to do with why he has wound up in a different universe.
This should be impossible given the theory behind Doctor Strange's final spell. The spell was cast for the purpose of sending all individuals who had accidentally entered the MCU back to where they came from. Toomes leaving the MCU and entering the SSU does not fall into this rule whatsoever.
The only logical explanation at this stage is that it is the result of another defect in how Strange casted his spell - another unintended side-effect. Perhaps he accidentally caused some MCU citizens (i.e. Adrian Toomes) to leave the MCU, instead of just those who were from other universes (i.e. Green Goblin, Doc Ock, etc.).
The multiverse is a very complicated concept, and it's set to get even more complicated with upcoming projects like Loki (Season 2), Deadpool 3, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.
What do you think about Strange's spell at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home? Is there hope for Peter, MJ and Ned in the future? Will Peter get the iconic Symbiote suit? Will that baffling Morbius scene ever be explained? Tom Holland has another trilogy of Spidey films on the way, which will take a deep dive into life post-No Way Home for our hero, and how he continues his journey without his friends by his side, and with the world not even knowing who he is.
The Untitled Spider-Man 4 is currently set for release in either late 2024 or sometime in 2025, with Tom Holland confirmed to be reprising his role.
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