Spider-Man: No Way Home Trailer Drops, and I Have Thoughts
This Tuesday, Marvel and Sony released the trailer for the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home. The first teaser trailer they released back in August has amassed nearly 26 million views on Marvel's YouTube page, and this official trailer has reached about 12 million views within 24 hours. And those numbers don't even include all the other channels that are hosting a version of the trailer. It is safe to say that the hype is real in regard to this movie. If you haven't seen it yet, or need more of it, you can watch it below.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is Tom Holland's third solo Spider-Man movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and is bring back many familiar faces from previous incarnations of the character. In the trailer, we see villains such as Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Sandman from the Tobey Maguire/Sam Raimi trilogy, which started in 2002, and Electro and the Lizard from Andrew Garfield/Marc Webb series, which started in 2012. In the trailer, we learn that Peter Parker enlists the help of Benedict Cumberbatch's Dr. Strange after the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home. When a spell to erase the world's memory that Peter Parker is Spider-Man goes awry, the multiverse opens up, allowing the aforementioned villains to appear. Rumors have been circling that Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield may make appearances, or at least, fans are hoping to see them appear. No official information about any cameos from either previous Spider-Man has been released.
Before I give my thoughts on the trailer, I have to say that I am one of the many super fans out there who have been greatly anticipating this movie. I was on the phone with friends Tuesday night geeking out over the trailer, and we were going back and forth on our thoughts and theories. Growing up, I had a Spider-Man backpack that I carried around everywhere containing toys and drawing utensils. The top three comic books I read as a kid were Superman comics, Fantastic Four comics, and you guessed it, Spider-Man comics. The Sam Raimi Trilogy introduced a generation of fans to the character and brought him to life in a way that no movie had done for a superhero at that point. That trilogy helped lay down the groundwork for the modern superhero movie, especially the MCU. Spider-Man is a beloved character for many reasons: he received his powers as a teenager and has since needed to balance having incredible abilities with having a regular life. Spider-Man is just a normal kid doing the best he can with what he was given. Many people can relate to Peter Parker, and put themselves in his shoes easily when reading comics or watching him on the big screen. He is human. Spider-Man inspires children to make the most of their talents, shows the struggles of living up to expectations, and reminds us that "with great power, comes great responsibility."
I've watched this trailer at least a dozen times now, and I am blown away. I love the emotional intensity that this trailer brings. You can feel the stakes amped up to a new level for the character, and the concept is so ambitious for the franchise. One thing that I noticed was that it looked like certain clips of audio and dialogue didn't belong to some of the scenes we were shown. For instance, when Spider-Man says, "there must be another way," it cuts to Dr. Strange for a split second saying, "there isn't." It's a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, but it does not look like that is what Strange is actually saying at that moment. They also cut a number of clips of Parker and Strange in what seems to be the Sanctum Santorum. The way that it is edited suggests that it wants us to think it is all from one scene, but pay attention to Peter Parker's clothes- they change. More in regards to dialog, a line from Dr. Strange that stood out to me was when he said that all the villains met their end against Spider-Man at some point, which I find interesting because Sandman and the Lizard both survive in their respective movies. That begs us to ask if these will be the exact versions of those characters we have already seen or not. Another thing I noticed was that when Spider-Man charges at Electro, Sandman, and the Lizard, it looks like the Lizard recoils at something; however, it doesn't look like anything hit him. Perhaps something was edited out?
I feel like New Rockstars right now with how I'm breaking down the trailer. It wouldn't be the first time that Marvel has purposefully edited their trailers in a way where they are misleading. For instance, the latest Eternals trailer included lines of dialog that never made it into the final film. That, and for Infinity War and Endgame, they edited characters in and out of scenes so that fans did not have a clear idea of who would be where when. Even the number of Infinity Stones on Thanos's Gauntlet in those films' trailers differed from the final films. Marvel likes to keep fans guessing, and people will have much to talk about between now and December 17th with Spider-Man: No Way Home hits movie theatres.