Spider-Man: No Way Home is an anticipated upcoming superhero movie setting up Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The trailers that were released revealed a variety of different plot points, characters, and important information as to what Phase 4 will ultimately be about. This new information is leading to multiple theories regarding this movie, and arguably, one of the most important and controversial theories is whether or not there will be three Spider-Men in this movie.

Over the past two decades, there have been three actors who played the role of spiderman in different Spider-Man movie universes: Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland. Tobey Maguire played Spiderman in Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3; all these movies were directed by Sam Raimi and were released between 2002, 2004, and 2007. Andrew Garfield played Spiderman in The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 which were directed by Marc Webb and were released in 2012 and 2014. Tom Holland played Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home; these movies take place in the MCU, are directed by Jon Watts, and take place in 2017, 2019, and 2021. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s version of Spider-Man is not officially part of the MCU, but many people are speculating that they will be because a big plot point of Phase 4 of the MCU and Spider-Man: No Way Home is that the Marvel multiverse will be opened up causing characters from other Marvel projects to come into the MCU movies.

A multiverse is “the collection of alternate universes which share a universal hierarchy” (marvel.fandom.com). In prior MCU projects, Marvel hints at breaking or opening the multiverse through Wanda becoming the Scarlet Witch and searching for her children through the multiverse in Wandavision and Sylvie killing He Who Remains in Loki. In addition, the trailers for Spider-Man: No Way Home reveal that a major part of the movie is when Dr. Strange casts a spell that tries to make people forget that Spider-Man is Peter Parker, but the spell backfires and causes villains from all three Spider-man universes to appear, such as Doctor Octopus, Electro, and the Green Goblin. 

As well as the opening of the multiverse, there are many other reasons fans believe there will be multiple Spider-Men in the movie. They think that if the villains from the other Spider-Man movies are going to be in Spider-Man: No Way Home, fans believe that it is likely that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield will reprise their roles in this upcoming movie as well. Also, in the trailers, fans are “suggesting that they saw two Spider-Men during the sandman” part of the trailer (insidethemagic.net).  Additionally, a leaked video was released that seems to show both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield on the set of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Whether this video is real or fake is controversial, as in “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Andrew Garfield says it’s a fake video. In the same interview, Garfield debunks the rumors that he is in the new movie claiming that he “had no idea” that he was in the movie. 

Fans are up in the air about whether or not there will be three spidermen in the movie. Many fans believe there are not going to be three Spider-Men because of the claims by Garfield as well as a YouTube video entitled “How I trolled the entire Internet-Andrew Garfield Deepfake” by Alex Cerrato which explains how he alleges to have deep fakes the viral leaked video. However, other fans think there are going to be three Spider-Men due to videos like “SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME ANDREW GARFIELD SET VIDEO IS REAL!! Explained.” by Captainstring which explains how it would not be possible to deep fake that video and “Andrew Garfield Caught Lying Badly about Spider-Man No Way Home Cameo” by Popcorned Planet which discusses how Garfield lies in interviews about being in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Dhamar Hernandez (12) believes that “there will be three Spider-Men in the new movie because they want to please the audience.”

Even if there are not going to be three Spider-Men in this upcoming movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home is slated to be one of the most entertaining and most-watched Marvel Movies. With an exciting cast, interesting characters, and a seemingly entertaining story, Spider-Man: No Way Home is a must-watch for Marvel, superhero, and film fans. Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to release on December 17, 2021.