Spider-Man: No Way Home is a major event in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it brought together the three big-screen Spider-Men as well as the biggest villains from their movies, but with so many bad guys in just one movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home inevitably failed two of them. The multiverse is the concept to explore in the MCU’s Phase 4, and while Loki had already shown some of the dangers of it and the chaos it can cause, Spider-Man: No Way Home went deeper into it, connecting to past Spider-Man movies and making the Spider-verse canon.

Spider-Man: No Way Home picks up minutes after the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, following the reveal of Spider-Man’s (Tom Holland) identity by Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) and the hero being framed for this villain’s murder. As having his biggest secret exposed was affecting those he loves, Peter asked Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help to keep them safe, and the Sorcerer agreed to cast a spell that would make everyone forget Peter is Spider-Man. However, the spell was botched, and instead, it opened the gates to the multiverse, allowing villains from past Spider-Man movies to cross over to the MCU, as well as the other Spider-Men (Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield).

Related: Why Maguire & Garfield’s Spider-Man Universes Never Had Avengers

The villains that ended up confronting Holland’s Spider-Man in No Way Home were the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), Lizard (Rhys Ifans), and Electro (Jamie Foxx), and they all got a satisfying ending as Peter’s plan of curing them of their respective conditions worked, and so they were sent back to their timelines as they were before their villainous transformations. Of course, some of these villains had more screen-time and relevance in the story than others, and with so many antagonists it was inevitable that some would be left behind, and in this case, it happened to Lizard and Sandman.

Spider-Man fighting the three villains in Spider-Man: No Way Home

Flint Marko/Sandman was one of too many villains in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, and he was a criminal who escaped prison to visit his sick daughter. While fleeing from the police, Marko fell into an experimental particle accelerator that fused his body with the surrounding sand, giving him the ability to control sand and reform his body with it. Marko turned out to be the one responsible for Uncle Ben’s death, but after explaining to Peter that it was an accident, Peter forgave him and allowed him to escape. Marko didn’t have anything to solve anymore with Spider-Man, so his role in No Way Home was only to give him closure by curing him. Dr. Curt Connors/Lizard was the antagonist in The Amazing Spider-Man, and he transformed into Lizard thanks to a serum that regenerated his missing arm but also made him feral, and his Lizard side eventually took over him. He was cured by Peter by the end of The Amazing Spider-Man, but midway through the events of that movie he was brought to the MCU.

Just like Marko, Connors didn’t have much to solve with Peter and he had been cured before, so it was just a matter of doing it again. It was expected and completely understandable that some villains were going to be left aside in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and given Sandman and Lizard’s roles in their respective movies, it makes sense that they got the smallest roles, but they were also given closure and were sent back to their respective universes with a new chance to make things right.

Next: Why Lizard Was Secretly No Way Home's Most Complex Spider-Man Villain

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