Numerous villains from past Spider-Man movies appear in the second trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home, but where in the timelines of their respective franchises are they entering the film from? No Way Home's Multiverse-based plot involves Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) casting a spell to erase the identity of Spider-Man (Tom Holland) from the world after the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home. Unfortunately, the spell goes awry, causing multiple villains from throughout the Multiverse to arrive.

The villains who will appear include the Tobey Maguire Spidey villains Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), and the Sandman (played in Spider-Man 3 by Thomas Haden Church). Meanwhile, The Lizard (Rhys Ifans) and Electro (Jamie Foxx) are jumping over from the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man films. However, their appearances raise some questions about the timeframes from which they have been extracted.

RELATED: Spider-Man: No Way Home Is Missing Its Perfect Release Date

Norman Osborn, Dr. Otto Octavius, and Max Dillon all died in their Spider-Man movies. Of course, resurrection through sci-fi gimmicks is hardly a hurdle in superhero movies, so it's possible that the deceased villains have been brought back somehow, the ending of the Multiverse-opening ending of Loki possibly playing a role. At the same time, there's also the question of their returns specifically as antagonists.

Doc Ock looks confused as his tentacles appear beside him in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Doc Ock, Sandman, and the Lizard all reformed themselves and made peace with their Spider-Men in different ways. Even Osborn was fighting to wrestle control of his mind back from the Green Goblin persona in his final moments. The fact that several reformed Spider-Man villains are returning as villains at all in No Way Home might be one of the biggest questions about the movie, but there are a few possibilities for why that is.

One explanation could be that there might be some time-bending elements in play in No Way Home, with the villains each being plucked from specific points in their universe's timelines before the endings seen in their last appearances. Of course, with villains like the glider-riding Green Goblin being in operation before Doc Ock and Sandman even began, that makes it a bit wonky as to how the theoretical time-travel aspect of No Way Home might be working. There's also the possibility that the villains might each be picking up from where audiences last saw them.

If so, that goes back to the question of why the previously reformed villains are now acting as enemies of Spidey once more. However, there might also have been some unseen battles between Maguire and Garfield's Spider-Men and their villains that audiences haven't been shown between movies, which could hypothetically have returned even the reformed villains back to being enemies of their Spider-Men once more. Spider-Man: No Way Home raises a lot of questions about the roles of Maguire and Garfield's villains, (not to mention appearances by Maguire and Garfield themselves) and until the movie hits theaters, all fans can do is theorize about where the villains are entering the picture from.

NEXT: Who Is Doctor Strange Warning About At The End Of The No Way Home Trailer

Key Release Dates