The official Spider-Man: No Way Home poster doesn't show Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield, but it has good reasons not to. Audiences are waiting with bated breath for the web-slinger's next adventure, which is set to spin its way into theaters just in time for the holidays on December 17, 2021. It's also set to be a very different Spider-Man movie than Tom Holland's previous installments in the MCU, with the newly established multiverse coming into play in a major way.

The movie's new poster gives audiences a tease of Marvel's upcoming multiverse story, showing both minor and more upfront looks at villains from past Spider-Man movies outside of the MCU, including Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin, Jamie Foxx's Electro, and Alfred Molina's incomparable take on Doc Ock, which had already been revealed in No Way Home's first trailer. Despite this, the movie's most anticipated reveals still remain unseen—namely, the two Peter Parkers portrayed by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

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Many are currently treating Maguire and Garfield's presence in the film as a certainty, but despite fervent rumors of the two appearing, they've yet to be featured in No Way Home's marketing at all. Still, it's easy enough to see that the main reason for this is Marvel Studios attempting to keep the focus on Tom Holland, as he prepares for the final entry in his trilogy of Homecoming films. However undeniably exciting it would be to see Maguire, Garfield, and Holland's Spider-Men teaming up on-screen together, at the end of the day the original Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man actors will still need to be supporting roles in what is first and foremost a Tom Holland movie.

Doc Ock gets an Iron Man upgrade in Spider-Man No Way Home

 

If Maguire and Garfield were to be heavily shown in No Way Home's marketing, it would almost certainly take the attention away from the young MCU star, who has earned his spotlight after gripping performances throughout the franchise. Omitting the throwback heroes from the movie's official poster reinforces that while No Way Home will have many non-MCU elements on-board, it's still ultimately about Holland and his particular story as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. It also goes a long way towards reasonably setting expectations for what Maguire and Garfield will actually do in the movie.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has commented on fans keeping their expectations of No Way Home's multiverse-enhanced and possibly Sinister Six-establishing story in check, and this can and should be applied directly toward Maguire and Garfield. Assuming that the rumors of their appearances aren't a gigantic case of misdirection—their respective villains appearing in No Way Home anecdotally hints to them coming along, too—Maguire and Garfield aren't likely to be in the film to the same extent as a character like Bruce Banner's Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok. Their Spider-Men appearing next to Holland's is the kind of thing to be cashed in as a third act twist, joining forces against the many villains of the multiverse.

Maguire and Garfield are very unlikely to be in the Spider-Man movie to a similar extent as Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), but as more of a crowd-pleasing payoff. All of these reasons explain their absence from the Spider-Man: No Way Home poster. At the movie's core, Tom Holland's Spider-Man is still the star, and both Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield should simply be swinging in to lend a hand as a pair of Friendly Multiverse Spider-Men.

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