Warning! SPOILERS for Spider-Man: No Way Home
Doctor Strange's spell from Spider-Man: No Way Home's ending removes memories of Peter Parker from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and here's how that changes the MCU's past and timeline. One of the biggest questions audiences had after Spider-Man: Far From Home was how Marvel would address Mysterio revealing that Peter Parker is Spider-Man to the public. Spider-Man: No Way Home had the answer, as Tom Holland's Spider-Man sought out Doctor Strange's help to magically make people forget. But when Peter began trying to change the spell, it broke the multiverse and brought people to the MCU who also knew Spider-Man's secret identity, having huge ramifications for the entirety of the franchise.
Much of Spider-Man: No Way Home revolves around Peter Parker trying to help the multiverse villains that are now after him. He wants to cure them so they can avoid dying when they return to their original universe. However, Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin leads a revolt against this plan and unites the villains against Peter in the end. While Holland is aided by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Men, the fate of the multiverse ultimately rests on his shoulders. Peter decides to have Doctor Strange erase all memories of himself, as no one knowing who he is would stop people from other universes from coming to the MCU.
Spider-Man: No Way Home's ending primarily focuses on how this decision specifically affects Peter Parker's life. He is shown finding MJ and Ned again, but they have no memory of who he is, and a chance encounter with Happy Hogan solidifies that people don't remember Peter. After the Statue of Liberty incident, J. Jonah Jameson is even shown to proclaim that Spider-Man needs to reveal his identity to the public. However, there are questions about how exactly that works, especially since many characters' memories of and relationship to Spider-Man are tied to also knowing Peter is the one underneath the mask.
How Doctor Strange's Spell Changes Memories
Despite being such a significant decision for Peter Parker's life and MCU future, the Spider-Man: No Way Home ending doesn't really address how Doctor Strange's spell works when it comes to changing memories. Spider-Man is still known as a hero, and his involvement in fighting threats at the new Statue of Liberty is remembered. Meanwhile, Happy Hogan is familiar with Spider-Man and meets Aunt May through that connection. This perfectly illustrates how complicated removing Peter Parker from everyone's memories but leaving Spider-Man really is. The best explanation is that Doctor Strange's spell rewrote the MCU timeline to the degree that all interactions with Spider-Man remain but are now different in some fashion. For example, Spider-Man could've volunteered to speak at FEAST following The Blip because he supports the organization helping his neighborhood.
Looking specifically at MJ and Ned, there are plenty of other questions. It is possible the two of them became best friends in high school due to Peter's absence, but what about their various Spider-Man encounters and roles in his stories? Ned having Chitauri tech is what led to the Washington Monument disaster, but there's no way he'd have it without knowing Peter/Spider-Man. That could mean this event no longer happened in the MCU or happened in a very different way. It is not an exaggeration to say that many aspects of their stories are now different. Happy saving them in Europe during Spider-Man's Mysterio battle could've been coincidental or never happened, while they both could be incredibly confused about why they were at the Statue of Liberty at Spider-Man: No Way Home's ending.
However, there is a possible loophole to this that the MCU could exploit. Since Happy and Aunt May's relationships with Spider-Man seemingly didn't change, there is a chance that both MJ and Ned have new connections to Spider-Man. Spider-Man 4 could explain that Ned is still Spider-Man's guy in the chair, but he doesn't know his secret identity for his own protection. Keeping MJ connected to Spider-Man without Peter is more complicated. Still, perhaps her natural curiosity led her to look for information on him and they formed a friendship that way.
Was Iron Man Still Spider-Man's Mentor?
Spider-Man: No Way Home's ending spell also retroactively creates a huge question about Iron Man's relationship to Spider-Man. Just like many other characters, Tony Stark's connection to Peter Parker had a profound impact on him. Removing Peter from the equation would completely change their relationship. Tony would inherently not completely trust Spider-Man because he didn't know his true identity, but everything from their conversations through the Stark internship to Tony figuring out time travel thanks to an image of him and Peter is changed. It also means that Tony avoided the biggest possible heartbreaks for him when Thanos snapped his fingers. Peter was the only person close to Tony who turned to dust (and in his arms to make matters worse), so would Iron Man even be as motivated to risk his life reversing it? It is an unanswerable question since Tony Stark is dead, but future movies should address this.
Can Spider-Man Still Be An Avenger?
Building off Tony Stark's changed history with Spider-Man, it is also now unclear if Spider-Man can still be an Avenger. The Avengers team has always operated with the understanding that no one has a secret identity. That was largely because the MCU didn't use secret identities at all following Iron Man's surprise ending. However, that doesn't change the fact that Spider-Man would now be an outlier among Captain Marvel, Shang-Chi, and other confirmed Phase 4 Avengers. This could create trust issues between him and others, but it also raises logistical questions like how they could contact him and team up in the future without knowing Peter Parker. While the latter could still be achieved if Peter begins telling those he knows he can trust about his secret identity again, the idea that he fought in Captain America: Civil War and was involved in the Thanos battles without anyone knowing who Spider-Man really is doesn't quite make sense. However, since the MCU can't quite rip Spider-Man from those moments, it must mean that he's still an Avenger and may have just experienced a different recruitment process.
Doctor Strange's Spell Destabilized The Multiverse
The effects of Spider-Man: No Way Home's ending spell also have repercussions for Doctor Strange's MCU future. The first Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness trailer confirms the events are somewhat tied to Strange's role in Spider-Man's story. The sorcerer can be heard saying that he didn't mean for any of this to happen after dialogue from Strange's previous appearances plays. It is clear that No Way Home caused Doctor Strange 2, even after Strange agreed removing Peter Parker from everyone's memory would fix the problem. Doctor Strange 2 is likely to reveal that while Strange's spell stopped the current threat, using a spell that draws on dark magic opened up the doorway for something worse to unfold - just as Wong warned could happen.
Peter Parker CAN Work For The Daily Bugle
With Peter Parker's secret identity now intact, Spider-Man: No Way Home's ending also means that he could fulfill his comic destiny of working for The Daily Bugle. This was made impossible when J. Jonah Jameson was responsible for publishing Mysterio's video, but he's now as in the dark as anyone else. It is unclear if Peter would actually be willing to do this. The MCU remade The Daily Bugle as an InfoWars-style outlet, which could give Peter some hesitations morally to agree to work for them. However, it would be a wasted opportunity for this not to happen now, and he is in need of the cash. If Tom Holland gets his way, Michelle will be the one with the photography passion - which could even be part of her Spider-Man obsession and path towards rediscovering Peter is Spidey. In any case, Peter working at The Daily Bugle could give him and Michelle a chance to connect, regardless of if he also gets into MIT.
Vulture No Longer Knows Peter Parker's Secret (And Scorpion Can Still Reappear)
Spider-Man: No Way Home's ending spell also changes the MCU pasts and futures of Vulture and Scorpion. The villains from Spider-Man: Homecoming ended their stories in prison together, but their status and futures were quite different. Vulture decided to keep Spider-Man's identity a secret and didn't seem too villainous anymore. Meanwhile, Scorpion wanted nothing more than to get out and figure out who Spider-Man really is. Now that Vulture doesn't know Peter is Spider-Man, the mystery of who defeated him could drive him crazy. It might even result in a team-up with Scorpion to find the truth.
Does Venom Remember Peter Parker?
Not everyone across the multiverse will forget about Peter Parker, though, due to Spider-Man: No Way Home's ending spell. The film's various multiverse characters seemingly were sent back to their original universes without having their memories wiped, so they can all remember what happened before. As far as the MCU's future is concerned, Venom should be the biggest loophole to Peter's secret identity. Venom: Let There Be Carnage's post-credits scene confirmed a symbiote hive mind exists for Venom, which is how it knew Peter Parker is Spider-Man and brought Tom Hardy to the MCU. While he is sent back to Sony's universe in Spider-Man: No Way Home's post-credits, a piece of the symbiote remained in the MCU. That means that the MCU's version of Venom could immediately know about Spider-Man's secret. Of course, if Marvel Studios is more faithful to the comics, that should mean that Venom only becomes a villain after being attached to Peter Parker, so the hive mind explanation won't be necessary.
Key Release Dates
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Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness
Release Date:2022-05-06 -
Thor: Love and Thunder
Release Date:2022-07-08 -
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Release Date:2022-11-11 -
captain marvel 2
Release Date:2023-07-28 -
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Release Date:2023-05-05 -
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Release Date:2023-02-17
