Spider-Verse 2 Theory: Doctor Strange's No Way Home Spell Opened Multiverse

The gateway to other universes is back open in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part One, and Doctor Strange might be to blame. Just about three years ago, Sony's animated epic Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse debuted, immediately setting the moviegoing world on fire with delight. Into the Spider-Verse wasn't just great for an animated movie, it was great by any standard, and ended up topping quite a few best of 2018 movie lists. In a year that also played host to acclaimed hits like Avengers: Infinity War and A Star Is Born, that's really an achievement to celebrate.

By the time Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse debuts in theaters, nearly four years will have elapsed between movies, although that's understandable when one considers the level of artistry involved with crafting Into the Spider-Verse's animation. With Across the Spider-Verse's first trailer now out, it's clear that Across the Spider-Verse will look even more beautiful than its predecessor, hopefully helping it recapture the magic found before.

The Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse trailer also left viewers with several questions, the main one being why Spider-Gwen and Miles Morales are now able to traverse between universes again, since Into the Spider-Verse ended with the gateway involved being shut. There's also the question of why exactly Spider-Man 2099 appears to be attacking Miles' Spider-Man. While the answer to the second question will have to wait, it seems possible that Doctor Strange's actions in Spider-Man: No Way Home are what opened up the multiverse again, even in Spider-Verse's animated realm.

Into The Spider-Verse 2 Is Officially About The Multiverse

While Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse heavily featured the multiverse concept, it stopped short of actually exploring said multiverse. Instead, the story concerned a bunch of Spider-Man variants from other universes being drawn into Miles Morales' universe due to the self-centered machinations of the Kingpin. Miles' ultimate goal became to both defeat Kingpin, and get the other Spider-Men back to the universes they belonged in. Yet, while the gateway between worlds appeared to be closed, the very end of Into the Spider-Verse teased things wouldn't stay that way, with Spider-Gwen communicating with Miles somehow and Spider-Man 2099 shown trying to recruit another Spider-Man from a different universe.

The first trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part One looks to continue the story from those points, with Spider-Gwen somehow getting physically back into Miles' universe, and Miles himself ending up tangling with Spider-Man 2099 in what looks to be the latter's world. In this way, the setup mirrors that of upcoming MCU movies Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. No Way Home features characters from other Spider-Man universes traveling to the main MCU universe, while Multiverse of Madness looks to see Strange going on his own journey between worlds.

Doctor Strange & Other MCU Characters Break The Multiverse

No Way Home Doctor Strange Kevin Feige MCU News

It's unclear exactly why the spell goes wrong, but the marketing for Spider-Man: No Way Home has made clear that Doctor Strange's attempt to use his magic to help Peter Parker put his secret Spider-Man identity back in the bottle goes horribly awry. Of course, that's assuming that the sorcerer seen doing the spell is the real one, and not a Doctor Strange impostor, as many MCU fans still aren't sure on whether the sorcerer shown in the trailer is the real Doctor Strange. Either way, it's this mishap that breaks the balance of the multiverse, allowing villains - and presumably, heroes - from other Spider-Man movie universes to make the long, strange trip over to the main MCU universe, with the MCU's Spider-Man tasked with fixing things.

Yet, with characters from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man universe and the later Amazing Spider-Man universe now free to come mix it up in the MCU, one wonders how far this rabbit hole might go. Could characters from the established Fox X-Men movie universe show up in future MCU films, or perhaps characters from the prior Fantastic Four movies, or Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider? There's really no reason to believe that couldn't happen, as the gates separating different Marvel-based movie and TV franchises all seem to be slowly lowering. And there seems to be no wall between live-action Marvel and animated Marvel either, thanks to What If? officially being a part of the MCU multiverse too.

Theory: The Animated Spider-Verse World Is Part Of The MCU Multiverse

If there's seemingly no unbreakable divide between Marvel movies and TV universes made by different studios anymore, and not even animation is a separator, that leads to one conclusion: the world of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is yet another set of branches connected to one big MCU multiverse. That would make it just as susceptible to Doctor Strange's botched No Way Home spell as any other onscreen Marvel universe, making it quite possible that said spell is what once again opened the gateways between worlds in the animated Spider-Verse.

While the Spider-Verse has so far been seemingly separate from the other Spider-Man worlds built by Sony, there's also been no reason given as to why that has to remain the case. With No Way Home featuring characters from both prior Spider-Man movie series, Sony confirming that Spider-Man's time within the MCU is far from finished, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage even tying Tom Hardy's Venom in with the MCU, the creative marriage between Marvel Studios and Sony seems almost fully consummated. If that's the case, there's no reason Sony would put an artificial barrier between Into the Spider-Verse and the MCU.

What It Could Mean For The Spider-Man Movies' Future

If Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse's various animated worlds are all indeed actually part of the main MCU-connected multiverse, the possibilities going forward for Spider-Man movies are almost limitless. That's especially true if Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's respective Spider-Men enter the MCU picture. One of the coolest questions to ponder though is how the live-action and animated Spider-Man movie realms might ultimately mix.

Would the live-action characters turn into cartoons were they to visit the animated Spider-Verse, or would an MCU visiting Miles Morales be shocked by transforming into a live-action hero? Of course, perhaps the craziest solution would be to have the live-action and animated worlds begin to blend if they became too interconnected. There's truly never been a better time to be a Spider-Man movie fan, and probably a Marvel movie fan in general. The movies may never get as connected as the comics, but they might come close, especially after Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part One.

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