WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home, now in theaters.
It may come as a surprise that a superhero and a villain have a lot in common, but Spider-Man: No Way Home has opened up not only the multiverse but the possibility of an unlikely bond between Spider-Man and Loki. No, it's not the loss of loved ones or the comedic relief trait that sends viewers rolling in laughter. It's actually the confirmation that there are more than just one Peter Parker and one Loki out in the multiverse.
The idea of the multiverse has been lingering since Avengers: Endgame and WandaVision, but wasn't confirmed to be a dangerous presence until the Disney+ show Loki, centered around the God of Mischief as he travels through different times to catch a familiar figure with the Time Variance Authority. This figure is later revealed to be Sylvie Laufeydottir, a variant of Loki from another universe, and Episode 5 forces Loki to witness his less than desirable flaws through his other outcasted variants. For some time, Loki was the only Marvel Cinematic Universe property to show the potential of variants in the multiverse, until Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The third installment of the MCU Spider-Man franchise had its fair share of unfortunate leaks revealing that former Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were returning for an appearance. The rumors then turned into fan theories, which left many unsurprised to see the two actors don their suits once more. Maguire and Garfield's appearances in the film confirmed what everyone has been thinking -- the three Spider-Man franchises are just based in alternate universes, and the Peter Parkers are variants of each other.
While Loki and Peter Parker are miles apart in morality and goodness, they have a common experience in the form of personal growth through their relationships with their variants. Peter learns that the path to revenge may corrupt the person who Aunt May wanted him to be, all because Tobey and Andrew's Peters advise him on their past failed experiences. On a more selfish, but well-meant scale, Loki falls in love and begins to see the good in people due to his relationship with Sylvie, even if it does end dismally. But Loki and Spider-Man aren't the only ones who have met their match.
Loki's Episode 6, "For All Time. Always." introduces He Who Remains, an immortal being who was the first person to come into contact with his variants, one of which being the ever-feared Kang the Conquerer, who will make his first appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. He Who Remains may seem like the only other individual besides Loki and Peter to have his variants confirmed in the MCU, but that might not be the case. No Way Home slowly incorporates the idea of the interconnected Spider-Men franchises by introducing many established members of the Sinister Six into the film after Doctor Strange's broken spell summons them to the MCU. All villains were ripped from their respective universe before their demise and are seemingly different from how they were previously seen.
The most radically changed from his previous appearance is Jamie Foxx's Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2, where he was last seen as a blue, insecure man with a thirst for power. His thirst for power remains in No Way Home, but he's no longer the blue-hued man that fans mocked. Instead, his Electro phase is yellow and is more comic accurate due to the electrified star that flashes across his face. But the main indicator that Electro may be a variant of his Amazing Spider-Man persona is that he is constantly amazed by the amount of power he obtains in the MCU and has a fanatical obsession with it. This Electro knows he's different, and even if it may just be a glorified improvement to his appearance, it still seems suspicious enough to wonder if Loki and No Way Home may also be responsible for creating a new phase of villainous variants.
The concept of variants doesn't seem to have even started in the MCU. An untraditional end credits trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness gives a glimpse of what could possibly be What If...?'s Strange Supreme opposite the MCU's Doctor Strange. Furthermore, Electro hints at a Black Spider-Man being somewhere out there, along with a drop of Venom's symbiotic form being left behind in the MCU. Loki and No Way Home have opened up a storybook of possibilities for the future of the MCU's multiverse, and it only seems to be getting weirder from here.
To see Loki and Peter Parker discover their own variants, stream Loki on Disney+ and watch Spider-Man: No Way Home, in theaters now.