Promotion for Spider-Man: No Way Home is well underway, and with fan anticipation already sky-high after the release of the first trailer, speculation on its content runs rampant. A pair of covers on Empire magazine has heightened talk of the film even further, particularly the one featuring illustrative art instead of a photoshopped image of Tom Holland's Spider-Man. It includes a number of Easter eggs hinting at No Way Home’s possible villains, and in addition to confirmed figures like Doctor Octopus and Electro, the images evoke various expected Spider-villains, such as Green Goblin and Sandman.
Hidden within the kaleidoscopic image, however, is another clue that points to a very different antagonist for the upcoming movie. The letters spelling “Empire” are rendered in red with a white hexagonal pattern. And while it could simply be a matter of aesthetics, the hexagon shape is strongly reminiscent of the Scarlet Witch. With Wanda confirmed to appear in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, a surprise appearance in No Way Home certainly isn’t outside the range of possibilities.
WandaVision found Wanda unable to process her grief for Vision and recreating him in false reality built on television sitcoms. The entire series was inundated with hexagonal shapes, including copious use in its faux opening credits and the shape of the affected area itself. That played out in Season 1, Episode 9, “The Series Finale,” in which Wanda uses the giant hex shape of her reality to bind Agatha Harkness. Its exact meaning remains unknown, but the six sides of the hexagon match the number of Infinity Stones, as well as the shape of the Mind Stone in the Vision’s head.
Wanda’s power is often referred to as “hex magic,” a play on words that further connects it to the hexagon image. And it’s enough to alter reality itself, evinced by the red tinge to Wanda’s magic evocative of the Reality Stone and sufficient to bring at least a version of Vision back to life. With the multiverse now a reality and No Way Home connected closely to it, Wanda’s abilities might play a huge part in all of it. And that might be enough to justify an appearance in the Spider-Man film, even if only as a cameo or in a post-credits scene.
It also provides the film the ability to run with the multiverse in a way that fans haven’t seen before. Wanda’s status in Multiverse of Madness is presumed to be antagonistic, though, given the nature of the character and what she went through in WandaVision, it’s likely a good deal more complicated than that. Regardless, she might be inclined to meddle in the multiverse for her own reasons -- perhaps as a way of restoring Vision and her children to her -- and Spider-Man is left to deal with the effects.
That makes Wanda unpredictable, and her antics could include bringing Spider villains into the Marvel Cinematic Universe to keep Doctor Strange or Peter from interfering with her. Alternatively, Strange’s spell might be destabilized by her own experiments across the globe or similar inadvertent tampering with reality gone wrong. She might even show up to help Peter in some manner, further throwing her moral status into doubt. Her mercurial nature would be the point, creating chaos in the fabric of reality in ways that most of his classic rogue’s gallery cannot. That’s a strong reason to bring her in, as a justification for any potential cosmic plot twists if nothing else.
However, a simple pattern on a magazine cover might not be something to read into, and it's possible it ends up being a purely aesthetic choice. The hexagon is particularly telling, as the pattern could easily be Spidey’s webbing or another pattern not so closely connected to Wanda. But with Strange confirmed to play a significant role in No Way Home, Scarlet Witch’s involvement becomes more likely, and with the Empire cover already dropping huge hints about potential villains, no detail is too small to merit consideration. The MCU likes surprising its fans with the unexpected, and Wanda’s appearance in Spider-Man's next outing would be in keeping with that trend.
To see if Wanda appears, Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into theaters Dec. 17.