The newest Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer shows Peter Parker and Doctor Strange grappling with their botched spell to make the world forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man as villains from the Raimi and Webb Spidey films invade New York. No Way Home goes out of its way to emphasize these villains, but the trailer's true shock comes at the end. MJ falls from a building, with Peter’s hand seemingly out of reach, as someone who appears to be Ned hangs from a pole jutting out of the crashing building. This suggests that Peter might have to make a difficult choice in the film: save his best friend or save his girlfriend.
Right before this particular shot happens in the trailer, a voiceover of Peter saying, “this is all my fault, I can’t save everyone,” plays. Including this line is rather ominous, considering Ned and MJ are shown in a precarious, dangerous situation seconds later -- it’s almost as if the trailer wants fans to think that Peter won’t be able to save MJ. It also parallels the fate of another Spider-Man heroine, Gwen Stacy, who fell to her death in Amazing Spider-Man 2. The scene could play out in this way: on his way to rescue MJ, Ned might slip from the pole he’s hanging onto, putting Peter's heroism and compassion to the ultimate test.
The tone of No Way Home's trailer is pointedly darker than the first one. It focuses more explicitly on the villains that will be making their mark and shows a major rift between Strange and Peter as they decide how best to control the situation. It's not shocking that Sony saved the clip of MJ falling from the building with Peter going after her and Ned in danger for this trailer rather than the first one. While the scene might just be baiting fans into thinking MJ will meet the same fate as Gwen Stacy, Peter's regret that he “can’t save everyone” would be effectively communicated by forcing him into a situation where two of the people closest to him are in danger and he can only rescue one.
However, if Peter is unable to save either Ned or MJ, this scene could complicate No Way Home in the same way two of the major character deaths complicated Eternals. In Eternals, characters of color were killed off to further develop the stories of the white characters. As for No Way Home, in either situation, a character of color dies so that Peter can have renewed purpose. To make matters worse, if MJ is killed off in No Way Home, it will be yet another example of fridging -- a tired trope that was beaten to death in Marvel projects as recently as Doctor Strange’s episode of What If…?. But the trailer positions this scene, where MJ or Ned might die, as inevitable, leaving the question to be answered when the film finally hits theaters.
See Peter Parker swing into action in Spider-Man: No Way Home, exclusively in theaters in the US on Dec, 17.