After two and a half months of waiting since the first teaser's release, Spider-Man fans finally got a new look at Spider-Man: No Way Home with the launch of the film's second trailer. The trailer was shown at a special fan event in Los Angeles, shortly before its global release online. Rumors and fan expectations for the film, which sees the Marvel Cinematic Universe collide with the universes of past Spider-Man movies, have been reaching fever pitch. While past villains, such as Alfred Molina's Doc Ock and Jamie Foxx's Electro, have already been confirmed to appear in the movie, it is widely anticipated that former Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield will also reprise their roles as their respective versions of the web-slinger.
Many fans were hoping to catch a glimpse of the former Spideys' triumphant return in the new No Way Home trailer, but when it hit the web, the only Spider-Man to appear was Tom Holland's current iteration. However, while Maguire and Garfield don't appear in the trailer themselves, that hasn't stopped fans looking for signs of their involvement. For months, rumors of the former Spider-Men's return have been stoked by a number of leaked images, supposedly showing Maguire and Garfield on the set of No Way Home. And while debate has raged online over whether the images were genuine, the new trailer appears to confirm their authenticity.
Fans have been poring over the trailer since its release, and many believe they have spotted evidence that the returning Spider-Men have been digitally removed from certain scenes. Such techniques are certainly in Marvel's wheelhouse -- Holland's Spider-Man himself was deleted from group shots in the original trailer for Captain America: Civil War, the film that introduced him to the MCU. However, thanks to the earlier leaked images, there may be some even more compelling evidence of Maguire's and Garfield's return in the No Way Home trailer.
The first images to leak online showed what appeared to be the two former Spider-Man actors in their old costumes on a blue screen set. While there were many questions over whether the images were genuine, some credibility was lent to them when Sony had the images removed from various places online. A more widely circulated image and video soon followed, giving a clearer look at Garfield in his costume from The Amazing Spider-Man 2, apparently talking to another, obscured Spider-Man. The video clip gained some online notoriety when a YouTube video emerged showing how it had been faked -- only for another video to appear, featuring VFX experts the Corridor Crew debunking the debunking and asserting the original clip of Garfield was most likely genuine.
These supposed set photos, as well as a more recently revealed image of all three Spider-Men -- Holland, Garfield and Maguire -- in what appears to be a screenshot from the movie, have something in common with the new trailer. The images show the Spider-Men on a set designed to look like scaffolding. Garfield and Maguire can be seen on it against the blue screens, while the most recent image shows the three actors standing on that same scaffolding with the nighttime New York skyline now in the background. The railings and flooring that can be seen in these images are a perfect match for those seen in the new trailer.
The final moments of the latest No Way Home trailer reveal a climactic battle taking place at the Statue of Liberty, which is under renovation (apparently being given a copy of Captain America's shield). The action weaves through and around the scaffolding, building to a final moment in which Peter leaps to catch a falling MJ. In this sequence, Holland's Peter Parker can be seen crouched against railings that look a lot like the ones in the footage of Garfield. As he leaps, metal panels are visible around him and appear to match the flooring seen in the leaked images. Even the distant city skyline in the background is the same as in the most recent photo. Given these images emerged well before the new trailer was released, this could be the surest sign yet that Spider-Man: No Way Home will unite all three cinematic Spider-Men.
To see if the MCU's Spider-Man will meet his cinematic predecessors, Spider-Man: No Way Home is in theaters Dec. 17.