Ever since the announcement of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Four, everyone and their mother has been anticipating Spider-Man: No Way Home. After the initial announcement, fans took to Twitter for several months before finally getting the trailer, sparking accounts such as ”isnowayhome”, which posted updates every day asking if the No Way Home trailer was released. Even the core cast has not been chatty about the movie, only announcing three fake titles back in early 2021.

Since the initial trailer dropped, people all over the internet have been posting about their excitement for this movie, according to Twitter and other social media websites. While the first part of the trailer is relatively normal, it’s the second half that has people talking: villains from Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s movies make an appearance. The most notable is Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock, and Willem Dafoe’s iconic Green Goblin laugh. We also see glimpses of Jaime Foxx’s Electro, Rhys Ifans’s Lizard, and Thomas Church’s Sandman. To normal movie enjoyers this may seem like just a reuse of good actors, but it’s more than that; they’re playing the same people from those movies but in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

So why should you watch (or rewatch) Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s movies? Because those movies are now canon to the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline. With the opening of the multiverse in Marvel’s Loki (2021) and somewhat in WandaVision (2021), all the previous non-Disney owned movies are now canon, according to Marvel Entertainment CEO, Kevin Feige. 

In 1999, Marvel Entertainment sold the Spider-Man film rights to Sony Pictures, as well as selling the film rights to the X-Men to Fox Studios. Ever since that deal, the Sony Spider-Man movies and Fox X-Men movies have not been canon to Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. To keep Spidey in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Disney and Sony worked out a new agreement in 2019 that states Spider-Man will stay in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

While everyone has differing opinions on who the better Spider-Man and Peter Parker is, many can agree that the three Spider-Man franchises prove that Spider-Man has the best villains. Back in 2013, Sony Pictures announced that there would be a Sinister Six movie, but never gave other details about it until it was eventually cancelled, and the Marc Webb Amazing Spider-Man Cinematic Universe was rebooted with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in 2016. While many (including myself) were heartbroken that we’d never see a full Sinister Six team up, Spider-Man: No Way Home has restored hope that we will finally see a full live action Sinister Six team up. The speculated team up includes Doc Ock, Green Goblin, the Lizard, Electro, Sandman, and the Rhino from The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

While there may be other unexpected surprises in the upcoming film, like a potential Holland/Garfield/Maguire team up, Spider-Fans everywhere are anticipating one of the best Spider-Man movies to come out in the past 15 years. Spider-Man: No Way Home will be premiering exclusively in theaters on December 17th, 2021.