Doc Ock. Green Goblin. The Lizard. But where's Bonesaw McGraw? Everyone else seemed to show up,
but here's why we didn't see these characters in "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
There aren't that many major MCU characters who would make sense in "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
Iron Man is dead, Captain America is retired, Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy are in space, etc.
But one character who could have made a lot of sense in the movie is Bruce Banner.
Though he hasn't been seen in the MCU since "Avengers: Endgame," the Hulk is
theoretically still hanging around and would certainly still be one of the leading minds
in the world on quantum theory and multiverse science. Bringing him in could have helped fix
the schism created by Doctor Strange's spell, but Banner doesn't end up making an appearance.
As fun as it would have been to see the Hulk again,
there are a number of reasons why he wouldn't make sense in "No Way Home."
First of all, within the context of the story itself, he wouldn't know what was going on.
Strange spends most of the movie trapped in the mirror dimension, he already has
a magical solution to the problem, and Peter doesn't ask anyone but his friends for help.
It's also possible that Mark Ruffalo's schedule wouldn't have allowed for an appearance,
but the most likely reason is simply that the film's writers
didn't want to overcrowd it with past MCU stars.
Fortunately for fans of the character, Banner is set to return to "She-Hulk" on Disney+.
The core crux of "Spider-Man: No Way Home" is that the bad guys from the Tobey Maguire and Andrew
Garfield movies, all characters who were just as much victims as villains, get a second chance.
Almost all of them died in their respective movies, but by
curing their conditions before sending them back home, Tom Holland's Spider-Man
ends up saving their lives. It stands to reason, then, that other characters from
the previous "Spider-Man" film franchises who died can come back in "No Way Home."
That includes Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy, who dies at the end of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2."
There are many possible reasons why Gwen wasn't brought back, including Stone not being able or
willing to return to the role. Also, from a strictly narrative angle, it would probably
have been too much. Garfield's Peter Parker gets a beautiful moment in "No Way Home," where he saves
MJ from the same kind of fall that killed Gwen, giving him a bit of peace and closure.
While it obviously would have been lovely to see him reunited with Gwen, it may have shifted the
balance of Garfield and Maguire's roles a bit too heavily in Garfield's direction, when the story
is really still about Holland's Spider-Man. Resurrecting Gwen would have also gone against the
very message Garfield's Peter shares in the film, so the story is probably better off as it stands.
Similar to Gwen, Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane Watson could have made a lot of sense in "No Way Home."
Doctor Strange's spell only summoned people who knew that Peter Parker was Spider-Man, and MJ,
like Gwen, was certainly well aware of that fact.
The two get back together at the end of "Spider-Man 3," and Maguire's character
has a few vague lines in "No Way Home" that suggest they're still together.
Getting Dunst back and seeing her interact with Zendaya's MJ would have been fun, but it likely
didn't happen for similar reasons as Gwen. Too many characters would have filled up too much
of the film's third act, distracting too much from the core arc of Tom Holland's Spider-Man.
Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield exist in the film primarily to offer advice and
assistance to Holland, and bringing in any of their friends, family members, lovers,
or allies could have made the ending of the movie even more chaotic than it already is.
Still, it's nice to at least get a nod to Dunst's MJ and hear that she
and Peter worked themselves out and seem to be together in the Maguire "Spider-Man" universe.
Another key character from the Sam Raimi "Spider-Man" movies who doesn't appear in
"No Way Home" is James Franco's Harry Osborn, who becomes the Green Goblin in "Spider-Man 3."
Harry knew that his friend Peter was Spider-Man, and while he does die by the end of the Raimi
trilogy, he could have easily been brought through by the same logic that let Doc Ock,
Green Goblin, Electro, and Sandman return.
The multiverse crack created by Doctor Strange's spell seems to have targeted
the worlds of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's "Spider-Man" movies first,
but Harry isn't one of the characters to get pulled through before the spell is undone.
Technically, that can be explained by just saying that the people summoned were random
and that Harry simply wasn't one of them. It would have been powerful
to see him reunited with his cured father and his former best friend,
but there are several possible explanations for why he doesn't show up. The writers may
have simply wanted one and only one villain from each prior film. Franco's schedule may not have
allowed for a cameo. Or, it's possible that Disney didn't want to bring him in due to the numerous
sexual misconduct allegations against him. Whatever the reason, Harry's character gets
enough recognition in "No Way Home," and the film doesn't really suffer from his absence.
"You're my friend."
Of course, there are two different versions of Harry Osborn who could have been brought
through the multiverse in "No Way Home," the other one being the Harry played by Dane DeHaan
in "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "The Amazing Spider-Man 2." In the latter of those films,
Harry genetically alters himself to avoid death by a gruesome illness,
one that he believes Spider-Man's blood can save him from.
Peter refuses to give Harry his blood as he fears the unexpected side-effects it could cause,
pushing Harry down a dark path that ends with him becoming the Green Goblin.
He kills Gwen in the climax of the movie, but he survives and is imprisoned for his crimes.
Out of all the past "Spider-Man" movie characters excluded from "No Way Home,"
DeHaan's Harry Osborn is one of the easiest cuts to understand.
Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin also plays the villain, and it potentially would've been
too confusing to have two versions of the same character in the film. Plus,
a plot line featuring DeHaan's character would have made the film too much of a sequel to "The
Amazing Spider-Man 2," as it would have forced Andrew Garfield's Peter to reconcile with his
love's killer all over again. All in all, DeHaan's Green Goblin seems like another smart cut.
If Doctor Strange's spell truly could have brought through anyone who knew Spider-Man's secret
identity, and if the first wave of characters summoned were indeed all from either Tobey
Maguire's universe or Andrew Garfield's, it would have made sense for Sally Field's Aunt May to make
an appearance. Given that the big emotional turn of "No Way Home" is the tragic death of Marisa
Tomei's Aunt May, a cameo from Field would have created some interesting possibilities.
However, there are a few reasons why it probably wouldn't have been a good idea overall.
For starters, at 75, a Hollywood legend like Field may well have no interest in doing a small
cameo in an MCU movie. Field hasn't appeared in a movie since 2017, though she has continued to act
in various television series. Secondly, bringing another Aunt May into the story of "No Way Home"
could have ended up backfiring and hindering the emotional impact of Tomei's character's death.
The reasons Rosemary Harris' Aunt May doesn't appear in "Spider-Man: No Way Home" are likely
the same as those for Sally Field. At 94, the longtime star of stage and screen is still
doing great work, appearing in the TV series "The Undoing" as recently as 2020. Still,
bringing her back for a cameo in the MCU probably wouldn't have been right for her or the story.
"I know you will find a way to put it right."
Showing different versions of Aunt May in a story that hinges so heavily on the
death of Marisa Tomei's character would be an incredibly difficult task to pull off.
Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire's Peter Parkers work beautifully with Holland's
story because they help him accept his mistakes and resolve to do better.
If either of their Aunt Mays were to appear as well, it would have likely diluted the message
while also splitting attention during the film's third act. It might have been interesting to
see a version of Uncle Ben return from either Maguire or Garfield's universes,
but Cliff Robertson, who played the character in the Raimi trilogy, died in 2011, and neither
his Uncle Ben nor the Martin Sheen version ever truly learned that their nephew was Spider-Man.
In the post-credits scene of "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," Venom and Eddie are transported
to the MCU through mysterious circumstances. That led many fans to assume that Venom would
be one of the villains in "No Way Home," rounding out a true Sinister Six team.
Unfortunately for those hoping to see Tom Hardy join the action, he doesn't actually appear in "No
Way Home." That is, until the film's mid-credits scene, which reveals that Eddie and Venom were
in fact summoned by Doctor Strange's spell, but they just spent the whole time drinking in a bar.
"What's happening?"
"They're starting to come through, and I can't stop them."
It's a hilarious twist, but it's still a bit disappointing that Venom himself
doesn't actually show up. His voice is heard, but Eddie doesn't turn into the symbiotes on screen,
and he certainly doesn't take part in any of the film's action scenes. It would have been exciting
to see Tom Hardy's Venom go up against Tom Holland's Spider-Man, but it also makes sense why
that didn't happen. The five main villains of the movie all have ties to the previous "Spider-Man"
films, which is essential for the movie to tell its story of healing and forgiveness.
Hardy's Venom wouldn't have been known by any of the three Spider-Men, making him an awkward fit.
However, with a little bit of the symbiote left behind in the MCU before Venom gets sucked back
to his universe, there's still potential for a Spider-Man and Venom duel somewhere down the line.
While on the topic of Venom, Topher Grace's Eddie Brock is another past "Spider-Man" character who
has every contextual reason to be summoned by Doctor Strange's spell, but isn't. Brock knows
Spider-Man's secret identity in "Spider-Man 3," which means that random chance is the
only sufficient canonical explanation for why he doesn't show up. Of course, outside the context
of the story itself, there are plenty of reasons why Grace's Venom wouldn't have been a great pick.
"I like being bad. It makes me happy."
For starters, Sony has finally created a version of Venom that lots of people
actually like. Because of how widely panned Grace's version of the character was,
it might not have been a great move for the studio to dilute and confuse their current franchise
with a return from the old Eddie Brock. Also, as previously mentioned, "Spider-Man: No Way Home"
intentionally pulls one villain from each of Tobey Maguire's and Andrew Garfield's films,
and Sandman may have simply been the more interesting choice for narrative reasons.
This last character isn't necessarily one anybody expected to show up in "Spider-Man:
No Way Home," but that doesn't mean he wouldn't have been incredibly fun to see.
Miles Morales is a hugely popular character, and while he's currently starring as the protagonist
of Sony's animated "Spider-Verse" franchise, that doesn't preclude him from appearing in
live-action films at the same time. With so many multiverse shenanigans happening, Miles could
easily have made an appearance, and Electro even references him at the end of the movie.
The most obvious reason why Miles isn't in "No Way Home" is that the spell Doctor
Strange casts is specifically about Peter Parker, not Spider-Man in general. As such,
it wouldn't have any explicit reason to summon Miles. Also, if the MCU were to introduce Miles
Morales' Spider-Man, it would be better to do so in a more focused way. For now,
fans can still enjoy his adventures in the spectacular "Spider-Verse."
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