Earlier in the film, a botched spell by Doctor Strange that was intended to restore Peter Parker’s old life instead attracted villains from across the multiverse who are aware of his secret identity.

That includes Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), Electro (Jamie Foxx), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and Lizard (Rhys Ifans), with Peter making it his mission to save them all from their dark fates.

In doing so, he had to cross Doctor Strange, temporarily trapping him in the trippy mirror dimension to stop him from casting a spell that would doom his rivals to a grisly end in their respective home universes.

However, this delay in repairing the damage caused by the spell has consequences, as a colossal rift opens up across the multiverse that threatens to end the world as we know it.

We see various obscured figures preparing to make their way through the rift, many of whom are quite hard to make out during the passing glance we were given in the cinema.

One that does seem fairly easy to identify is a silhouette of the giant mechanised version of Rhino featured in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, played there by actor Paul Giamatti.

This implies that all manner of dangerous villains would have been allowed into the MCU by this rift, some even from retired Marvel franchises, which would have thrown the world into utter chaos.

Why can no one remember Peter Parker?

In order to prevent imminent disaster, Peter Parker makes the noble sacrifice of agreeing to a spell that would make everyone in the MCU forget who he is.

It’s important to note the wording of this second spell, as while the first attempted to make the world forget who Spider-Man is, the correcting incantation specifies forgetting Peter Parker altogether.

That means that while his secret identity is once again safe, everyone in his personal life – including girlfriend MJ, best pal Ned, and fond ally Happy Hogan – will now have no idea who he is.

This is demonstrated later when Peter drops by the coffee shop where MJ works and is saddened to realise neither she nor Ned remember him.

He goes back on a plan to try to make them remember after seeing that their lives have been course-corrected just as he’d wanted, with both securing places to study at prestigious university MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

Likewise, Happy has no recollection of who Peter is, despite remembering his late Aunt May.

Who dies in Spider-Man: No Way Home?

SEAC

Tragically, Spider-Man: No Way Home sees the death of Peter’s beloved legal guardian Aunt May, who is mortally wounded during an attack by the evil Green Goblin.

She is struck by the villain’s sharp-edged hovering speeder, which will have rung alarm bells in the heads of any longtime fans, as Norman Osborn himself was killed after a similar impact in 2002’s original Spider-Man film.

Peter feels that May’s death is his fault as he had insisted on trying to save the multiversal villains, rather than sending them back immediately as Doctor Strange had intended.

In this sense, May’s death in this film echoes the loss of Uncle Ben in Spider-Man’s classic comic book origin story, another devastating event that he considers himself responsible for.

However, in her dying breath, May reminds Peter that “with great power comes great responsibility”, in an attempt to make it clear that she would not have wanted him to do anything differently.

What could happen in Spider-Man 4?

Sony Pictures

Much like 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, this latest adventure has left Tom Holland’s web-slinging hero in quite the unenviable bind.

With no one in the MCU remembering who he is – from loved ones to his Avengers teammates – he has no choice but to strike out on his own, managing to secure a small apartment in New York City.

It seems likely that the next Spider-Man film, which has already been promised by producer Amy Pascal, will see Peter attempt to restore the memories of the trusted few people he wanted to know about his double life.

In addition, the Spider-Man: No Way Home end credits scenes also tease that we could see an MCU version of Venom appear in Holland’s next outing, which would be entirely separate from Tom Hardy’s solo franchise.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is in UK cinemas now. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.

This year’s Radio Times Christmas double issue is on sale now, featuring two weeks of TV, film and radio listings, reviews, features and interviews with the stars.

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