‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ theory: Will there be two MCU Peter Parkers?

Over the weekend, two new Hyundai posters for “Spider-Man: No Way Home” dropped. One has a blue tone with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man gazing into the distance. The other has a darker shade with a version of Spider-Man in a black suit, cutting through a Doctor Strange-like portal.

The posters may suggest we’re getting more than one Peter Parker. Specifically, two versions of Parker from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Spider-Man villains to appear in ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’

Let’s start off with this simple fact — the Spider-Man posters play off what we’ve seen in the “Spider-Man: No Way Home” trailers. We’re clearly getting more versions of Spider-Man in the upcoming film, which will deal with the multiverse and how Peter Parker deals with the rest of the planet when the world doesn’t know that he is Spider-Man.

Spider-Man villains past and present will appear in the movie. For example, Green Goblin and Doctor Otto Octavius — who appeared in the mid-aughts’ “Spider-Man” films featuring Tobey Maguire in the role — will arrive in the Marvel Cinematic Universe through this movie. Similarly, we’ll see Sandman, Lizard and Electro confronting Spider-Man, too. All of these villains appear in Maguire’s Spider-Man movies or “The Amazing Spider-Man” movies that starred Andrew Garfield.

Villains have been the focal point of all of the Spider-Man teasers and trailers. Doctor Octavius has been the focus of a lot of the teasers. Specifically, Doctor Octopus — who will be played by Alfred Molina, who played Doctor Ock in “Spider-Man 2” starring Maguire — has taken center stage.

Villains. Villains. Villains. Villains everywhere but not so much the heroes. So are we set to see more Spider-Man variants in the new movie too?

What about more Spider-Man variants?

At the end of the second “Spider-Man: No Way Home” trailer, Doctor Strange is clearly dealing with some stressful mystical art spells when he says, “They are starting to come through and I can’t stop them.”

As I wrote for the Deseret News, we have no clue who “they” are or where “they” are coming from. But we know something is coming. And though it’s unclear when in the story this takes place. The general vibe of that short clip suggests it’s near a climactic part of the movie.

Let’s back up for a second. In the second trailer, we see a version of Spider-Man come through the Doctor Strange portal. He’s wearing a nearly all-black suit. Just like we see in the Hyundai posters. There are two versions of the MCU Spider-Men in the posters and in the trailers.

Now, you could surmise that the two pictures represent Tom Holland’s Peter Parker wearing two different suits in the movie, which is more than possible since Spider-Man has often changed suits in the movies. But I’m going to go one step further and suggest that there will be two versions of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in this movie — one being the Peter Parker we know from the MCU and another being a variant from another timeline.

One question that’s lingered for “Spider-Man: No Way Home” so far surrounds the film’s big villain. We know Green Goblin, Doctor Ock, Electro, Lizard and Sandman appear. But who is leading them? I theorized that Doctor Strange could be a big villain since the trailer suggests he’s constantly battling Spider-Man about the multiverse. Throughout the trailers, Doctor Strange and Parker appear to bicker about what to do with the multiverse.

But could Doctor Strange be arguing with a Peter Parker variant?

What if the original Peter Parker from the MCU requests a spell from Doctor Strange to make it so that the world forgets Peter Parker is Spider-Man. But this unleashes the multiverse, which allows variants of different villains and Spider-Man variants to enter the world. One of those variants is an evil Spider-Man — hence the dark suit — who wants to keep these villains alive? Or what if that variant Spider-Man wants to bring down the entire fabric of society?

I don’t have much evidence for this other than the trailers. But it’s interesting that the promotions for the film include two versions of Spider-Man as seen in the Hyundai poster and in the trailers.

Regardless, Spider-Man fans better buckle up for Dec. 17, when the film drops. We may never be the same afterward.