No Way Home Theory Reveals Thor & Captain Marvel Remember Peter Parker
Spider-Man: No Way Home explored the dangers of the multiverse and brought major consequences to Peter Parker, who had to make Doctor Strange cast a spell that would make the world forget him – but could that mean that those not on Earth can still remember Peter Parker? The Marvel Cinematic Universe is exploring new characters, events, and concepts in Phase 4, and at the front and center so far is the multiverse, which was explored deeper in Spider-Man: No Way Home after Loki gave viewers a taste of it and some of the consequences of messing with the fabric of space and time.
Spider-Man: No Way Home picks up minutes after the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, where Mysterio framed Peter Parker for his murder and revealed his identity to the whole world. Peter goes to Doctor Strange for help and asks him to cast a spell that will make everyone forget he’s Spider-Man, as this is the only way to protect his loved ones. However, the spell is botched, and instead, it opens the gates to the multiverse, allowing villains from past Spider-Man movies (and the previous Spider-Men, too ) to cross over to the MCU. The spell is so out of control that other, more dangerous villains begin to arrive at the MCU, so in order to protect the world, Spider-Man asks Doctor Strange to cast a final spell that changes the young hero’s life forever.
In order to close the gates to the multiverse and stop all those threats from crossing to the MCU, Spider-Man tells Doctor Strange to cast one more spell: one that will make everyone forget Peter Parker. Strange agrees and the spell is successfully cast, and at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter is completely alone as no one remembers him, and with Tony Stark and Aunt May now dead, Peter is starting over and continuing with his heroic deeds around New York. Of course, it’s too early to know how Spider-Man will reconnect with the rest of the MCU’s heroes in the near future, especially if they have to join forces again as they did in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, but a theory suggests a solution to this through one technicality, as Strange’s final spell might have some key limitations.
As mentioned above, Spider-Man: No Way Home saw two similar spells with very different results: the first one was to make everyone forget Peter Parker is Spider-Man, and the second one was to make everyone forget Peter Parker. The first spell was botched thanks to Peter constantly asking Strange to change it, so the only thing it achieved was opening the gates to the multiverse, but the second one was cast without a problem and was successful. At the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter tried to reintroduce himself to Ned and MJ but decided against it. However, Spider-Man is still known to the world, which raises many questions about how Strange’s final spell works.
The biggest questions around the spell that made everyone forget Peter Parker are mostly about how those closest to him remember moments and events where he was involved. This is particularly concerning with characters like Ned, MJ, and superheroes that worked closely with Spider-Man, as are Strange and the Guardians of the Galaxy, so to them, Spider-Man might just be a young hero that has never shown his face to them nor shared his real name, while for MJ and Ned it might be like a void in their memories. Spider-Man: No Way Home screenwriters Eric Sommers and Chris McKenna admitted that they didn’t have all the details of the spell when writing it, explaining they discussed the consequences of it but that only led to more questions, and so they finally decided to “focus on the emotion of it”. With all these questions and plot holes regarding the final spell in No Way Home, different theories have emerged, among those one that suggests there are important limitations to it that could help Peter Parker.
A question posted on Reddit led to a theory on what the spell at the end of No Way Home covers, and it suggests that it’s only limited to those living on Earth at the moment the spell was cast. Although Strange doesn’t say anything while casting the final spell (or if he did, it wasn’t heard in the movie), the supporters of the theory take the first spell as the basis, and in it, Strange said “everyone in the world”, meaning that the spell is planetary, yet it affects other realities. The final spell, then, could also be limited to Earth, meaning that all those characters who know Peter Parker but weren’t on Earth when the spell was cast still remember Peter. Surely, there aren’t many characters that know Peter Parker traveling through space, but the ones that do can be key in Spider-Man’s future: Thor, Captain Marvel, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Nick Fury.
There aren’t many characters traveling through space in the MCU who met Peter Parker before the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, but those who did can be of great help to the web-slinger if the spell only includes Earth. At the end of Avengers: Endgame, Thor left Earth with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel continues fighting different threats all over the universe, and the post-credits scene in Spider-Man: Far From Home revealed Nick Fury is commanding a Skrull spaceship somewhere far from Earth, with Talos taking his place on Earth. Out of all these, the only one who might not remember Peter is Thor, but just because they didn’t really share time together in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, though they both attended Tony Stark’s funeral. Spider-Man fought alongside the Guardians in Titan and he gave the nano-gauntlet to Captain Marvel, and he even introduced himself to her.
Back on Earth, Peter Parker is now completely alone and has no other fellow heroes to go to for help or support, but if characters like Thor, Captain Marvel, the Guardians, and Fury still know who he is, then Peter isn’t really alone. Perhaps Fury already has plans for a new Avengers team and Spider-Man could be in it, he could join the Guardians in one or two adventures, or team up with Captain Marvel, through whom he can learn more about being a hero and the many threats that hide in the MCU.
While there are details that support the theory of No Way Home’s final spell only working on Earth, such as Doctor Strange saying “everyone in the world” in the first spell and the mystery of how this type of spells (and Strange’s magic, in general) works, there are others that play against it and can debunk it. The extent of the final spell and the specifics of it are one of the biggest plot holes in the MCU’s Phase 4 so far, and there are different ways it can go: it could be a planetary spell that affected other universes because the gates to the multiverse were open at that moment, it could be a powerful one that affects all those who once knew Peter Parker (regardless of whether they are on Earth or not), or it could be one that affects the entire timeline and thus covers beyond Earth.
Although having characters like Captain Marvel, Fury, the Guardians, and Thor remember Peter Parker and thus be able to lend him a hand if needed would be heartwarming to watch, this would ultimately undermine Peter’s sacrifice, who gave up the two people closest to him in order to save the universe (and, in the process, Maguire and Garfield’s Peter Parkers also made huge sacrifices through Peter’s decision, unbeknownst to them). The details of the final spell in Spider-Man: No Way Home will have to be addressed at some point in the MCU’s Phase 4, but until then, Peter Parker is all by himself.