‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ theory undoes the worst Marvel death

is gwen stacy alive? In 2014, the Andrew Garfield-directed Spidey film The Amazing Spider-Man 2 honored a tragic story from Marvel Comics. The film adapted the moment Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) dies after Peter Parker tries to save her. However, the latest Spider-Man movie, No Way Home, could have changed Gwen’s destiny.

If the spider-man: no way home multiverse crossover rules operate the way we think they do, then a new timeline may have been created where gwen stacy is alive. Here’s how and why Spider-Man’s amazing heroine might yet return. Spoilers ahead for Spider-Man No Way Home.

the redeemed villains of no way home

The climax of No Way Home concerns the three Spider-Men: Peter 1 (Tom Holland), Peter 2 (Tobey Maguire), and Peter 3 (Andrew Garfield), all trying to turn various villains to the side of good. While Doctor Otto Octavius ​​is “healed” early on, the Spider-Men have to fix the rest of the bad guys by the end of the movie. when all of this is accomplished, there’s a sense that each of these reformed baddies go back to their respective timelines. but this time, they have changed.

while peter 2 and peter 3 seem to come from a parallel point in time like peter 1, the villains traveled through dimensions and time. let’s put it this way: peter 2 (maguire) appears to be a version of that spider-man, whose life continued after the events of spider-man 3 (2007) and is simply the age he is now, roughly 2023 or so . the same happens with pedro 3 (garfield); What we’re seeing is a version of him after the events of 2014, in an unseen timeline where he remained Spider-Man after Gwen’s death in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

but then again, the villains are all from the past. Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Sandman, The Lizard, and Electro were ripped from their respective universes at the moment they were about to die fighting Spider-Man. so when they all get sent back to their universes, they presumably go back to the time they were fighting their respective spiders. And this is where things get interesting.

electro and gwen stacy

if we just focus on the peter 3 universe, it seems that there are at least two alternate timelines created by the “healing” of lizard and electro. two in which the events of the amazing spider-man (2012) and the amazing spider-man 2 would end differently. Assuming these two alternate timelines are isolated from each other (big assumption), it seems like the idea of ​​a redeemed Electro would fundamentally change the plot of The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

In that movie, the second blackout caused by electro (jamie foxx) sets in motion a series of events that lead to gwen’s death. Peter (Andrew Garfield) and Gwen (Emma Stone) destroy the Electro moments before Harry Osborn (Dane Dehaan) appears and attacks Gwen. But if Electro returns to that time a different man, Peter and Gwen might not kill him, and he would be in a position to help them fight Harry.

if peter 3, gwen and electro team up against harry osborn, then suddenly all the elements that led to gwen’s death are very different.

peter 3’s fault and no way home

a touching moment that has nothing to do with home makes specific reference to gwen’s death, but reverses it when peter 3 saves mj (zendaya). Andrew Garfield plays this scene brilliantly, and you can see that we’re supposed to read this as a moment of bittersweet triumph. he is able to save mj in this universe in a way that he couldn’t save gwen in his universe.

but, if we think about the logistics of the film’s wibbly-wobbly multiverse, maybe this scene means something more. maybe when peter 3 returns to his universe, gwen will be waiting for him. and if that’s the case, then no road home not only reconciled the continuity of three previously disparate spider-verses; it also reversed one of the most unfair comic book deaths of all time.

spider-man: no way home is out in theaters now.