Spider-Man: No Way Home’s events take place immediately after those of Spider-Man: Far From Home. The identity of Peter Parker (Tom Holland) as Spider-Man is revealed to the public by Jake Gyllenhaal’s Quentic Beck, a.k.a. Mysterio. So Peter approaches Doctor Strange, who chooses to cast a spell that will make everyone forget that Peter is Spider-Man in response. All of the villains from other universes who were aware that Peter Parker is Spider-Man are sent to the MCU due to Peter’s meddling with the spell.
The famed Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Electro, Sandman, and Lizard are created in this way. The first three are essential to Spider-Man: No Way Home, but the last two are more like mentions.
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Who Are The Villains in Spider-Man: No Way Home ?
While Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn, or Green Goblin, and Alfred Molina’s Otto Octavius, aka Doc Ock, date back to the early 2000s, Jamie Foxx’s Electro is a more recent character.
Willem Dafoe as the fearsome yet sympathetic Green Goblin in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002). Dafoe did an excellent job of playing a dual-identity character. Two years later, Alfred Molina wore the mechanical arms to play the villainous Doc Ock in Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 (2004). Molina did the same, seamlessly cementing his persona in our minds. Jamie Foxx would not debut as Max Dillon, alias Electro, until The Amazing Spider-Man 2—ten years later and in a different version of Spider-Man (2014).
The fact that Marvel cast such well-known performers as Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina, as well as the fact that they both accepted the roles, must have surprised them. Spider-Man would mark the beginning of a new era, which carried a significant risk. Thankfully, the Spider-Man trilogy by Raimi, which completely changed the superhero film genre, is now regarded as its forerunner. For roles in films like The Last Temptation of Christ and Shadow of the Vampire, Dafoe had won praise from critics. On the other side, Molina was well-known for Frida and Boogie Nights. However, Spider-Man was an entirely new concept. Perhaps it was fate that they would be cast in the live-action superhero movies that would make them immortal. Jamie Foxx was in line after him (Academy Award, Ray). The Spider-Man movies had become a global phenomenon by this point. Foxx’s transformation into Electro merely raised the stakes.
From Which Universe These Villains Come From?
Norman Osborn’s request for a military contract to develop a serum with superhuman abilities and a glider suit was rejected in Spider-Man (2002). However, he administers the serum to himself and goes insane. He fluctuates between being insane and the evil Green Goblin. In Spider-Man (2002), he gets murdered by his own glider at the very end. However, it appears that in Spider-Man: No Way Home, he has been transported from just before his final confrontation with Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man. He is thus spared.
Doc Ock is, however, drawn in at the very moment when he had Spider-Man by the throat (at the conclusion of Spider-Man (2002)), as he mentions. Two movie sequences that are relevant to this are. Either that, or Doc Ock was preparing to impale Spider-Man with one of his arms while holding him upside down. Or perhaps it was when he was holding a naked Peter by his throat. Although the latter scenario makes more sense (because he has Spider-Man by the throat), Octavius had no greater animosity toward Spider-Man than just because Parker was Otto’s own classmate. As a result, even if the first scenario is unrelated, it makes more sense since we can feel the genuine anger there, the same hatred that is present in Spider-Man: No Way Home. In either scenario, he drowns in the river and passes away. And his life is only saved by being pulled here.
In The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), Max Dillon, aka Electro, is dragged into the action just as he is about to perish during the final confrontation with Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man at the electrical grid. As a result, he too, like the other two, is saved.
On the other hand, we don’t know when Sandman and Lizard were dragged in from their own timelines. They both do not experience death and are living in their separate timelines.
Why Haven t the Villains Aged?
The Green Goblin and Doc Ock are both the same age as they were in Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, respectively, when they passed away. For the same reason, CGI was used to artificially age Alfred Molina. They are dragged from their final moments of life, which is the same reason for this. But because they were yanked out of their own universes’ present time, Tobey and Andrew have both aged into their respective Peter Parkers. After Spider-Man 3’s events, Tobey’s Peter is living with MJ, whilst Andrew’s Peter is still mourning Gwen’s passing and trying to be diplomatic, something he claims to have stopped doing recently.
How the Villains Are Different Now?
In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Dafoe’s Osborn is still engaged in a mental conflict with his evil side. In an attempt to silence the voice that essentially lives inside his skull, he breaks the goblin mask. It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that he asks Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) for assistance. He must have found her as a result of his cunning thinking in some way. He wants to improve or seems to improve only to schedule his actions to murder Tom Holland’s Peter Parker or injure him, which he accomplishes by killing Aunt May. In a sense, Dafoe’s portrayal as the Green Goblin is what gives Peter his Spider-Man moment, or the realisation that with tremendous power comes great responsibility.
We enjoy Molina’s portrayal of Doc Ock because he is possibly the most reasonable villain there is. He is not mad, and he does not possess the same insatiable need for power as Foxx’s Electro. And being the scientist that he is, he is more focused on the present and whatever he is experiencing in what appears to be a separate universe, even though he does recall the strength of the sun. He is the one who stops Electro and aids in Electro’s destruction. In exchange, he meets his favourite pupil, Tobey’s Peter Parker, who is still striving for improvement.
While being dragged from his realm into this one, Max Dillon’s Electro experiences a drastic alteration. There he was silly, but here he is more Jamie-Foxx Electro. He is a less positive version of himself, someone who is desperate for power due to his desire to become greater (something he first experienced in The Amazing Spider-Man 2). Here was a persona I played in Baby Driver, Jamie Foxx explains in an interview with the New York Times about his role. Bats was his name. Although Bats was eliminated, this provided an opportunity to provide Bats some insight into Electro.
By the time Spider-Man ends, all three of the villains in question get the opportunity to atone for their sins and add depth to their stories. Osborn accomplishes this by maintaining his bad motives up until the antidote is administered to him. Doc Ock accomplishes this by rediscovering his true self and assisting Holland’s Spider-Man in taking down Goblin and Electro, and Max Dillon accomplishes this by owning up to his mistakes while working with Garfield’s Spider-Man (and also dropping an easter egg of Miles Morales). But since Dillon is unaware that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, it doesn’t make sense for him to visit this world. There is still no resolution to this plot hole.
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What About Venom?
Venom, while not knowing anything about Peter Parker or Spider-Man, is also introduced into this world. In the post-credits sequence of Venom 2, after Peter is introduced to this universe, he learns about Peter for the first time. Eddie tries to understand the Avengers and Thanos in the Spider-Man: No Way Home post-credits sequence. He is then banished back to his universe before he can accomplish anything else (leaving behind a small souvenir of the symbiote, which shouldn t be the case since any and everything from another universe is sent back, but it s Marvel, so we forgive that for the sake of the possibility of an upcoming MCU movie that has its own Venom).
However, there is a justification for the introduction of Eddie and Venom to this world. In the post-credits scene of Venom 2, Venom claims to have multiverse knowledge and 80 billion years of hive knowledge across all universes, which is likely a reference to Sony’s upcoming Madame Web movie starring Dakota Johnson. There is no other way to explain their entry into the MCU, despite the fact that it may sound confused.
What Happened To The Multiverse Villains At the End Of Spider-Man: No Way Home ?
Doc Ock, Norman Osborn, and Max Dillion have all been healed and will not cause trouble when they return to their own times. The same holds true for Sandman and Lizard. Doc, Osborn, and Max will all be able to live normal lives without passing away, though. If they are sent to the exact same point in their timelines as when they were pulled here is the unanswered question. We’ll let you make your own deductions.
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