Warning: Spoilers! (Duh)
Spider-Man: No Way Home is officially in theaters today! If you remembered to stay for the credits, which I bet you did, you got to see two very different post-credits scenes. So here is my breakdown of both of those after-credits scenes.
And if you clicked on this but haven't seen No Way Home, I don't know what you're doing. Watch the movie and then come back.
What Does the Venom Scene Mean?
There are a lot of cameos and fun appearances in No Way Home, but in the midst of Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Charlie Cox, and others, you may be wondering where Tom Hardy's Venom is. And then he appears in the after-credits.
I have to admit: I was not a fan of this post-credits scene. It has the humor that Venom tends to have, but it didn't explain anything. Like, why is Venom in the MCU? He doesn't know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man (unless he does), so it doesn't make sense that Doctor Strange's spell would bring him in and then send him back to his universe. That was the first problem with it.
Secondly, it doesn't make sense that a tiny piece of the Venom symbiote was left in the MCU. Why didn't the spell send that back?
I think that Marvel is setting up Venom being in the MCU, but not in Tom Hardy's body. So there can be, like, two co-existing Venoms. And I am not a huge fan of that idea. For one thing, I enjoy Tom Hardy as Venom. For another, I don't think we should have multiple Venoms at the same time.
My Initial Thoughts on the First Tease for Multiverse of Madness
The second after-credits for No Way Home was the first teaser trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. That was a really fun surprise that I did not expect at all.
There's some weird voiceover of lines from No Way Home about the multiverse, then it cuts to a shot of some very creepy things that did feel like the horror-vibe that they have been hinting at during the production of this movie.
And there were some awesome connections to What If...?. It looked like the squid monster, Shuma-Gorath, that appeared in a few of the What If...? episodes. There were some stunning visuals and some very foreboding shots. Mordo had a quick appearance. We got our first official look at America Chavez.
Wanda Maximoff also appeared. People had been speculating that she'd appear in a villainous role, but the teaser clearly puts her in a heroic light. And I want that. I don't really think Scarlet Witch should be a villain. She's a really good hero that can have a villainous side, but I don't think she should actually be fighting Doctor Strange in this movie.
But the kicker of the trailer was the final shot. As Mordo lectures Strange, he says "Our greatest threat in this universe is...you.".
And the camera tilts up to give us the bombshell reveal of none other than Strange Supreme, the dark variant of Doctor Strange plucked straight from What If...?. My jaw dropped in awe when I saw that. It was absolutely incredible. And my hype level, which was pretty high before, is now through the roof.
This will be our first full exploration of the multiverse. Obviously Loki introduced it, No Way Home teased it a little bit, but Multiverse of Madness literally has multiverse in the title. This movie is going to be nuts. I cannot wait.
I would do a full trailer breakdown, but I've only seen it once. I'm sure after No Way Home is in theaters for a little bit, Marvel will release the trailer online for the general public. But it was super cool.