A new report outlined one way Marvel Studios may undo one of its controversial Spider-Man plot points. The Phase 4 film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, introduced huge stakes for Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and his friends, which ultimately resulted in an irreversible choice. However, that choice may not be too irreparable, depending on how Avengers: Secret Wars turns out.
In his third Spider-Man outing, Holland's Peter Parker attempted to use magic to change the world after the world discovered his secret identity. After meddling with Doctor Strange's spell, enemies from all across the Multiverse who knew Peter Parker's true identity came looking for him on Earth-616, resulting in three Spider-Men uniting to defeat their shared enemies. In the end, Peter 1 had to make the ultimate sacrifice by asking Doctor Strange to wipe the world's memory of his existence, resulting in his girlfriend, MJ (Zendaya), and best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon), forgetting him.
This choice proved to be controversial, both from a plot standpoint and in terms of fan reaction. As far as the plot goes, Spider-Man: No Way Home's ending left Peter Parker friendless and family-less as he was forced to restart his life without anyone knowing his actual name. At the same time, fans have spent years poking holes in the logic of Doctor Strange's memory wipe spell, debating whether it was truly successful and what it might mean in the context of the wider MCU Multiverse.
While Spider-Man: Brand New Day will address the immediate ramifications of this new status quo for Peter, a new report suggested that Avengers: Secret Wars could be the key to changing Spider-Man's narrative. In a Cosmic Circus Q&A with Alex Perez, the insider was asked whether the events of Avengers: Secret Wars would offer Marvel a way out of Doctor Strange's memory spell conundrum. Perez hinted that "the universe being destroyed and reset" would break Strange's spell, rendering the Spider-Man: No Way Home plot point null and void:
"Yeah. With the universe being destroyed and reset, the spell will ultimately be broken. The memory spell was mainly a way to keep the universes at bay."
With Avengers: Secret Wars set to adapt the famed Marvel Comics storyline of the same name, several expectations can be drawn about the movie's plot based on the source material. Notably, in Secret Wars, a Multiversal incursion fractures reality, and Doctor Doom, using the power of the Beyonders, puts together the pieces into a new planet, Battleworld. The surviving heroes then confront Doom, with Reed Richards gaining the power to recreate and restore the Multiverse.
Should Avengers: Secret Wars follow a similar trajectory of breaking and restoring the Multiverse, it seems this would be enough of a reset to break Doctor Strange's memory spell and re-establish the world's memories of Peter Parker, thus undoing the major turning point of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Avengers: Secret Wars will be the final film of Phase 6 and of the MCU's Multiverse Saga. The cast for the film has yet to be announced, although Holland's Spider-Man is expected to feature following his solo outing in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Avengers: Secret Wars is scheduled for release on December 17, 2027.
How Avengers: Secret Wars Can Save Spider-Man
While the exact plot arcs of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Secret Wars are yet to be confirmed, the theory that there will be a Multiversal reset in Secret Wars, which could alter things for Peter Parker, seems to be a good one.
With Spider-Man: Brand New Day expected to be more of a street-level superhero story, it seems unlikely that Holland's Peter Parker will be dealing with Multiversal stakes again, like he was in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Instead, it seems more plausible that Marvel Studios will give Spider-Man at least one movie to deal with the repercussions of his decisions in Spider-Man: No Way Home before giving him the chance to reset things with Avengers 6.
What remains to be seen is what Spider-Man's life will look like after this Multiversal reset. If the universe is restored to the way it was before, minus the effects of Doctor Strange's spell, this would mean that Peter is in a similar situation as he was at the beginning of Spider-Man: No Way Home, with the world knowing his dual identities, making it incredibly difficult for him to live an everyday life.
Alternatively, perhaps Peter will be given a chance to make some requests when the Multiverse is being rebuilt, potentially asking Reed Richards (or whoever ends up restoring the universe) to reset the world without Mysterio having revealed his secret. On the other hand, Spider-Man's new direction post-Secret Wars could be to learn to live with the reality of the world knowing his actual name and to accept it as part of his heroic duty.
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