The saddest Spider-Man might get his well-deserved happy ending at long last if this Secret Wars theory is to be believed.
Spider-Man has it pretty rough and it’s not just Andrew Garfield’s version of the character. Tom Holland’s Spidey had to make one of the toughest choices a hero has ever made at the end of No Way Home in erasing himself from everyone’s memory and lost his aunt to boot. In fact, out of all the Marvel heroes, it seems that Spider-Man always suffers the most, even in the comics, and we get it, “with great power” yadda yadda, but come on.
Out of the live-action Spider-Men, there’s doubt Garfield’s iteration has suffered the most due to failing to save Gwen. The turmoil this caused him is evident at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 where he quits being the hero New York needs for several months. Even when he returns in No Way Home seven years later, he is still clearly a broken man who at some point stopped pulling his punches.
So could there be a happy ending for arguably the best iteration of the web-slinger after all? We already got a few golden moments of redemption for the character in No Way Home as he was able to save Peter 1’s MJ from suffering a similar fate to his Gwen. Also, the knowledge that he was also able to play a part in saving his universe’s villains as well as Peter 1 and Peter 2’s villains would hopefully also bring him some comfort. However, Secret Wars has the opportunity to give him the real happy ending he truly deserves.
So what’s the theory?
The idea shared on TheCosmicCircus.com suggests that the multiverse will play a huge part in Peter 3’s happy ending (duh). Reports suggest that Garfield and Tobey Maguire have been approached to reprise their roles yet again for the Avengers movie. However, the theory goes further, suggesting that the upcoming film might take some inspiration from the recent Across the Spider-Verse movie and introduce more spider variants.
One such variant could very well be a Spider-Gwen whose life mirrors Peter’s. Spider-Gwen would, of course, be played by Emma Stone, who already has fans speculating about her potentially playing the character, although fans might be reading a bit too much into it all at the moment, (she got a haircut).
The two could hopefully find some way to stay together either visiting across the multiverse or perhaps their universes somehow merging, (hopefully not in the form of an incursion). Either way, it would be nice to see Andrew’s Peter finally be given the happy ending he deserves after ten years. Could it actually happen? Well, the Marvel writers seem to love torturing Spider-Man, so maybe not.