Nine months after its initial release, Spider-Man: No Way Home is back in theaters and has sparked a new wave of fan theories as it screened new footage.
The new version of No Way Home includes a smattering of new clips and a new post-credit sequence, but it also has led fans to have entirely new questions about how exactly Doctor Strange’s deus ex machina spell exactly worked. The memory wipe spell seems to have resulted in photos of Peter Parker and his friends now having him obscured by pigeons and trees.
However, how does this work with the gallery of photos featuring Peter made by his teachers during the first act of the film? Well, according to a fan theory, there could be a decent explanation. Posted by /u/YorchKeen, the master of the mystic arts works in mysterious ways, or maybe got lucky.
Strange’s spell seems to tap into the multiverse and also works to slowly fade people’s interest in the target as time goes on. As for the photos seen in Peter’s high school, the theory believes that after Aunt May’s death was announced people took down photos of Peter out of respect.
As nice as that sounds, it wouldn’t match up well with the idea at the end of the film of Peter not being able to attend his aunt’s funeral, nor Happy not recognizing Peter (her nephew) in the slightest. Really, the Doctor Strange mindwipe really doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny.
There had also been theories that Wong still remembers Peter thanks to a throwaway line, plus Strange has now traveled to other dimensions with Peter Parkers.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, and is currently in cinemas again.