As any cursory glance at the internet will have made abundantly clear over the last few days, fans have been picking apart the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer one frame at a time to try and decipher any clues or information, and it’s inevitably led to a whole host of theories making the rounds since the promo racked up a whopping 355 million views in the space of 24 hours.
You couldn’t make this stuff up, but it’s even blown the cobwebs off the Mephisto talk, with Marvel’s version of the devil having been previously and very heavily rumored for WandaVision to no avail, and then again to a lesser extent during the buildup to Loki. The character has become a running joke at this point, but there’s still a recurring line of inquiry that Doctor Strange’s very unusual behavior in the footage could mean something very sinister is going on.
There’s also the small matter that he’s spotted wearing the Eye of Agamotto, which is effectively of no use to him after Thanos reduced all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Infinity Stones to atoms, meaning that they technically don’t exist in the current post-Endgame timeline. As you can see from the reactions below, this has only led to even more musings over Strange’s involvement in No Way Home.
Maybe it’s as simple as the Sorcerer Supreme operating under the impression that nothing ties his outfit together quite like the Eye of Agamotto, or maybe it’s a minor detail that Mephisto overlooked when he was placing himself into the MCU at the expense of the real Dr. Strange. At this stage, it’s impossible to know, but the chatter isn’t going to die down until Spider-Man: No Way Home comes to theaters in December.