Ahead of the release of Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home next month, fans are speculating a new poster for the film is a tease for the introduction of a new Marvel character, the extradimensional demon known as Mephisto, who, in the comics, rules a fiery pocket dimension he calls Hell or Hades.
The image in question features Tom Holland’s Spider-Man facing a thorn of Doc Ock’s metal arms atop a fiery pile of concrete ruin.
As you can see below, some fans are zooming in to some of those flames, apparently making out the face of the demon.
We’re not sure if it’s a case of overzealous pattern recognition, however, since different users have zoomed in on different portions of the poster.
However, with No Way Home‘s multiverse-centric plot revolving around Peter Parker disrupting a spell by Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Stranger in order to erase people’s memory of Spider-Man’s secret identity, it certainly seems plausible that an extradimensional being could find its way to Earth.
Others aren’t so convinced by the theory, however.
When you add a grin to the seemingly innocuous detail, that can certainly add to the theory’s credulity.
Then again, maybe this entire trend on Twitter is nothing but an elaborate troll, as evidenced by this user’s claim that a tiny speck in the upper left-hand corner is supposed to be Silver Surfer. But who knows, perhaps both will be teases that happen to pan out after all. We’ll just have to see.
Regardless of what other ancillary characters might crop up in the forthcoming film, the poster does give us a hard confirmation of Green Goblin returning to the franchise.
What other characters would you like to see in Spider-Man: No Way Home when it releases in theaters on Dec. 17? Leave it in the comments below.