Warning: This story contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) kicked off in 2008 with Iron Man and after 14 years of interconnected films, plot holes have inevitably cropped up. From Thor’s dropped Infinity Stone quest in Age of Ultron, to Spider-Man: Homecoming’s infamous “eight years later,” these discrepancies have baffled audiences for years. The latest entry into the ever-expanding saga is Spider-Man: No Way Home, which saw the world forget who Peter Parker is. However, fans have pointed out that Doctor Strange’s spell couldn’t destroy the physical evidence of his existence. It’s a confusing problem.
During the climactic events of No Way Home, Doctor Strange and Peter Parker were left with a devastating choice. Either allow the world to be overrun by unending variants or remove the memory of the wallcrawler from the world.
His memory may be gone, with even Doctor Strange forgetting his existence, but surely there would be IDs on databases, University documentation and general information about him either online or physically.
How did he sign for an apartment at the end of the movie without any background information?
The writers behind the movie, Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna, have finally broken their silence on the issue.
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Speaking at IGN Fan Fest, Trent Sening, one of the attendees at the event asked the screenwriters if they have an explanation. McKenna replied: “We talked about that a lot and we can’t divulge much, but just know we talked about it a lot and there were conversations about it. And I will say answering those questions by the end of the movie, felt like it would be almost too much to have to explain that, in this movie. So I would hope that it’s one of those details that I feel like would’ve been a bridge too far for us to have to explain in this movie. But we have thoughts and answers.”
Sommers explained: “We deliberated a lot. Is it going to be like a Back to the Future kind of thing? Or are people going to be disappearing from photos? Are physical objects going to be disappearing? All these things. And like Chris said, ultimately, we decided that it would take so much time and real estate in the movie to explain all of that. It would just detract from the emotion of it.”
It could be that the plot hole’s explanation would somehow spoil the events of the upcoming Sam Raimi-directed epic. It may also impact the story of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which is set to release in late 2022.
That film is currently not connected to the MCU, but as it and No Way Home are dealing with mulitversal issues, a crossover seems highly likely at some stage down the line. After all, Tom Holland already teased the idea earlier this year.
Speaking to Syfy Wire, Holland and co-star Zendaya said they “loved” the first Spider-Verse, adding: “Guys, call us. Put us in your movie, we want to be in it. I’m just waiting for the phone call”.
