Spider-Man: No Way Home's Biggest Spoiler Cameos ExplainedWarning: This post contains SPOILERS for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Warning: This post contains SPOILERS for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Despite a concentrated and often intense marketing campaign that revealed some huge secrets, Spider-Man: No Way Home still managed to protect its 4 biggest cameo appearances. Sure, there were rumors of the appearances of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Men, but they were shot down or dismissed as fake, with Garfield in particular adamant that people should stop asking. And with the attention focused on those two, No Way Home's other two cameos managed to sneak under the radar.

After Avengers: Endgame and without an Avengers 5 project firmly announced, Phase 4 had a lot of heavy lifting to do to compete with the crowning glory at the end of the Infinity Saga. So far, the movies have been firmly entrenched in the middle of the Marvel Cinematic movie ranking, but Spider-Man: No Way Home is very much a top rung release. It might not be flawless, but there's a charm to its mistakes that is more than made up for by how purely entertaining and joyful it is. The fan-service on show is astonishing, particularly in its use of cameos and supporting Marvel character appearances.

Related: Spider-Man: No Way Home Reviews Prove Sony's Masterstroke

Inevitably, the appearances of three Spider-Man variants at once will be the biggest news out of No Way Home, and the source of the most number of memes, no doubt, but there are more secret cameos here to explore. And keeping up with the multiversal logic and the canon complexities presented by these cameos is enough to require a guide to how it all happens: here's a look at all of Spider-Man: No Way Home's secret cameos.

How Tobey Maguire & Andrew Garfield Return In No Way Home

The marketing for Spider-Man: No Way Home cleverly hid the truth of why the returning multiverse Spider-Man movie villains are teleported to the MCU. The trailers suggested, through Doctor Strange, that the villains were unified in their fates of dying at the hands of Spider-Man, but the reality is more fitting. Instead, No Way Home reveals that the villains are drawn into the MCU by Strange's botched spell because they know that Peter Parker is secretly Spider-Man in their universes. The spell is contained before more come through - including, presumably, millions of Aunt Mays, MJs, and Miles Moraleses, but Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Men are both brought through at the same time. Much like Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse's multiversal set-up, each Spider-Man was pulled in against their will and was then drawn to finding the main universe's Spidey.

What Happened To Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker After Raimi's Spider-Man Movies

While Spider-Man: No Way Home's multiversal villains are all drawn into the MCU at the point of their deaths - apart from Rhys Ifans' Lizard, who never died (though it's not addressed) and Thomas Haden Church's Sandman, who also survived - Maguire and Garfield's Spider-Men are drawn in from later in their timelines. Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker reveals that in the period after Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3, he worked hard on his relationship with MJ Watson (Kirsten Dunst) and the pair are still together. He's also still a hero in Raimi's side of the Spider-Verse at the point he's brought to the MCU. Given how old he appears to be, the suggestion is that he was brought from the same year as No Way Home's setting.

What Happened To Andrew Garfield Peter Parker After The Amazing Spider-Man Movies

Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man is more of a morality tale for the MCU Peter Parker, having turned his rage at the death of Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 into a darkness within him. He reveals to Tom Holland's Spider-Man that her death led to a change in how he operated as a hero, which he still does, as he stopped pulling his punches. The unspecified suggestion there is that Garfield's Spider-Man kills, which his fellow heroes have actively avoided. When he's able to save Zendaya's MJ from falling from the scaffolding on the MCU's new Statue of Liberty, he seems to be redeemed and drawn out of the darkness of his vengeance.

Related: Marvel Should Loan Deadpool To Sony's Spider-Verse (To Fix A Huge Issue)

Could Maguire & Garfield's Spider-Men Return Again?

No Way Home's ending does not seem to set up a return to the MCU for Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield, but there will certainly be a lot of goodwill behind any push to see more from the characters, even in their own universes. Tom Holland's Spider-Man story has probably now moved on from their potential return, but Maguire's perfect return as Spider-Man could be used to bring Miles Morales to Sony's Spider-Verse, and Andrew Garfield has a pertinent claim to unfinished business. Never has such a great performance, which Garfield builds on in No Way Home, been so tragically trapped in such poorly executed movies. If there was a way to bring Garfield back as Peter Parker for Sony, all parties should be breaking whatever is necessary to make it happen.

Charlie Cox's Daredevil Returns In No Way Home

No Way Home sets its surprise stalls out early, revealing the return of Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock to the MCU after the cancelation of Netflix's Daredevil. In what seems to have been a happy coincidence, given the changes to the MCU release schedule, that reveal comes within mere days of Vincent D'Onofrio's return as Kingpin in Hawkeye episode 5. So far, it's unclear whether Daredevil remains canon, but it's just good to see two of the best parts of Netflix's canceled MCU annex ported into the mainline MCU. Cox appears as a legal advisor to Tom Holland's Peter Parker after his arrest for the "murder" of Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio in Far From Home, explaining (somewhat bafflingly) that none of the charges are expected to stick, before warning Happy of Stark Industries' culpability. And as an exciting nod to the fact that Murdock may already be operating as Daredevil in the MCU, even if his own canon is abandoned, he catches a brick thrown through the window, attributing the skill to being "a really great lawyer." It's such a cool moment that you can almost forgive the fact that Spider-Man's Spider Senses don't pre-warn him of the coming projectile.

Tom Hardy's Secret Venom Cameo In No Way Home

The second Spider-Man: No Way Home post-credits scene avoided the usual MCU conventions by revealing the first trailer for Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, the mid-credits scene paid off Venom 2's post-credits scene. That meant that Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock appeared in Mexico - but the MCU Mexico - where he was shown quizzing a local barman about how many superheroes are active in the MCU, while drunkenly arguing with Venom's voice in his head. It's a funny little scene that doesn't amount to a great deal until Hardy's Brock is zapped back to his own universe, leaving the smallest dollop of black goo on the bar and setting up Venom's possible future in the MCU after No Way Home. Fingers crossed for a proper symbiote suit Spider-Man.

Next: Who Is The Voice of Venom?

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