Is Doctor Octopus Helping Spider-Man in New No Way Home Trailer?

On Tuesday, we finally got the newest look at Spider-Man: No Way Home, with a new trailer for the film being released with great fanfare. The trailer provided epic glimpses of a few of the film’s villains, including some that fans hadn’t been expecting to see on the big screen just yet. Among them is Dr. Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), who was briefly teased at the end of the first trailer, but factored more prominently this time around. Based on the lines of dialogue in the trailer, we can’t help but wonder — is Doc Ock actually working on the side of Spider-Man?

The trailer provided a bit more context to the multiversal exploits of the film’s returning villains, revealing that they accidentally arrived after Peter Parker / Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and Stephen Strange / Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) accidentally ruined the spell that would’ve kept Peter’s identity a secret. In the already-memed fight scene between the two on a bridge, Doc Ock remarks that Peter isn’t the Peter he recognizes. Later on in the trailer, it appears as if Doc Ock is trapped in some sort of glass case, and is introduced to Peter, Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon), and MJ (Zendaya). As we eventually learn in the trailer, Doctor Strange takes issue with the other villains showing up because of the multiversal ramifications of that, in part because they’re doomed to die by their respective Spider-Men, something that Peter is at odds with him about.

Based on the footage we’ve seen, it certainly seems as if Doc Ock might be looking to Spider-Man as an ally in this multiversal ordeal, especially against Strange’s point of view. Not only would this provide a new dynamic compared to Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, but it would also play with the potential dynamics of the Sinister Six (or five) who are teased in the trailer.

“‘Do we want to revisit villains we’ve seen before?’ No, let’s do Vulture, and Mysterio, and characters we haven’t brought to the screen before,’” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige previously explained to Empire. “But I remember thinking, ‘How would you even do Doc Ock again?,’ because Alfred Molina is perfect casting. If you ever brought him back, it would have to be him somehow.”

Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to be released on December 17th.