Spider-Man: No Way Home post-credits scenes, explained

Spider-Man and Doctor Strange’s tampering with reality will apparently have long-term consequences for them both.


Sony Pictures

Spider-Man: No Way Home is bringing Tom Holland’s first trilogy of solo Marvel Cinematic Universe adventures to a close this week, bringing back classic villains from the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield movies to put the webslinger to the ultimate test. As is Marvel tradition, the film includes a post-credits stinger to set up further storylines.

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These multiversal villains are the result of Peter Parker trying to restore his secret identity after a vengeful Mysterio revealed it to the world in the final moments of 2019’s Far From Home. Let’s take a look at the post-credits scenes and their consequences for Spidey’s MCU future.

Major No Way Home SPOILERS swinging your way.

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Mid-credits: One lost symbiote

With the villains all cured and returned to their universes along with the other Peter Parkers (Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield), the world having forgotten MCU Peter exists and him back to anonymously fighting crime in New York City, we jump to a lovely bar in Mexico.

Drinking there is Eddie Brock, aka Venom (Tom Hardy), whom we saw jumping into the MCU from the universe of the Venom movies during the Let There Be Carnage mid-credits scene. Since then, the journalist and his alien buddy have learned about Iron Man, Hulk and Thanos – apparently from a bartender played by Cristo Fernández, whom you might know as the delightful Danny Rojas in Ted Lasso.

Eddie and Venom in Let There Be Carnage

Eddie and Venom’s stay in the MCU turned out to be brief.


Sony Pictures

Eddie decides to track down Spidey in New York, but Venom notes that they’re drunk and decides to go skinny dipping. Before they can take their nudey swim, they’re teleported away — likely sent home as a result of the same spell Strange used to send the other Spider-Men and their villains back to their universes.

They failed to pay their bill, which is rather rude, and left behind a fragment of the symbiote, which is extremely rude.

Venom in Let There Be Carnage

A part of Venom might still find Spidey. 


Sony Pictures

What does it mean?

We’re gonna get a symbiote-empowered Danny Rojas — “Football is Venom!” 

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We’ve already seen Spidey don a black costume in a movie, but the MCU could keep the design closer to the comics if it riffs on that story. 


Marvel Comics

Or the symbiote will follow through with Eddie’s idea and track down Spidey, which could result in Peter bonding with the symbiote. Eddie and Venom were brought into the MCU after the symbiote offered Eddie “a taste” of the symbiote hive mind’s collective knowledge. They see Peter’s identity being revealed on television and somehow recognize the wall crawler, even though he doesn’t exist in the Venom movie universe.

It’s possible this version of Venom has the memories of the one killed in Spider-Man 3 through the symbiote hive mind. That universe’s Venom symbiote bonded with Peter, possibly leaving some sense of the wall crawler in their collective consciousness.

In the comics, the Venom symbiote came to Earth with Peter after the extremely silly ’80s crossover event Secret Wars (which was really just an 12-issue ad for a toy line). He rejected the alien and left it for dead.

It found Eddie Brock, a reporter whose journalistic career Spidey inadvertently ruined by exposing a major story as false, and the two bonded to become Venom (this was adapted for Spider-Man 3) — infused with Peter’s powers and knowledge of his secret identity.Their shared hatred initially led them to hunt Spidey, but they came to an uneasy truce and later became allies. The symbiote hive mind concept is explored in Donny Cates’ excellent 2018 Venom comics run.

Tobey Maguire Peter mentions his encounter with the black alien goo, but the Andrew Garfield one doesn’t — suggesting that there hasn’t been a Venom in the Amazing Spider-Man universe. 

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This guy’s next adventure looks like it’ll be rough.


Marvel Studios

Post-credits: A Strange teaser

We jump away from the Spidey drama for a trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (which comes out May 6, 2022). It seems tampering with the multiverse has spiralled out of control for Strange, and he’s been forced to turn to Wanda Maximoff (aka the Scarlet Witch) for help.

She’s been living in isolation since the events of WandaVision and assumes Strange is here to bring justice for her grief-fuelled bewitching of Westview, but he assures her that he’s just there to learn about the multiverse from her. In the final moments of WandaVision, we saw her searching alternate universes for her lost sons 

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The Scarlet Witch will return in the Doctor Strange sequel.


Marvel Studios

The rest of the teaser features a dark version of Doctor Strange — a character who’ll be familiar to people who watched the animated MCU series What If… ? — former Strange ally Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a tentacle monster with a huge eye and debuting hero America Chavez.

The trailer also gives us a glimpse of Christine wearing a wedding dress, but her role in the sequel is unclear.

Doctor Strange Supreme in Marvel's What If... ?

Strange Supreme will seemingly return.


Marvel Studios

What does it mean?

This gives us a taste of the allies and villains we’ll see in the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel. The dark version of Doctor Strange is almost certainly Strange Supreme, who played a pivotal role in What If… ? 

This alternate reality Strange became obsessed with reversing the death of fellow surgeon and lover Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams). He amassed incredible power by absorbing other mystical beings, but can’t revive Christine and ultimately destroys his universe.

We last saw Strange Supreme in the What If…? season finale, when the Watcher delegated the task of watching over the trapped Armin Zola, Killmonger and the Infinity Stones in a pocket dimension (it is a little odd that the Watcher outsourced a watching task — that’s his whole job).

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Karl Mordo will probably be among the movie’s main antagonists.


Marvel Studios

You might remember Mordo becoming disillusioned with what he saw as Strange and the Ancient One abusing the mystic arts in 2016’s Doctor Strange, and stealing Jonathan Pangborn’s powers in his quest to rid the world of sorcerers during that movie’s post-credits scene — it’s likely that will bring him into conflict with Strange in the sequel. 

America Chavez, who’ll be played by Xochitl Gomez in her first MCU appearance, doesn’t really do anything in the trailer. However, her comics counterpart has the power to open  holes in reality, allowing for multiversal travel — seems like a useful ability in a movie with this theme.

The tentacle beastie is likely Gargantos, an obscure sea monster that first appeared in the comics in the ’60s, or Shuma-Gorath, an interdimensional tentacle beastie of immense power.

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