Did No Way Home Magazine Story Confirm Lizard & Sandman's Return?
Empire magazine's Spider-Man: No Way Home story has led to further speculation about the returns of Thomas Haden Church's Sandman and Rhys Ifans' Lizard. The third installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's webslinging franchise is set directly after the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home in which Tom Holland's Peter Parker was ousted as the titular hero by Mysterio during the post-credits of the film and framed for the villain's murder. Desperate to restore sanity to his life, Parker turns to Doctor Strange for help with a spell to erase everyone's memory of him as Spider-Man, only for it to go awry and open the door to the multiverse that the two must find a way to close.
Alongside Holland, the confirmed cast for Spider-Man: No Way Home includes Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Zendaya, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon, J.B. Smoove and Benedict Wong. The MCU threequel will also see the returns of Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 and Jamie Foxx from The Amazing Spider-Man 2. While rumors have swirled regarding which other actors may be returning for Spider-Man: No Way Home following the first trailer, a new story has given further fuel to the rumor fire that two other former villains will return.
The print edition of Empire magazine has drawn a lot of attention from fans on social media as pages have circulated from the cover story for Spider-Man: No Way Home in which a snippet seemingly indicates the returns of Church's Sandman from Raimi's Spider-Man 3 and Ifans' Lizard from The Amazing Spider-Man alongside Jamie Foxx's Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Some Twitter users, including Ash Arnold, shared images of the printed story in which it is explained that Doctor Strange's failed spell opens up the door to other realities, namely "the worlds of the previous Spider-Man movies that predate the MCU," and subsequently lists Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin, Church's Sandman, Ifans' Lizard and Foxx's Electro as some seen in these worlds. The story includes a note from the team behind the film in which they neither confirm nor deny the potential for the former three to return, with Watts even joking that he "can confirm those are rumors."
It is important to note that the context of the graph teasing Church's Sandman and Ifans' Lizard is explaining that Spider-Man: No Way Home will be connecting to the worlds of both Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy and Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man films. Molina and Foxx's casting make this point unsurprising, even if the latter has yet to be properly seen in any form of marketing for the film. While the team behind the highly anticipated film downplay Church and Ifans' involvement - as well as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's - as rumors, it's also interesting to note that their comments are described as the group being "in no hurry to confirm or deny appearances" and that the cover for the latest issue of Empire teases the return of Sandman. Still, official word from Sony and Marvel is that Lizard and Sandman are not confirmed to be in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Empire's report shouldn't be taken as confirmation.
The first trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home left audiences reeling with plenty of questions for the multiverse-spanning story, including whether Dafoe is indeed back as Green Goblin as teased in the final moments of the trailer. With Holland recently teasing a major scene with a mystery character involving the discussion of what it means to be a superhero, the rumor and theory mills continue to swirl about the possibilities of who this may be, from the prior Spider-Men to Charlie Cox's Daredevil. Only time will tell when Spider-Man: No Way Home hits theaters on December 17.
Source: Empire