‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’: Everything You Need to Know About the MCU Multiverse

Spider-Man: No Way Home—the most hyped Marvel movie since Avengers: Endgame—drops on Friday, Dec. 17. The early buzz has been universally positive. Critics are praising lead actor Tom Holland for his portrayal of Peter Parker. They are also praising Sony and Marvel Studios for doing what once seemed impossible: uniting all three Spider-Man movie franchises under a single title. It’s a two-and-a-half-hour movie that’s been germinating for over two decades.

According to the trailers and preview footage, Spider-Man: No Way Home embraces the concept of a Multiverse. Dr. Strange botches a spell intended to help Peter, and he inadvertently opens an interdimensional pathway, through which different universes can contact and interact with one another. This is a mistake that will reverberate for years to come; Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the follow-up to this film, hits theaters in May.

But this is not a sudden plot twist; Marvel Studios has been building and foreshadowing the concept of a Multiverse for years. Here’s everything you need to know about the MCU Multiverse—what it is, how it started, and where it goes from here.