

Strange’s spell is really just a means to an end the story excuse to get all these vintage Spider-Man characters from other film universes into No Way Home. You’re not really meant to think too intensely about its specifics.

But Strange’s spell doesn’t work and instead begins sucking characters like Molina’s Doctor Octopus into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. From the early stages, it was known that Benedict Cumberbatch would play a key part in the film, and clips and teasers established the basic premise: After the world discovers Peter Parker is Spider-Man at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, he asks Strange to make the world forget his secret. Pretty much the only part of the movie that they didn’t hide from the beginning was Doctor Strange’s role.
