The Spider-Man: No Way Home Trailer Teases An Intriguing Doc Ock Detail

Before the "Spider-Man: No Way Home" trailer arrived this week, we already had confirmation that Alfred Molina would be reprising his role as the villainous Doc Ock from "Spider-Man 2" back in 2004. It was the actor himself who confirmed the rumors, and now it's official thanks to his game-changing appearance at the end of the trailer for the upcoming multiverse mayhem arriving in theaters this December. Previously, Molina teased the exact moment that Doc Ock would be pulled from the universe of Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the trailer actually has a tiny, key detail to back it up.

In "Spider-Man 2," an experiment gone wrong results in Dr. Otto Octavius' artificially intelligent, industrial strength arms short-circuiting and damaging a mind-inhibitor chip that prevents the arms from taking control of his brain and motor functions. Power-hungry and prideful, the arms convince Dr. Octavius to follow through on his failed experiment, even if it turns out to be even more dangerous.

The film's climax finds Spider-Man trying to shut down the experimental machine with unthinkable energy that threatens to swallow New York City. After Doc Ock is dealt some tough blows, he becomes dazed and seems to be snapping out of the control of the arms. It's only when Peter Parker leans into Dr. Octavius' memories and principles that he convinces him to overpower the arms and use them to destroy the machine by drowning it in the river.

It's in this moment that we see a key detail that illustrates how the arms react to Dr. Otto Octavius being in control of the arms instead of having the mechanical limbs controlling him.

If you watch the clip above, pay close attention to the light inside the claws of the arms. It glows red whenever Doc Ock is in full villain mode, controlled by the arms. But as he says, "Listen to me now," the light inside the claws begins to flicker and turn white instead of red, indicating that Dr. Octavius is now in control of the arms. So what does this have to do with the "Spider-Man: No Way Home" trailer?

In the climactic moments of the film's trailer, Doc Ock sudddenly shows up to taunt Tom Holland as Peter Parker. If you look at the arm when it zooms onto the screen (called to our attention on Twitter), the light inside the claw is glowing red, indicating that this is still very much the full villainous form of Doc Ock. Check out the still below to see for yourself.

So Doc Ock's redemption arc hasn't been undone for this crossover to take place. Instead, as Molina previously explained, Doc Ock has been pulled into the multiverse just before Peter Parker was able to snap him out of it. However, that has us wondering how the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Peter Parker will dispatch with all these villains from other universes. Will he have to influence these bad guys to redeem themselves or defeat them when they can't be convinced to stop their villainous ways? If so, what would that mean for the universe from where they came? Perhaps this is where the rumors of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield returning as their respective versions of Spider-Man come into play. But that's something we likely won't know until "Spider-Man: No Way Home" arrives in theaters on December 17, 2021.