Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Memory Spell Plot Was Already In Another 2021 Film

In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker wants Doctor Strange to use a spell to make everyone forget he’s Spider-Man, which is similar to a major plot point in Guillermo del Toro’s conclusion to the Tales of Arcadia franchise, Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans. The Tales of Arcadia franchise is very much inspired by the kind of shared universe storytelling popularized by the MCU, with multiple intersecting shows featuring different heroes that all come together in a grand Avengers-style crossover.

Trollhunters is heavily inspired by other popular franchises, so it may be no coincidence that the Trollhunter himself, Jim Lake, is quite similar to Spider-Man in a number of ways. On the surface his powers and the world he occupies may look totally different, his story hits on the same struggles as Spider-Man. Like Peter, Jim struggles with the responsibility of powers he didn’t ask for, he has a group of friends that form a team not unlike Peter’s MCU friends (Jim’s best friend Toby and girlfriend Claire actually bear a number of similarities to Ned and MJ), some of his biggest villains were former teachers or authority figures, he has to take care of his overworked single mother, and he has to do all of it while navigating the school and the world of a teenager.

Related: Trollhunters Ending Repeats A Season 2 Episode (But Reverses The Lesson)

The series slowly escalates threats until the whole world is in peril by the events of Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans, and while Jim ultimately saves the day (and the world), it’s at great cost, with massive damage done to multiple cities, and a few close friends lost. In the end, Jim is given the option to go back in time using the Time Stone (similarly to Captain America and Doctor Strange’s Avengers Endgame stories) to before he became the Trollhunter so he can play through events differently and avoid the catastrophic losses of his final battle. Unfortunately, like Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Jim’s friends and family won’t remember everything that happened, meaning he will be the only one with memories of his time as the Trollhunter, and some relationships will be reset and need to be re-established entirely.

While many of the circumstances are different, the drama surrounding the choice is the same. After so many adventures together and surviving multiple intense situations, it’s hard to let all of those connections go and have to start over from scratch, although the situations are slightly different. Peter Parker’s friends and family are only losing the memory that he’s Spider-Man, but the actual events in their timeline aren’t necessarily being altered (that we know of), so their entire relationships aren’t necessarily being erased, just the part about Peter being Spider-Man. Still, for a young hero who relied on his friends to shoulder the great responsibilities that come with great power, he’s not just losing their memory of his secret identity, he’s losing his support system, and even if he immediately reveals himself as Spider-Man to them once again, those relationships will still need to be rebuilt.

It’s not entirely clear from the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer how Peter’s situation plays out (it could be the same as the comics that inspired it), but in Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans, Jim knows he can’t pass up the opportunity to restore the world to the way it was before he became the Trollhunter, even if it costs him every relationship he’s forged in the process, trusting that the love they have for each other will remain true in the new version timeline. He even uses the opportunity to do things over to try to make some other improvements, such as making his friend Toby the Trollhunter this time, or approaching his girlfriend Claire far earlier than he had the confidence do the first time. Spider-Man’s reluctance to have his identity forgotten suggests he’s not quite as ready to embrace the situation, but as any Spider-Man story true to the nature of the character, Peter has a tough lesson to learn about the responsibility of being a hero, whatever that may be.