It's interesting that they chose to parallel Mike and Will to MJ and Peter specifically from No Way Home, and not just because MJ forgets about Peter at the end.
The forgetting ties into the theories about birthdaygate and such but ... No Way Home is one of the prime examples of meta storytelling in the 21st century.
They invite their audience into the world by melding the different franchises into the movie. They allow their audience to participate in the comedy and the world of the films. The audience is included in the writing of the film, almost as an off-screen character. Many of the jokes and, of course, the plot-twist are only funny and exciting due to the audience's understanding outside of the actual text.
The audience knows something the characters don't. That's what makes it such a groundbreaking film in the MCU. They took a risk, and it worked.
The marketing of the film is also interesting. Obviously, they waited until after the film released to include Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire in any of the posters. The trailers don't market it as a meta storytelling at all. It seemed like any other Marvel film.
Fans were only able to speculate about the plot twist due to set leaks and analyzing the content they did get. Sony and Netflix would outright deny the rumors. IIRC, Andrew also denied his involvement before the film released. Sound familiar?
Everyone involved in that film had to sign strict NDAs in order to keep the plot twist under wraps. The idea that the Stranger Things cast has had to do the same thing, and react a certain way to finale questions in interviews, is not a reach at all.
Millie described the finale as "meta," which makes no sense unless she doesn't know the meaning of meta, which I highly doubt.
I know conformitygate has such a narrow chance of happening but the mountain of evidence piling up against the Duffers is astounding. If it doesn't happen, it will genuinely be such a let down considering all of the clues handed to us.
How could they have this many unintentional coincidences?
