By Matt Webb Mitovich / December 18 2021, 4:40 PM PST
The following contains a point of fact, one casting spoiler, and the reveal of an end-credits scene from the new motion picture Spider-Man: No Way Home. Proceed at your own risk.
Oh, and it also contains spoilers from the Dec. 15 episode of Hawkeye.
Spider-Man: No Way Home, now in theaters, sheds some light on a curious line of dialogue from the Dec. 15 episode of TV’s Hawkeye — but that is far from the movie event’s only connection to Marvel TV shows.
In the penultimate episode of Disney+’s latest MCU series, Natasha Romanoff’s vengeance-seeking sister, Yelena Belova (played by Black Widow‘s Florence Pugh), surprises Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) by popping up in the hero-in-training’s charred apartment. Yelena, though, comes bearing not malice but a fresh pot of macaroni and cheese.
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Sharing the singular fork in Kate’s pitiful collection of cutlery, Yelena invites her recent rooftop fight adversary to share in the meal. When Kate cuts to the chase and asks Yelena what she is up to, the Russian assassin notes that this “business” trip in fact marks her first time in New York. As such, “I do want to see some things,” Yelena says. For example, “I want to see the Empire State Building, the new-and-improved Statue of Liberty, the Rockefeller Center….”
But wait, what is “new and improved” about the Statue of Liberty? (I, at least, wondered what that was all about. And maybe you did, too.)
Well, in the back half of Spider-Man: No Way Home, it is revealed that the Statue of Liberty is being outfitted with her own, giant shield — in the style of Captain America’s.
The landmark, however, is still under construction (and clearly not open to tourists) during the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, suggesting that if Yelena is gunning to visit, Hawkeye is set some time after the latest MCU movie. (UPDATE: TVLine reader Rockgolf claims there is also a Rogers: The Musical signage sighting.)
Lady Liberty, however, is not the only connective tissue between TV’s MCU and Spider-Man: No Way Home. What follows now is the aforementioned casting spoiler.
Picking up right where the previous Spider-Man movie left off, No Way Home finds Peter Parker (Tom Holland) struggling with J. Jonah Jameson’s reveal of the webslinger’s true, teen identity. Peter’s friends as well as May get pulled into the “hero or killer” hullabaloo, to the point that they seek legal counsel. And said counsel comes in the form of no less than Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock aka Daredevil (though Peter et al are oblivious to the attorney’s other life).
Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige very recently teased a Charlie Cox encore as Matt, though he did not say where or what. And of course, Daredevil’s own big bad, Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin (played again by Vincent D’Onofrio), showed up in Hawkeye Episode 5.
What follows lastly is the reveal of the second of No Way Home‘s two end credits scenes. Again, you have been warned.
Because much of No Way Home revolves around the introduction of the Multiverse and Doctor Stephen Strange’s role in that, the end-of-credits scene is not so much a “scene” but a teaser trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (currently due in theaters in May 2022). That rousing, thrilling trailer includes (among many other things) Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) seeking out Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), who is quick to acknowledge what she did in Westview — but her fellow Avenger has far bigger fish to fry. The same teaser trailer builds to the reveal of Doctor Strange Supreme, the wizard’s sinister doppelganger who was featured in the fourth episode of Disney+’s animated What If…? anthology series, “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?”
If you have seen Spider-Man: No Way Home already, what was your favorite tie to TV’s Marvel series?
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