Rightly or wrongly, the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s deadliest weapon is its penchant for fan service. One just needs to take a glance at the obsession with continuity, post-credits scenes, and cameos to understand where Marvel magic tends to lie.
And while the fan service may never reach the heights of Infinity War or Endgame ever again, Spider-Man: No Way Home certainly came within inches of it. We’re not sure who came up with the idea of roping Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and the treasure trove of pre-MCU Spidey villains into the film (including perennial scene-stealer Willem Dafoe and his legendary Green Goblin performance), but we reckon they’re still enjoying the resulting cheque to this very day.
And while that’s arguably enough fan service to last the decade, No Way Home may just be home to one of the biggest, most unprecedentedly sneaky surprises in the history of the MCU, and several threads across r/marvelstudios have taken to unveiling it.
During the end of No Way Home, not even the most hyperfocused of the MCU fandom could have picked up on the unintelligible mumbling going on in Peter’s new apartment building; that is, unless you happened to be watching a subtitled version of the Portuguese dub, which a couple of redditors did.
Indeed, in the Portuguese dub of No Way Home, two parents can be heard scolding their child, and the name “Miles” can be heard during the exchange.
This, of course, would be far too coincidental for the boy in question to not be Miles Morales, a fan-favorite Marvel superhero and fellow inhabitant of the Spider-Man identity. As if the Miles namedrop wasn’t enough, the subtitles further identify the two parents as Rio and Jeff, which also happen to be the name of the hero’s parents; if ever an MCU theory had healthy legs, this would be it.
Whatever opinion one may have on the imminence of Miles Morales in the MCU, this revelation sets a brand new precedent for Marvel’s most hardcore sleuths; picking apart every Marvel property is laborious enough on its own, but now they have to dissect them all in each of the available languages, lest an alternate dub reveals a tidbit that we couldn’t pick up on in the original.
And for those of you itching for a Miles Morales adventure, you’re in luck; Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is set to release in cinemas on June 2, and while we’re not a superstitious bunch, the timing of this Easter egg with the release of a multiverse-centric Spidey movie is suspiciously perfect, wouldn’t you say?