One Marvel fan has spotted an unexpected connection between yesterday’s Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer and filmmaker Jon Watt’s first Marvel installment, Spider-Man: Homecoming. And while most fans were preoccupied trying to figure out whether that might be Charlie Cox in the background of a shot or whether that really is Willem Dafoe cackling in the trailer, an unknown Redditor (it appears his account was deleted after posting the observation) discovered that the officer interrogating Peter Parker at police headquarters is from the Department of Damage Control, the same authorities who ran afoul of Michael Keaton’s Vulture in the opening scenes of Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Apparently being Tony Stark’s pal doesn’t mean as much, post-Endgame. Sorry about that, Pete!
In the comics, Damage Control is a private company established in a partnership between Tony Stark and Wilson Fisk, one of the rare times Iron Man and the Kingpin teamed up for the greater good. Cougar Town executive producer Kevin Biegel, who was responsible for the unaired New Warriors pilot, once had a pitch for a Damage Control TV series.
In the movies Stark establishes the government-sanctioned clean up crew, but both versions are run by Anne Marie Hoag. She makes a brief appearance in the opening scenes of Spider-Man: Homecoming played by actor Tyne Daly, shutting down Adrian Toomes’ (Michael Keaton) cleanup operation after the Avengers’ Battle of New York.
Of course, we’ll see what role Damage Control has grown into, post-Endgame. And if it turns out Wilson Fisk does have some kind of involvement in the organization in the MCU, that could plausibly serve as an entry point for Vincent D’Onofrio’s fan-favorite portrayal of the villain, and justify those speculating about the presence of Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdoch.
It is not yet clear what role the Marvel mutiverse will play in No Way Home, although after its introduction in Endgame and explanation in Loki, it’s set to appear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as well as No Way Home.
In Spider-Man: No Way Home, for the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man, our friendly neighborhood hero is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the high-stakes of being a Super Hero. When he asks for help from Doctor Strange the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.
Spider-Man: No Way Home will be in theaters on December 17.
