That Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man: No Way Home crossover was Kevin Feige’s idea, of course
Showrunner Bisha K. Ali confirms that the MCU boss planted a certain Spider-Man character in the show
Aux News Spider-Man
Outside of Taylor Swift, who has contributed more to the Easter egg-ification of pop culture than Kevin Feige? The puppetmaster of the MCU has bent cinema to his will, to the point where a well-placed voice-over in a vague post-credits scene will have fans foaming at the mouth for a character they haven’t even seen yet. It’s frankly diabolical, and everyone knows who’s pulling the strings.
This maneuvering isn’t limited to major characters like Blade (Mahershala Ali). Even a character like Agent Cleary from the Department of Damage Control is not below the notice of Marvel’s big boss. Arian Moayed’s character first appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home as the cunning investigator of Peter’s (Tom Holland) supposed crimes. He recently showed up again in the same capacity to track down Kamala Kahn (Iman Vellani) on Ms. Marvel.
“It’s a Kevin thing,” Ms. Marvel showrunner Bisha K. Ali told The Hollywood Reporter when asked how Cleary made the cut for the Disney+ series. “Kevin knows all that, man. He introduced the idea of Agent Cleary being a part of our show, and that’s the thing about working with Marvel. Kevin and the execs know all the pieces that we might not even know, so they’ll come in and be like, ‘OK, you have this, so let’s manifest it through this piece, interconnecting it with something else.’ And that’s the thrill of being a part of the MCU. So that’s definitely a Kevin fix.”
And this is not a case of a character becoming a fan favorite and thus being dropped into a new show. Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel were filming at the same time, so no one had any attachment to Cleary at the time. (It was probably pretty convenient for Moayed to commute from one set to the other in Atlanta, though!) This makes the continuity of his character all the more impressive, considering Ali told THR they didn’t even “get dailies for Agent Cleary” to get a sense of him in No Way Home.
Pushing such a minor character is perhaps nitpicky, but an undoubtedly galaxy-brained move from Feige to make the universe feel truly interconnected. On the other hand, maybe he just wanted Ms. Marvel to have its own Jimmy Woo moment. Either way, the Easter egg-loving fandom are surely eating it up.
24 Comments
Damn, you’re telling me the creative force behind Marvel’s film and TV output had the bright idea to bring characters from one thing into another?The wonders never cease!
I saw the headline and I was like ‘oh, huh, there was some Homecoming crossover I missed’ thinking it was something sneaky but no, it was just the show’s open use of of a character from the MCU’s large roster.
What even is Damage Control anymore? They were introduced in Homecoming as a governmental clean-up crew now they’re what? Like the FBI? Hunting down super people? When did that happen?
Mission creep
Little of column A and little of column B.The MCU version is basically a governmental clean up crew that were a joint venture between Stark Industries and the US Government that were formed after the Battle of New York.But reading between the lines (and yea there are a lot of lines), it looks to be an extension of the governments tracking and monitoring service of Supes behind a facade. They are falling on the side of ‘we keep an eye out for people who can’t control their powers or have the potential of causing widespread destruction because we don’t want another ‘Hulk vs Iron Man ass kicking’ but now in Queens.Now honestly, you just know other powers are sticking in their fingers in part of the government that has ways of figuring out who can cause the most damage in a very short period of time, right?
They’re the Department of Damage Control. I guess this is one of the agencies that operates under that umbrella, like how the FBI is under the Department of Justice? And the Sokovia Accords are still a thing as far as I know, so maybe their interest in her is more related to that. At least, that’s my No-Prize guess.
Just a guess, but I’m assuming they were expanded after the Sokovia accords to investigate non-registered powered people.
Yeah this does feel like it’s more SWORD territory than DODC… but gov agencies morph and change over time. The secret service was started by Lincoln to hunt down counterfeit currency.
I think they miss having S.H.I.E.L.D. to serve that “shadowy government organization” role, so they’re squeezing Damage Control into that area and hoping no one notices how little sense that makes.
There were set pictures from Ms. Marvel that show people in N.I.C.E. windbreakers. I wonder if that got changed or is still coming if they reveal she’s an Inhuman?
We’ll find that out 3 years from now in a flashback scene
Damage Control is apparently the ATF for superpowers and superweapons. If you train a team for four years to take superweapons off the street and clean up after superheroes, and then you watch your premiere superteam just curbstomp the entire planet in between being heroes, at some point you might want to take those government agents and give them the ability to hold those superpowered people responsible for their actions under American laws.Ergo… Damage Control investigates and prosecutes the people who use superweapons now so they stop blowing things up.
Given that they’re a shadowy government agency, it makes perfect sense for them to expand from reactive damage control (cleanup) to pre-emptive ‘damage control’ ala Minority Report. Even in Homecoming they were already shady AF.
I also think of it of just actors you like that brought an energy to their role, and how do you keep them on the payroll so you can utilize them, is a move like this. Think Colbie Smulders that is also a recurring character.
I miss Maria Hill. Have we seen her since she dusted in Infinity War?
She was in Endgame and is slated to appear in The Marvels next year.
struggling to see how this is an “easter egg.” The guy is – at this point in the show – the main antagonist? And it even kinda seems to be setting him up for a potential turn later on when his partner takes things too far? He didn’t just walk through the background or have someone mention his name, he’s a character!
Speaking of Jimmy Woo, we still want a series with him and Darcy as the Mulder and Scully of the MCU, investigating incidents and meeting up with minor and obscure characters from the comics.
We do? Could’ve fooled me.
I honestly didn’t remember him.
Me neither. I don’t get the multiple articles about this. Actors crossover all the time in the MCU. That’s the whole point of the MCU. Heck, I don’t think there were this many articles when Jimmy Woo and Darcy showed up in WandaVision.
I saw him and just thought he was one of those random character actors that I recognize, but from nowhere in particular. His part was so brief and ultimately unimportant in NWH that I didn’t connect the dots that he was the same investigator.
So Cagney & Lacey were unavailable?
What actually surprised me is that Agent Cleary was introduced in the Sony-owned No Way Home which I thought even though he’s an original character he would be a Sony owned character, but I guess since he’s an original Marvel Studios character (and Marvel Studios Damage Control) that he is able to be used but Marvel/Disney freely.