Entertainment

'Avengers: Endgame' Had a Spider-Gwen Easter Egg That Nobody Noticed

Is the Spider-verse coming to the MCU?

by Corey Plante

At the very end of Avengers: Endgame, when everyone was chattering about the supposed Ben Mendelsohn cameo as Talos in his human form, we missed a brief Spider-Gwen Easter egg hiding in plain sight. And it took the Endgame digital release on July 30 for fans to rewatch the film and notice — just like the secret Alexander Pierce cameo.

In one of the film’s very last scenes, Peter Parker returns to high school after spending five years dusted on Titan, and he reunites with his best friend Ned Leeds. In the background, there’s a man that looks remarkably similar to Ben Mendelsohn. Endgame screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely denied that was the case in a May interview with The Hollywood Reporter, but redditor u/skippyMETS posted an image from that same scene. We can clearly see a blonde girl with a black-and-white spider web skirt and a pink backpack. That’s the exact same color scheme as Spider-Gwen’s superhero costume as shown most prominently in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

This is hardly confirmation that Gwen Stacy exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nor is it a hint at something like a Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse crossover into the MCU. But it still feels like a deliberate Easter egg of some kind. Why else would this girl be wearing a spider web skirt? You could make the argument that she’s just a huge Spider-Man fan (though nobody can top Flash Thompson).

Whoever this girl is, she does have a sense of style that’s remarkably similar to that version of Gwen Stacy. Her superhero costume has the exact same color scheme. And even though she didn’t appear again in Spider-Man: Far From Home, she could still appear in future movies.

Is it possible that Sony and Marvel Studios are planting seeds for a Gwen Stacy story eventually?

Gwen Stacy's Spider-Woman (commonly called "Spider-Gwen") as shown in 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse'

Sony Pictures

Spider-Man: Homecoming did also have a low-key Miles Morales reference long before Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was released. As much as we might wish for something like a Spider-Verse movie in the MCU, the perfect Spider-Verse movie already exists in animated form.

Still, Marvel Studios has clearly established the framework through which they could expand upon Peter Parker’s world by introducing beloved characters like Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales. Maybe in a few year’s time, we’ll see Tom Holland’s Peter Parker mentor a younger Miles Morales, who winds up dating the young girl from this random Gwen Stacy Easter egg?

We can only hope.

There’s comfort in the fact that after Mysterio introduced the premise of a multiverse in Far From Home, the upcoming WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in Phase Four will confirm the existence of parallel realities. We may never see a live-action Spider-Gwen, but take comfort in the statistical truth that somewhere in the infinite multiverse, she has to exist.

Avengers: Endgame is now available for digital purchase with Blu-ray scheduled for release on August 13. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is now streaming on Netflix.