SPOILER ALERT: This article contains MASSIVE SPOILERS for ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ so proceed with caution or turn back now! (But come back after you’ve seen it!)
In the trailers for ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) introduces Peter (Tom Holland) to Quentin Beck (not-yet-known as Mysterio, Jake Gyllenhaal), who Fury explains is a refugee from a parallel Earth. It seems that one of those reality-twisting finger snaps from ‘Avengers: Endgame’ tore a hole in reality between dimensions. Beck explains that the Elementals (Hydro-Man, Molten Man) destroyed his Earth and are now set to do the same to the “616 Universe,” referred to by that name for the first time in the movies.
Peter geeks out at the thought of a Multiverse, a concept that is rampantly used in the comics. Even prior to the release of ‘Far From Home’, it had been teased that this movie would not only put a cap on the “Infinity Saga” but would set up the movies going forward. Introducing a Multiverse, allowing for parallel versions of existing characters would be EPIC! Many speculated that the post-credits scenes would further set this up.
But they don’t. It was all a big lie. After the big reveal about midway through the movie, we learn that Beck is from this Earth after all, and that his whole cover story was cooked up by one of Beck’s associates, Guterman (Nicholas Gleaves) and that they thought it was so ridiculous that it worked.
Furthermore, Entertainment Weekly points out something that eagle-eared listeners may have caught for themselves– that the Marvel Cinematic Universe isn’t the 616 Universe at all! The movies take place on Earth-199999. (I don’t know if that’s official, but that’s how fans refer to it.) 616 is the name of the main Marvel COMICS Universe.
But the movies are kind of an amalgam of the 616 and the Ultimate/1610 comics, and Donald Glover played this world’s version of Aaron Davis in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’, so don’t rule out an appearance from a live-action version of Miles Morales just yet.
And of course, who knows where the films will go in the future? They may not introduce a Multiverse immediately, but that doesn’t mean one won’t surface in the future.
‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ is now playing in theaters.
