We’ve known the Holland-Maguire-Garfield Spider-Man: No Way Home secret all year long, as Sony and Marvel couldn’t contain the leaks. With each day that got us closer to the movie’s release, we received more undeniable confirmations. I’ve often said that knowing No Way Home will include all of Sony’s live-action Spider-Man versions won’t ruin the movie experience. But if you don’t want to read about any actual plot spoilers, now’s the time to walk away because new spoilers follow below. That’s because the latest No Way Home promos might deliver a heartbreaking Hawkeye revelation.
The MCU timeline: No Way Home and Hawkeye
If you’re watching the MCU movies and TV shows in the order they’re released without considering the official timeline, you’re doing it wrong. Marvel likes to move back and forth in the main MCU timeline to fill in the gaps we need to understand the overarching story.
But if you plan on rewatching the whole MCU action or watch it on Disney Plus for the first time, you should see everything in chronological order. So let’s set the stage for the No Way Home and Hawkeye events.
Both projects take place after Avengers: Endgame. The movie’s final Avengers battle against Thanos takes place in October 2023.
Then, the Spider-Man: Far From Home action happens roughly between June 20th, 2024, and July 10th, 2024.
Finally, Hawkeye begins on December 19th, 2024, and we expect it to run through Christmas 2024 — two episodes remain in the series.
Sony has just released the first minute of No Way Home, and we see the action picking up right after Far From Home. This means everything we’re about to see in the MCU’s third Spider-Man movie happens anywhere from July 10th, 2024, through December 19th, 2024 (or even later than that).
Therefore, the No Way Home happens anywhere from weeks to months before Hawkeye. This is your last chance to avoid the big No Way Home–Hawkeye spoiler.
How No Way Home ends
We saw several No Way Home leaks this year that claimed that Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) will complete his spell by the end of the movie. Everybody will forget who Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is, including MJ (Zenaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon).
A recent No Way Home plot leak from China gave us what appears to be the most detailed account of events, including the ending. We need to know this significant development before looking at the connection between No Way Home and Hawkeye. The Chinese leak tells us that, indeed, everyone will forget who Peter Parker is, but Spider-Man will continue to exist as a masked superhero.
The leak says that Parker will try to reconnect with MJ at the end of the movie. But he’ll ultimately decide not to tell her they used to have a relationship. A recent interview with Tom Holland seems to confirm all of that. The interview features behind-the-scenes No Way Home footage showing MJ ripping apart a note. Leaked set photos from early January gave us Holland’s Peter Parker walking on the street during winter with a strikingly similar piece of paper in hand.
The Rogers musical from Hawkeye
This brings us to the opening No Way Home scene that we just saw this week. Marvel fans might have observed an incredible Hawkeye Easter egg in it. As Peter and MJ swing through New York in the moments after J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) disclosed Spider-Man’s identity, we see a couple of billboards for the Rogers musical. We saw a part of that hilariously cringy Avengers musical in the first episode of Hawkeye.
What’s heartbreaking about the billboard? Absolutely nothing. Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) only sees the musical several months later. Again, the action in No Way Home will take place between mid-July and mid-December. As an aside, Sony and Marvel omitted the billboard from the first trailer, however.
The heartbreaking No Way Home–Hawkeye connection
We know from the trailers that Peter will deal with the police after Jameson’s remarks. We also know that Peter, MJ, and Ned will return to school for their senior year while making plans to head to MIT after high school. And we also know that Peter gets the idea to ask Strange to help with his identity problem before Halloween (the scene below).
That means the multiverse action happens between October 2024 and the events in Hawkeye, which start in mid-December 2024. Therefore, that big Statue of Liberty battle at the end of No Way Home happens within that timeframe. The Spider-Man variants will beat the villains. Strange will run his spell, and everyone will forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Or an Avenger. That means everyone — Strange, MJ, and Ned are on that list.
Hawkeye doesn’t know the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man
Do you know who else will forget having fought both against and together with Spider-Man? Hawkeye. Given all the No Way Home spoilers so far and that heartbreaking Peter-MJ finale, it’s very likely that Hawkeye doesn’t know who Peter Parker is, as the events in Hawkeye unfold. If you think about Hawkeye episode 2, you’ll remember that nobody was cosplaying as Spider-Man in New York. That’s probably because they have no idea how important Spider-Man is for the world following the events in No Way Home. Yet Ant-Man somehow gets big recognition both on the street and in the Rogers musical.
Hawkeye episode 5 opens on Wednesday, just before the No Way Home premiere. Older rumors said the two projects might share a scene shot at the same location. That might be an exciting Easter egg to witness. But the most important thing we might realize come December 17th is that Hawkeye has no idea who Spider-Man is in the TV show.
That’s an incredibly sad realization that puts the MCU in a different perspective. All the Avengers will forget who Peter is. They might know there’s a Spider-Man, but not that they fought together against Thanos.
