14 Spider-Man: No Way Home Easter Eggs That'll Make You Want to Watch All Over Again

During the first few minutes of No Way Home, Peter and MJ swing through Times Square, where we see a massive billboard for Rogers: The Musical. If you’ve been keeping up with all of Marvel’s Disney+ series, you’ll know the musical makes an appearance during the first episode of Hawkeye. Clint Barton/Hawkeye takes his family to see the stage production based on the life of Steve Rogers, aka the first Captain America, on Broadway.

When Peter attends his first day of school after the world learns his identity, his classmate Betty Brant reports on his arrival during a Midtown High News segment. As he walks into the building, her character pays homage to MJ’s favorite nickname for Peter in the comics by saying, “Go get ’em, tiger!” Of course, fans of Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy would also know that MJ says the same thing to Peter at the end of Spider-Man 2.

After Peter’s accused of killing Mysterio (played by Jake Gyllenhaal in Spider-Man: Far From Home), he hires a lawyer to help him clear his name. That lawyer turns out to be Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil, portrayed by Charlie Cox. What makes the cameo even more amazing is that Murdock is Spider-Man’s lawyer in the comics, too.

When Peter visits Doctor Strange at his Sanctum Santorum, he finds the interior of the building covered with snow. As it turns out, one of Doctor Strange’s portals was connected to Siberia, and a blizzard came through. Both Strange and Wong (who is now the Sorcerer Supreme) are seen wearing jackets to keep warm. Strange also has on a Columbia University sweatshirt, which is a reference to his alma mater in the comics.

During the scene where Peter goes to George Washington Bridge to speak to an MIT administrator about reconsidering MJ and Ned’s denied college admissions applications, we see the car taking her to the airport has a license plate that reads “63ASM-3.” This is a reference to the third issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, which includes Doctor Octopus’s first comic-book appearance and was released in 1963. Interestingly enough, after catching this Easter egg, Doc Ock makes his debut in No Way Home.

The scene where the villains are at Happy’s apartment with Peter and Aunt May includes a subtle nod to Dr. Octopus’s love life in the Amazing Spider-Man comics. In No Way Home, Doc Ock and May have a brief conversation, during which she calls him “Mr. Octopus.” What MCU fans unfamiliar with the comics may not know is that the two characters had a relationship in the comics and almost became Mr. and Mrs. Octopus.

In the comics, Uncle Ben tells Peter, “With great power, there must also come great responsibility.” Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May tragically echoes this line as she’s dying in Peter’s arms in No Way Home. We also hear a shortened version of his quote in the 2002 Spider-Man movie that goes, “With great power comes great responsibility,” which gets referenced later on in No Way Home when all three Spider-Men are opening up about losing people they love. “She told me with great power . . . ,” Holland’s Peter starts. “Comes great responsibility,” Maguire’s Peter finishes.

We learn Peter’s best friend Ned Leeds has magical powers similar to Doctor Strange’s in No Way Home. He’s actually the one who opens a portal and accidentally causes Garfield’s and Maguire’s Spider-Men to cross over to their universe. According to Nerdist, in the comics, Ned becomes the apprentice of the sorcerer Baron Mordo, who is Doctor Strange’s adversary. Mordo appears in the 2016 Doctor Strange movie and is set to return for the sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

One of the best scenes in No Way Home is when all three Spider-Men are working together with MJ and Ned to invent cures to help Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Electro, Sandman, and the Lizard revert to their original selves. During the scene, Ned talks to Maguire’s Peter and learns that his best friend turned against him and tried to kill him. In response, Ned reassures Holland’s Peter that he won’t ever become a villain and betray him. In the comics, however, Ned is also known as a supervillain named Hobgoblin.

Throughout No Way Home, the three Spider-Men engage in some pretty hilarious small talk involving their web-shooters, the Avengers, and more. At one point before the big battle scene, Maguire’s Peter tells the other Spider-Men his back is stiff, and that’s when Garfield’s Peter lifts him and cracks his back, offering him some much-needed relief. The scene seems to reference the time when Peter hurts his back in Spider-Man 2 after he falls off a building and gets up while saying “my back” repeatedly. Of course, it could also allude to rumours Gyllenhaal was meant to replace Maguire in Spider-Man 2 after Maguire injured his back in real life.

Once Electro is cured, Garfield’s Spider-Man goes over to him and takes off his mask, revealing his identity. Dillon expresses surprise over Spider-Man’s appearance because he always imagined him as a Black man. “Gotta be a Black Spider-Man somewhere,” he says, referencing Miles Morales, an Afro-Latino boy who takes up the Spider-Man mantle in the comics, the 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and the 2020 videogame Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

Toward the end of the film, Doctor Strange reappears and uses his powers to prevent more villains from potentially slipping through the cracks in the multiverse. In the sky, we see silhouettes of characters who are almost coming through. According to Comicbook.com, the images look like Kraven the Hunter, Scorpion, Rhino, and Black Cat, who all have a long history with Spider-Man.

At the end of the movie, Aunt May’s tombstone reads: “If you help someone, you help everyone.” While some may think this references her advice to Peter about helping Green Goblin and the other villains, it actually runs much deeper than that. The line comes directly from Marvel’s Spider-Man video game, during which Aunt May says the same thing to Peter and the rest of her acquaintances at F.E.A.S.T. homeless shelter (which also makes an appearance in No Way Home), where she volunteers. Spoiler alert: when May dies in the game, her grave features the same quote.

I couldn’t end this list without talking about that mind-blowing midcredits scene, which could tease the next villain in the Spider-Man franchise. At the end of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, we see Eddie Brock and Venom were transported to the same universe where Holland’s Peter lives while Doctor Strange’s spell was wreaking havoc in Peter’s universe. In No Way Home, Eddie/Venom learns all about the MCU’s heroes and villains from a bartender while vacationing in Mexico. He then disappears and returns to his universe, but we see Eddie accidentally drop some black goo on the ground before the scene ends. As we see in Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, this goo (a symbiote) attaches itself to a host to survive. So the only question is, who will become the MCU’s Venom?

According to CBR.com, Venom has had many hosts in the comics besides Eddie, including Peter’s bully Flash Thompson, who appears throughout the Homecoming trilogy, and his friend Harry Osborn, who appears in the original Spider-Man trilogy, as well as The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It’s worth noting Venom is also set to appear in the Spider-Man 2 game.