Did ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Pave the Way for Canonization of Netflix’s Marvel Shows?

Several Netflix actors also appeared in MCU movies… as different characters. The most notable examples come from Luke Cage. Mahershala Ali played Cottonmouth in Season 1, and he’ll soon appear as the MCU’s Blade. Alfre Woodard played Mariah Dillard, in both Luke Cage seasons, and grieving mother Miriam Sharpe in Captain America: Civil War.

Kevin Feige (president of Marvel Studios) and Jeph Loeb (former head of the now defunct Marvel Television) were never on the same page. The line was that the shows and movies were connected, but they were only connected in one direction: from movies to TV. While a handful of movie characters did appear on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., there’s only one TV character who ever appeared in the films prior to the dismantling of Marvel Television: James D’Arcy’s Jarvis in Avengers: Endgame. That’s it. Avengers Tower was never seen in Netflix’s New York City. The Defenders did not show up to kick the Black Order’s asses alongside Doctor Strange, Wong, and Iron Man. It wasn’t all connected.

The Kingpin’s mighty criminal empire now consists of… Fat Man Auto Repair? Now that Marvel Studios is the only company making live-action Marvel TV shows, they’ve started to slowly re-introduce characters from the Netflix shows into the MCU, like Kingpin in Hawkeye. But that Kingpin is a far, far cry from the Kingpin we saw in Marvel’s Daredevil. They’re both played by Vincent D’Onofrio, but one wielded enormous wealth as a weapon, and the other has a rather ragtag, low-profile operation working out of an auto body shop. This feels like a different Kingpin.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. just totally ignored the Blip. Half the universe disappears and they don’t even notice.

There are two Agent 13s and two Darkholds. Speaking of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hawkeye revealed that Clint Barton’s wife Laura was actually a spy once codenamed Agent 13. That’s of note because Adrianne Palicki played Agent 13 for a while on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. They are two completely different characters. Similarly, WandaVision introduced the MCU’s version of the powerful and mystical Book of the Darkhold, a tome which was prominently featured in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. They do not look the same.

There’s plenty of Marvel content on Disney+ that is not canon. Disney+ has a specific section for MCU content and none of this stuff is in it. All the ’80s and ’90s cartoons, the X-Men and Fantastic Four films, Marvel’s Runaways — they are all under “Marvel Series and Specials.” Most telling is Agent Carter; the short film that debuted on the Iron Man 3 Blu-ray is in the MCU section while Marvel Television’s Agent Carter TV series is not.

Loki and Spider-Man: No Way Home’s introduction of variants explains how Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio can join the MCU without bringing their baggage. It’s interesting how Hawkeye and Spider-Man: No Way Home brought these two Netflix stars into the fold right after Loki gave us all a crash course on how the Marvel multiverse works. This explanation allows for Kevin Feige to bring actors he likes into the MCU as variants of their characters, ones that can easily fit into the MCU as it exists.

Actors can play whoever they want. So what if Mahershala Ali and Alfre Woodard played two characters? We’ve seen plenty of characters played by two actors (Ed Norton and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner; Terrence Howard and Don Cheadle as War Machine; Josh Dallas and Zachary Levi as Fandral, etc.). Spider-Man: No Way Home even presented us with three, presumably identical Peter Parkers played by three very different actors. Hell — Gemma Chan went from playing Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel to Sersi in Eternals. It doesn’t matter as long as the actor is good for the part!

Kevin Feige and Jeph Loeb weren’t on the same page, but they were — metaphorically speaking — in the same book. AoS did a good job of running parallel with the films, especially with the downfall of S.H.I.E.L.D. post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And Marvel’s Netflix shows all took place in a Manhattan still dealing with the fallout of an alien invasion. And without S.H.I.E.L.D. being canon, certain movie characters — like Lady Sif and Maria Hill — lose a lot of screen time and character development. Feige even respected Marvel Television’s casting choices enough to bring in James D’Arcy, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Charlie Cox as their Marvel characters.

The 5-year blip atones for all status quo sins. Sure, it seems far-fetched for Kingpin to go from being the most powerful criminal in Manhattan to working out of a dreary storefront, but it makes way more sense if the Kingpin we see in Hawkeye lost most of his allies in the Blip and has spent five years rebuilding his organization in the middle of an apocalyptic global catastrophe. D’Onofrio even said that he was playing the same Kingpin as the one he played in Daredevil. And we know that, at the very least, Feige isn’t starting over with these characters since Matt Murdock clearly has his Daredevil powers in No Way Home.

There really is no canonical explanation for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. skipping the Blip…

… but you can easily explain two Agent 13s and two Darkholds. If multiple agents besides James Bond can go by 007, then the same could easily be true for S.H.I.E.L.D. And there are two Darkholds, so what? That sounds like a potential storyline to me!

There are lots of MCU movies that aren’t on Disney+, period. Spider-Man: No Way Home pulled both the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb films into MCU canon, as well as Sony’s currently unfolding Venom franchise. None of them are streaming on Disney+, and neither are the MCU Spider-Man movies. And because of the multiverse and variants and whatnot, it’s also possible that all those X-Men and Fantastic Four movies that aren’t in the MCU lineup on Disney+ are actually just waiting to be confirmed as other MCU timelines. Maybe Disney+ needs a new section: MCM — Marvel Cinematic Multiverse.

Loki and Spider-Man: No Way Home’s introduction of multiple timelines allows for everything to be canon — if you want it to be. That’s really it. The Netflix shows are canon because there aren’t really any incredibly outrageous contradictions, especially since you can easily place all of them before the Blip. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is tougher because it ignores the Blip, but you can say that it takes place in a timeline that’s very similar to the one we know. The existence of multiple timelines allows the viewer to kinda pick and choose based on their interpretation and how much they actually even care.

The Netflix shows are all canon — in whatever way is important to you. Is this a kumbaya kind of conclusion? Kinda. But Marvel Studios has given the fans who actually care about this nitty gritty timeline stuff an easy explanation (the multiverse, as well as variants that both look like and don’t look like each other) that really could and really should set everyone’s minds at ease. If you think a show’s continuity has irreconcilable differences with the more tight-knit MCU, then it’s another timeline. If you love a show and can’t bear the thought of it not being in the main MCU timeline, then sure — it’s in the main timeline. Even if there are contradictions, there’s now so much wiggle room in the MCU’s reality that you — the viewer — can probably come up with whatever explanation you need to feel at ease. Like, maybe Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. got pulled into a parallel, Blip-less timeline right before the Snap? Sure! This is what has long been referred to in the comics as a Marvel No-Prize. Go out there and earn yourself one!

Even for those of you who don’t like this “trust your feelings” approach to continuity, I think it’s clear that the Netflix shows are canon. Just, instead of being canon canon, they’re canonically another universe in the Marvel multiverse. So Cox and D’Onofrio aren’t playing their Netflix characters, but rather the MCU timeline’s version of them (and they’re very similar to the Netflix ones, sure). And since the MCU braintrust of writers, directors, and producers are going to be asked these questions for the rest of time, you can always take a “non-canonical until confirmed canonical” approach.

So yeah — the Netflix Marvel shows are canon, and it’s up to you to decide where in the multiverse they take place. For me personally, I’m slotting Marvel’s Daredevil into whichever timeline allows Erik Oleson and Cate Shortland to make a Daredevil & Black Widow limited series starring Charlie Cox and Scarlett Johansson. I don’t care how many realities you have to break, Marvel, make it happen.

Where to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home