https://youtu.be/6kN0Aq1nr-c
Sony waited about a week after Avengers: Endgame to drop a new Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer that prominently includes the word “multiverse.” Peter Parker learned that term through the introduction of Jake Gyllenhaal’s Quentin Beck (i.e., Mysterio), who hails from an Earth different from ours. This development could eventually prompt the MCU to creatively blossom by encouraging stories that stand outside the customary interconnected narrative, but what does it mean right now? In the newly released above clip, which surfaced during Gyllenhaal’s visit to The Ellen Show, we hear more about the multiverse set up for this film and possibly beyond.
Beck lays out how the MCU happens on Earth-616, which corresponds to the Earth setting that the MCU audience recognizes as reality. That’s a little surprising, given that the MCU has previously referred to its setting as Earth-199999, but maybe there’s something that Beck’s leaving out here, or perhaps it’s a clue that he shouldn’t be trusted. Regardless, Beck continues to discuss how he’s from Earth-833, which he claims holds “identical physical constants” with the Earth where the MCU occurs. That’s a lot to wrap one’s head around without knowing more about Beck’s intentions — in the comics, he’s actually a villain who got his start as a special effects artist in movies (!!) — but we’ll hopefully hear more before Spider-Man: Far From Home arrives on July 2.
It’s also worth noting that this is not the first time we’ve heard about the multiverse in the MCU. In 2016’s Doctor Strange, Ancient One paid some lip service to the term while mentioning that this universe is “only one of an infinite number.” Star Benedict Cumberbatch also grazed the concept in a video that accompanied that movie’s home release. Yet it appears that this Phase Three endcap will go much further to dive into multiverse territory before moving onto the next set of MCU movies.
For the further curious, here’s Gyllenhaal’s chat with Ellen DeGeneres on the subject. He starts talking about the multiverse around 3:30 while dropping an Endgame spoiler warning, but the bigger take here is his seeming confirmation that Mysterio is not a villain in the MCU.