As well as telling a single overarching narrative that gives their characters freedom to drift in and out of each other’s franchises to suit the story, the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are also always packed full of hidden references and Easter Eggs for eagle-eyed fans to try and uncover. Some of them can be quite obvious and others are incredibly obscure, with James Gunn claiming that there’s still one hidden Easter Egg in Guardians of the Galaxy that nobody has managed to discover even after five years.
On that note, it turns out that Spider-Man: Far From Home features one of the less well-known pieces of the MCU’s connective tissue, one that also links the movies to the cancelled Netflix shows. The sequel sees television host and local news anchor Pat Kiernan making his sixth cameo appearance in the long-running franchise, meaning that the NY1 host has now featured in more Marvel movies than Tom Holland.
Kiernan is no stranger to starring as himself on the big screen, having also popped up in the likes of The Commuter, Money Monster, Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters and even The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but it certainly isn’t a coincidence that he’s become a regular fixture in the MCU’s New York-set adventures no matter how brief his screentime has been.
First glimpsed in The Avengers, Kiernan has since gone on to be spotted in Iron Man 3, Doctor Strange, two episodes of Daredevil and an episode of The Punisher, which also gives him the distinction of being one of the few characters (real or otherwise) that has crossed over between the movies and the small screen.
Despite Marvel Studios creating the fictional WHiH World News to act as the MCU’s in-house news station, Spider-Man: Far From Home nonetheless continues Pat Kiernan’s reign as one of the shared universe’s unlikeliest recurring characters.
