Angourie Rice has been knocking around the MCU since 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming in the role of Betty Brant, the classic comic book character reimagined as a fellow Midtown High student. Rice’s character already had a tie to the original Spider-Man trilogy, as Elizabeth Banks previously played The Daily Bugle secretary in Sam Raimi’s movies, and she got to drop an iconic quote from Spider-Man 2 in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
When covering Peter Parker’s first day of senior year for the school’s news network, Betty says “Go get ’em, tiger.” As any Spidey fan will tell you, these are the exact same words Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane says to Tobey Maguire’s webhead at the end of the iconic Raimi-directed sequel. While chatting to The Hollywood Reporter, Rice admitted that she didn’t realize there was more to the line than meets the eye until she saw the film.
“I didn’t pick up on it, but I love that!” said Rice. “There are always so many Easter eggs, and sometimes I miss them until I actually see the film in cinemas. And then I’m like, ‘Ohh! I see what they did there.’”
“Tiger” is famously Mary Jane’s nickname for Peter in the comics, something that was carried over to the Raimiverse in Spider-Man 2. It’s curious that Zendaya’s M.J. ⏤ who is confirmed to have the surname Watson in No Way Home ⏤ doesn’t get to give Holland’s Peter the nickname here, but fans appreciated the nod all the same. The line had to be squeezed in there somewhere, given all the multiversal connections of the threequel.
After NWH, Peter and his friends have left high school behind and are heading to college. With the Midtown gang likely scattering to different places, though, it’s unclear if Rice could return for Spider-Man 4 and beyond. If she does, it feels like there’s a good chance that she could go on to work for J. Jonah Jameson at The Daily Bugle, at least based on her TikTok internship.
Angourie Rice will next be seen in upcoming comedy Senior Year. Spider-Man: No Way Home, meanwhile, is still going strong in cinemas.
