Kevin Feige Confirms Two Marvel Cinematic Universe Characters Are Actually the Same Person

The connections of the Marvel Cinematic Universe run so deep that they continue to surprise fans years after a film’s release. Thanks to a recent Q&A with Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, a new MCU connection has been confirmed, and it has to do with one character whose extensive history in the MCU has largely gone unnoticed!

During a recent Reddit AMA with Kevin Feige, a question was posed about actor Martin Starr, who a lot of MCU fans know best as the deeply haunted coach and chaperon for Peter Parker’s academic decathlon team in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Well, what you probably don’t remember is that Starr also made an appearance in The Incredible Hulk way back in 2008 – and Feige has now confirmed that it is indeed Spider-Man: Homecoming / Spider-Man: Far From Home character “Mr. Harrington” who also appeared in Incredible Hulk!

Roger Harrington (Starr) appears in the Incredible Hulk as a nerdy student working in the computer lab at Culver University. He met Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) when Banner disguised himself as a pizza delivery guy to infiltrate his old lab at Culver in order to do further research on a Hulk cure, as well as reconnected with his estranged love, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler). In a a deleted scene from the film (which you can watch below), Harrington gets weird on Banner, when Banner offers him the bribe of a free pizza in exchange for wifi access.

It’s not only funny to know that this deep-cut connection exists in the MCU, but that (as you can see), Harrington’s offbeat and aloof personality has been a running gag in the MCU since the very beginning. He still gets high points for this darkly comedic quote from Spider-Man: Homecoming, which clues us into just what kind of life Harrington has had:

“As you know, we made it out alive,” Harrington says after Peter Parker’s decathlon team nearly gets killed in the Washington Monument. “And that’s the important thing. I couldn’t bear to lose a student on a school trip. Not again.”

When you step back and look at it, Harrington does seem to be a magnet for chaos. He was part of the reason that Bruce Banner later Hulk’s out and goes on a rampage battling Thunderbolt Ross on the Culver campus; Harrington apparently once chaperoned a school trip that cost a student his/her life; he nearly had another school trip end fatally in Homecoming, and all implications are that the decathlon trip to Europe in Spider-Man: Far From Home will be just as deadly.

At this rate, we may see Roger Harrington have to find a new job for his future MCU appearances. He really doesn’t seem to have much luck working in academia.

Did you spot this MCU character connection before Kevin Feige confirmed it? Let us know in the comments!

Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel are now in theaters. Spider-Man: Far From Home hits theaters on July 2nd.

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