This is either the biggest thing to happen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the Battle of New York, or a fun wink from the guys who made the sets for Spider-Man: Homecoming. You decide!
Loki, seen here in Thor: Ragnarok, might be worshipped on Earth now. Image: Disney
In the movie, Peter and May go to dinner at a Thai restaurant. A Reddit user noticed that the sign next door to the restaurant, though in Korean, has a translation below it, which reads “Korean Church of Asgard”. Here’s the full shot:
Still from Spider-Man Homecoming. Image: Reddit via Sony
And here’s a close-up:
Now, technically, it doesn’t say that exactly. On the top it says “All are welcome!” then the big words say “아스가드: ASGARD” and “교회: CHURCH”. It doesn’t actually say “Korean”, but it’s in Korean, so it seems a reasonable assumption that this is a Korean house of worship to Thor and his brethren.
While Marvel almost certainly intended this only as a fun Easter egg, the fact that there’s an Asgardian Church in New York City has, like, the biggest implications imaginable for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We know that Thor, Loki and the rest are extradimensional beings, but all the people of the MCU have seen the Norse god of thunder returning to Earth to protect New York City (and the Norse god of mischief trying to destroy it). Suddenly, there is seemingly unequivocal evidence that at least some gods exist.
And just think about how this could play out in the future. We know that Thanos is going to become more prevalent in future movies. He’s even more powerful than the Norse Gods on Asgard. That’s going to mess people up once they realise beings like this are real. Of course some humans would decide to worship them. And what does this mean for the actual religions of the MCU? Are the various sects of Judeo-Christianity losing followers to Thor?
This is such an incredible can of worms it’s almost unfathomable. But was it on purpose? Did the Spider-Man: Homecoming set decorators and production designer realise what they were doing? Will the Avengers go to Valhalla when they die? Are other gods actually real in the MCU? Could this be the entire subplot of Phase Four?!
Probably not! But we reached out to both Sony and Marvel for comment just in case, though we hadn’t heard back at time of writing. For now, we’ll just wonder what Marvel characters may be attending Sunday service at the Korean Church of Asgard.