We Now Know Whether Hawkeye Takes Place Before Or After Spider-Man: No Way Home

With one Marvel project reaching its end and another just warming up projection booths around the world this week, it was a safe bet to assume that the timelines of "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and "Hawkeye" would connect in some way. These types of overlapping narratives between different properties are some of the coolest elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that have been perfected over the years and they appear to be on display with their 2021 holiday season offerings. 

Big or small, in the background or in your face. The rewarding feeling of connecting the dots within the MCU never gets old, and it's definitely going to be felt this week. But just where in the timeline of the MCU are the stories of "No Way Home" and "Hawkeye" taking place? Thankfully, comments from a spy-in-the-making on this week's "Hawkeye" clear up which came first, the spider or the hawk.

Following her return to the MCU after "Black Widow," Yelena (Florence Pugh) sat down with the bowman's protege, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), on this week's "Hawkeye" and explained the reasons for her recent visit. Besides putting Hawkeye at the top of her kill list, the up-and-coming assassin revealed that she wanted to see all that New York City has to offer. One agenda item, in particular, is to visit the "new and improved Statue of Liberty," which Kate doesn't react to. It suggests that this recent remodeling is a well-known thing, particularly to a certain wall-crawler whose latest big battle was at that exact location.

Hardly spoilers if you've seen the trailers for "Spider-Man: No Way Home," but the mentioned improvements on Lady Liberty are not just a new accessory, but an extra bit of work required after a recent Spider-Man showdown. The statue already appeared to be going through reconstruction before the wall-crawler set up his latest scuffle, though our hero ended up leaving it in a worse condition than when he found it. Considering Yelena's plans, it appears that "Hawkeye" would be set after new repairs were made, and the tourist attraction is back open to the public. 

We can only wait and see if Yelena's trip to the famous landmark goes ahead when "Hawkeye" returns for one final shot in the new series next week.