It is no secret that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest series, Ms. Marvel, is a haven for Easter eggs and references to the rest of the franchise. Teenage soon-to-be superhero Kamala Khan is a fangirl of the Avengers herself, so between her conversations and AvengerCon, the new series almost certainly already holds the record for most MCU easter eggs in a project. Among all of it, though, the second episode of Ms. Marvel dropped a particularly interesting MCU reference.
While Kamala and Kamran are at the restaurant, they bond over things they have in common. One of those things is a love for Bollywood movies. When mentioning which celebrities they like, Kamala mentions that her mom, embarrassingly, still has a crush on Kingo, Sr. It is a quick name drop that is easy to miss, especially for viewers not as familiar with Bollywood stars. But the mention is a reference to Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo from Eternals. As we learned in that movie, Kingo has posed as a long line of Bollywood stars, embodying a new generation of “Kingo” as he ages in order to avoid exposing himself as immortal.
Interestingly, this reference to Kingo is actually the first Eternals reference in the MCU since the movie was released last November. We did learn that Moon Knight creators at one point wanted Eternals—particularly Kingo—in an Ancient Egypt flashback scene. Alas, it never happened. Because the ending of Eternals left many of the Eternals with a fairly ambiguous fate, little glimmers like this reference in Ms. Marvel are all fans have to go on until they formally return to the screen.
The easter egg is also interesting because it is practically the only reference that Kamala is unaware of the significance of. She, of course, loves the Avengers and other known superheroes, such as Doctor Strange, but the Kingo nod is a reminder that the regular people of the MCU still have no idea about the existence of the Eternals. It also leaves major questions for Eternals open—for example, how have people reacted to the giant marble Celestial in the ocean or the even larger Celestial that appeared over Earth in the film? Perhaps someday we will find out, but that day is not today.
The first two episodes of Ms. Marvel are now streaming on Disney+.
