Coronation Street has officially entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), with a mention in the new Disney Plus series Wonder Man. The ITV soap, which recently celebrated its 65th anniversary and crossed over with Emmerdale, is now canon within the MCU as a fictional TV programme.
In Wonder Man, actor Trevor Slattery (played by Sir Ben Kingsley) is seen reminiscing about his time on the cobbles. Fellow character Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) finds a VHS tape labelled 'Coronation Street, episodes 616–619, 646–649'. Slattery recalls his role as Ron Jenkins, uttering the line: 'A pint of bitter please and one for my friend'. Kingsley himself previously appeared in Coronation Street as Ron Jenkins in 2016, making the reference a meta-casting nod.
The crossover is the first official confirmation of Coronation Street's existence in the MCU. However, it is not the first time Marvel actors have appeared on the soap. Jonathan Howard, who played Carl Webster, also appeared in Thor: The Dark World. Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen, known for their roles as Professor X and Magneto in the X-Men films, both had guest stints on Coronation Street before joining the superhero franchise.
While the X-Men films are set on a different Earth in the multiverse, Stewart and McKellen are set to reprise their roles in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. The Wonder Man series, which debuted on Disney Plus on Wednesday, is the latest addition to the MCU, which now includes 37 films and 17 TV series.
