In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stark Tower was ground zero of the climactic Battle of New York in 2012's The Avengers. From there, Tony Stark turned the building, which exists in the MCU where the MetLife Building exists in real-life, into the Avengers headquarters, where they lived and worked in the 2015 sequel, Age of Ultron. After the superteam moved their HQ to a compound in upstate NY, Avengers Tower was sold and replaced by a distinctive-looking, glass-covered building first glimpsed in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
However, in two New York City-based MCU projects that have been released since Far From Home, there's been a noticeable goof: the visual effects team forgot to use CGI to erase the real-world MetLife Building and digitally insert the structure added in the second MCU Spider-Man film.
One of those projects was Hawkeye, which was almost entirely set in Manhattan. In Episode 6 of the series, a shot of the New York City skyline had the MetLife Building plainly visible.
The other of those two releases were a certain sorcery-centered sequel starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
A Notable Multiverse of Madness Continuity Error
Eagle-eyed Reddit user Electrical_Daikon771 noticed an element in the background of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness that shouldn't actually be there: the MetLife building.
During Strange and Wong's first act fight with the monster known as Gargantos, visible in the distance is the famous skyscraper, where what should be present is the tower featured in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Here's a screencap from the Doctor Strange sequel showing the error:
And here's the same screencap, edited to make things a bit clearer.
And finally, a photo of the real-world MetLife Building, which shouldn't actually exist in the MCU.
In real life, as well as the MCU, NYC's Grand Central Station sits at the base of the MetLife building:
Why the Mistake for Avengers Tower?
This isn't the first time this mistake has been made, as the MetLife building was shown in Hawkeye as well. But this little snafu extends back even further.
The Marvel/Netflix series' such as Daredevil and Luke Cage (both now on Disney+) were notorious among fans for not including Avengers Tower in their numerous shows in New York City, despite the idea that they were ostensibly set within the MCU.
And if someone's thinking, "What if the MetLife building was constructed after Spider-Man: Far From Home but before Hawkeye?" It's technically possible, but the established timeline doesn't really support that notion. Far From Home is set in the Summer of 2024, while Hawkeye is Christmastime of the same year, roughly six or seven months later. That's not enough time to demolish the brand-new, unnamed Avengers Tower replacement and construct an entirely new skyscraper in its place.
This is likely just an element of the production that got lost in the shuffle. VFX houses are currently experiencing an unprecedented backlog of work due to the pandemic, so it's the little details that can sometimes be missed, and understandably so.
But with Multiverse of Madness now streaming on Disney+, what's stopping the platform from going back in and rectifying this issue with a little CGI touch-up? It remains to be seen whether it will happen, but it's in the realm of possibility. After all, CGI alterations have previously been made to WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier long after both shows first arrived on the streaming service.
Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now streaming on Disney+.
