These days, Easter eggs are extremely common in movies.
They are intentional inside jokes, hidden messages or references that are included for
fun or, sometimes, in the case of comic book movies in particular, as a means of foreshadowing
things to come.
Marvel Studios does Easter eggs better than anyone.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is absolutely teaming with them.
Ever since the first Iron Man movie back in 2008, MCU movies have included subtle (and
some not so subtle) Easter eggs that have either already proven to have been foreshadowing
future events, or that will come into fruition in future movies.
Here are ten 10 exciting Easter eggs hidden in Marvel movies (and please bear in mind
there are spoilers for Captain America: Civil War in this video).
Captain America's Shield Captain America's vibranium shield is the
iconic trademark weapon of the superhero also known as Steve Rogers.
It has made regular appearances in the MCU ever since Cap first appeared in Captain America:
The First Avenger - but a prototype version of it appeared twice before that, foreshadowing
the coming of the super soldier to the franchise.
In Iron Man, the prototype could be seen laying around in Tony Stark's workshop and, later,
in Iron Man 2, it was seen again, when it was picked up by Phil Coulson and subsequently
used by Stark to prop up his homemade particle accelerator.
The Leader Back when Edward Norton was still playing
Bruce Banner, The Incredible Hulk introduced audiences to Samuel Sterns, played by Tim
Blake Nelson.
In the movie, Sterns attempted to help cure Banner of his Hulk problem, but ended up getting
some of Banner's blood inside an open wound when Emil Blonsky attacked him.
As a result, a visible mutation began to take place on his head - this was clearly a hint
towards his future transformation into The Leader.
The Leader is one of the Hulk's most formidable foes in the comic books and it would be great
to see the psionic villain in a future movie.
He has actually appeared in some of the MCU's spin-off comics, but is yet to emerge on film.
Maybe that will happen in Phase Four of the franchise?
The S.H.I.E.L.D.
Map In Iron Man 2, the movie came to a climax
with Nick Fury giving Tony Stark a debriefing in a secret S.H.I.E.L.D.
facility - it was the scene in which Fury suggested that Iron Man was suitable for the
Avenger Initiative, but Tony Stark wasn't.
In the room they were in, there were several high-tech computer screens - one of which
had a map of the world on it.
The map was interesting because it had a number of locations across the globe highlighted.
Eagle-eyed viewers deduced that two of these locations were the fictional African nation
of Wakanda and the underwater kingdom of Atlantis.
Of course, since then, Wakanda has been confirmed to exist and will be the setting for the Black
Panther movie, but we're yet to see Atlantis in the MCU.
Will we ever be introduced to the home of Namor the Sub-Mariner?
Only time will tell.
Erik Selvig's Chalkboard By the time the events of Thor: The Dark World
took place, Erik Selvig had been diagnosed as crazy and placed in an institution, thanks
to his experiences under Loki's control in The Avengers.
While he was institutionalised, he was seen doodling on a chalkboard.
To most people, his diagram might have been nonsense, but to fans of Marvel Comics, there
were clearly some very interesting inclusions on it.
It was a drawing of the World Tree that links the Nine Realms together, and it had some
references to things like "The Fault" and "The Crossroads".
In the comics, those are gateways to an infinite number of alien dimensions and alternate realities.
If they exist in the MCU - as this Easter egg would suggest - all kinds of weird and
wonderful beings could spill through them in the future.
Muspelheim and Surtur In Thor: The Dark World, the cosmic event
known as the Convergence was taking place.
It resulted in the alignment of the Nine Realms, causing the dimensional boundaries between
them to become very thin.
As the Nine Realms begin to converge in the film’s final act, a number of portals leading
to them all are visible.
One of the portals shows a flame-filled world with what appears to be a fiery body moving
around inside it.
The realm in question is Muspelheim - the home of Surtur and his army of Fire Demons
- and the creature moving around inside it may well have been Surtur himself.
Given that he is expected to be one of the main villains in the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok,
this was surely foreshadowing his future appearance in the MCU.
Adam Warlock's Cocoon Adam Warlock is a powerful superhero with
strong links to the Guardians of the Galaxy in the comic books - but did you know that
a recurring Easter egg has hinted towards him appearing in the MCU?
In the mid-credits scene of Thor: The Dark World, audiences were given their first look
at Benicio del Toro's character, The Collector.
His museum was filled with rare artefacts and living beings - and one of the items that
was visible in this scene was a large cocoon.
It appeared again in Guardians of the Galaxy and, on closer inspection, it is clearly the
cocoon that Adam Warlock uses for self-preservation and recuperation in the comic books.
With that in mind, we can probably expect to see him in future MCU movies, which is
a very intriguing and exciting thought.
HYDRA's Targets In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it
was revealed that Arnim Zola had developed an algorithm that predicted which individuals
in the MCU could potentially become a threat to HYDRA.
As a result, HYDRA plotted to use three Helicarriers - in an initiative designated "Project: Insight"
- to sweep the globe, using satellite-guided guns to eliminate those individuals.
When Captain America and his allies discovered that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Jasper Sitwell was actually
an undercover HYDRA agent, they forced him to give them information about the whole thing
- including the names of some of the individuals who would be targeted.
They included the likes of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, but also a certain Stephen Strange.
It was the first time the character had been mentioned in the MCU and confirmation that
Doctor Strange was on his way.
Vision and the Scarlet Witch In Avengers: Age of Ultron, there were some
very subtle hints of a potential romance between the android Vision and the mysterious Scarlet
Witch, but these hints became far more obvious in Captain America: Civil War.
Vision felt very protective over the Maximoff twin and felt compelled to cook for her and
make her feel better when she was down - and his feelings toward her even resulted in him
losing his concentration and accidentally harming James Rhodes.
This was all clearly referencing the fact that the pair are romantically involved in
the comics and have even had a comic book title named after them.
Could we see a romance between the pair in the future?
Could there even be a Vision and the Scarlet Witch movie on the horizon?
We'll have to wait to find out, but it would undoubtedly be awesome.
Spider-Man In Ant-Man, Scott Lang's good friend Luis
- played by Michael Peña - loved to tell a story.
At the end of the movie, when he tells Scott about the fact that Sam Wilson is looking
for him, he tells an elaborate version of events that includes references to heroes
who jump, who swing and who can crawl on walls.
All three of those could be interpreted as being references to Spider-Man, but the wall-crawling
reference was definitely confirmation that he exists in the MCU.
It was the first time he had been mentioned in the franchise, after Marvel Studios and
Sony Pictures agreed a deal to bring him into it, which was a very exciting thing to hear.
The Winter Soldier's Trigger Words In Captain America: Civil War, it was revealed
that HYDRA's control over Bucky Barnes came in the form of trigger words that turned him
into the brainwashed assassin known as the Winter Soldier.
Some of the words included the likes of "longing", "freight car", "one", "nine", "seventeen"
and "benign", but the one that was seemingly as Easter egg was "homecoming".
This was undoubtedly a fun nod to the exciting news about title of the upcoming Spider-Man
solo movie in the MCU - it's called "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and will be released in 2017,
which is something we're definitely all looking forward to.
Thanks for watching our list of 10 exciting Easter eggs hidden in Marvel movies.
Did you noticed all of these?
Which of your favourite examples were missing from this list?
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