- 2 days ago
Taika Waititi's secret cameo in Thor: Ragnarok went undiscovered for years.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Oh the ever expanding MCU, there's so much to offer and so much to unpack. This is true to
00:06the extent that sometimes we notice little loopholes or secrets that we need an answer
00:11or an explanation to that we don't end up getting for a long time. You can theorise all you want,
00:16you can scour through Reddit looking for answers, but until it's canon, I'm afraid it doesn't count.
00:22And my god is it good to get official answers to these things. So I'm Amy from WhatCulture and here
00:27are 10 obscure MCU movie secrets that took years to discover.
00:3210. Tony Stark's Illuminati phone app, Iron Man 2
00:37Back in 2017, Redditor BaoJ discovered a devilishly well-hidden easter egg in Iron Man 2,
00:43so cleverly concealed that it actually took someone almost eight years to find it.
00:48When Tony Stark is attending a Senate hearing and starts tinkering around on his phone,
00:52if you look closely alongside apps for S.H.I.E.L.D. and his various
00:57prototypes, you might notice an app labelled Illuminati. The app's logo even matches that
01:03of the Secret Superhero Organization's logo from the comics. And whilst back when this was made,
01:07this was probably just a wink and a nod to the comic book fans, it is an interesting discovery
01:12in light of the Illuminati's first proper MCU appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of
01:17Madness. Given that Tony's phone screen is shown for mere fractions of a second and the text is
01:22extremely hard to read, it's not terribly surprising that it took someone so many years to find it.
01:299. David Tennant influenced Scott Lang's choice of literature, Ant-Man and the Wasp
01:34Now this is a super, super niche reference, and so fans can't really be blamed for failing to pick
01:41up on it until over two years after the fact. In Ant-Man and the Wasp, you'll probably recall that
01:46we briefly see Scott Lang sobbing whilst reading the beloved weepy novel The Fault in Our Stars.
01:52Whilst the joke simply seems to be that Scott is unexpectedly enjoying this book that's definitely
01:56targeted primarily at teenage girls, it actually goes a whole level deeper. Turns out this whole gag
02:02is a reference to a 2016 Marvel interview with actor David Tennant, who played villain Killgrave
02:08in the Jessica Jones series. In the interview he was asked which Avenger he thought would cry the
02:12most whilst reading The Fault in Our Stars, and at this point you can guess the answer. Tennant duly
02:18replied that it would surely be Ant-Man, and so Ant-Man director Peyton Reed decided to pay hilarious
02:24low-flying tribute to this in Ant-Man's next cinematic adventure. It's such an off-piste nod that a fan
02:30likely only spotted it by pure chance after watching the Tennant interview, and in the few seconds it took
02:35to connect the dots, I bet the whole world rushed before their eyes.
02:398. The Hidden Avengers logo
02:42Thor
02:42Kenneth Branagh's Thor may not be one of the MCU's most beloved movies, but it perhaps
02:47doesn't get enough credit for its unique visual identity, with Branagh proving the perfect director
02:52to milk the story's Shakespearean majesty for every epic drop. Branagh has always had a keen eye for
02:58composition, and anyone who's seen any of his movies knows this. Yet, one of Thor's most impressive
03:03visual flourishes went unnoticed for almost an entire decade. In 2020, nearly nine years after
03:09Thor first hit the cinemas, redditor KieferXJ pointed out that the mid-film overhead shot of
03:15Mjolnir being surrounded by SHIELD scientists actually contains a hidden Avengers logo. Between the
03:21patch of lighter circular dirt surrounding Thor's hammer and the A-shaped scorch mark beneath the hammer
03:26itself, the logo can actually be faintly made out. This is clearly no happy accident,
03:32but instead an astoundingly subtle nod towards the future of Thor, and indeed the whole of the MCU.
03:387. Excelsior in Skrull language
03:41Guardians of the Galaxy
03:43Though fans are still anxiously trying to find the one remaining easter egg in Guardians of the Galaxy,
03:48one which director James Gunn says they have uncovered about 60% of,
03:51another secret was discovered in 2018, almost four years after the movie's release.
03:57A fan took to Twitter to note that Stan Lee's memorable cameo scene, where he plays a Zandarian
04:02ladies' man speaking to an attractive woman, contains some text in the Skrull language which
04:07conceals a hidden message. The text translates to Lee's iconic catchphrase, Excelsior, which Gunn
04:13himself confirmed on Twitter, making sure to add of course that that wasn't the final easter egg and
04:18sending fans back out there to keep looking. Considering that only the most die-hard MCU
04:23fans would even consider translating some random alien text they find on screen, it's hardly shocking
04:29that this one flew under the radar. 6. Thor's fake ID photo was taken by Darcy
04:35Thor
04:36Another secret from Thor now, and one that went undetected for eight years until Redditor
04:41TheManWithoutFearTR brought it to everyone's attention, is the amusing story behind Thor's fake
04:46ID in the movie. We briefly see a fake ID created for Thor by Dr Selvig, where he's listed by his
04:52comic book alter ego Dr Daniel Blake, but the real easter egg here is realising where that photo of
04:58Thor came from. If you recall the diner scene from earlier on in the film, Darcy Lewis takes a picture
05:03of Thor cracking a goofy smile on her phone, which in fact turns out to be the very same picture Selvig
05:09used for the ID. It makes total sense of course, but it's easily missed if you're not paying total and
05:14complete attention, hence why nobody bought it up until 2019.
05:185. Dr Erskine's Alter Ego
05:20The Incredible Hulk
05:22In the case of 2008's The Incredible Hulk, it's been easy for secrets to sneak through the cracks
05:27due to the simple fact that so many fans forget it's part of the MCU at all, and in fairness it's
05:33probably nobody's favourite MCU movie anyway. However, there is a neat little surprise hidden in plain sight.
05:39When Emil Blonsky is injected with a variant of the Super Soldier Serum, note that the Stark
05:43industry label bears the name of the developer Dr Reinstein. This might seem totally throwaway,
05:48except that Dr Joseph Reinstein is actually the comic book alter ego of Dr Abraham Erskine,
05:53who made his first MCU appearance a few years later in 2011's prequel film Captain America The First
05:59Avenger, as played by Stanley Tucci. Redditor throwawayj8203 brought attention to the sneaky reference in 2018.
06:07Almost an entire decade after The Incredible Hulk's release, and in fact close to seven years after the first Captain America.
06:144. X-Men Easter Egg on Selvig's Chalkboard
06:18Thor The Dark World
06:19Considering that Thor The Dark World is arguably the worst MCU movie,
06:23you can't really blame fans for failing to pick up on its hidden secrets.
06:27Because really, beyond die-hard Marvel fans, who has ever desired to re-watch this movie?
06:32To that end, this deep-cut reference laid dormant for well over six years before it went viral in 2020,
06:38when a fan noticed that Dr Selvig's chalkboard in the mental institution where he's incarcerated
06:43contains a distinct X-Men reference. Among Selvig's various multiversal scrawlings, the chalkboard
06:49contains the phrase, the fault, on the right-hand side. No, Selvig's not talking about the fault lines, but
06:55rather referring to a concept from Marvel Comics, a rift in the space-time continuum which subjected
07:01Earth to alternate universes. The fault has played an important role in X-Men comics over the years,
07:07more recently serving as a breeding ground for the parasitic insectoid alien race known as the Brood.
07:12It's easy to infer from this that the Dark World's convergent event threatened to create just such a
07:17space-time rift in the MCU's prime universe, though the fact that Selvig is himself aware of the term
07:22is very interesting. 3. The significance of the number 12
07:28Since the MCU's relatively early days, the number 12 has appeared prominently in a number of
07:33situations, from Tony Stark telling Pepper Potts to give yourself 12% of the credit in The Avengers,
07:38or to Peter Quill professing to have 12% of a plan in Guardians of the Galaxy, even Quicksilver telling
07:44Scarlet Witch that he's 12 minutes older than her. In fact, there are more than a dozen prominent
07:49uses of the number 12, from Iron Man to Captain America Civil War alone, and whilst this emerging
07:55pattern went unexplained for many years, James Gunn took to Twitter in 2016 to demystify it.
08:00Gunn noted that the number 12 is often used in comedy writing because it's the highest number with
08:05just one syllable, allowing it to be plugged easily into any fun one-liner. Sadly, if you thought
08:11there was any wider, comic book-y significance to the ubiquity of the number 12, then you're out of
08:15luck. But Gunn's explanation is arguably a bit more interesting. 2. Taika Waititi's fourth cameo
08:23Thor Ragnarok
08:24It's definitely not a secret that Thor Ragnarok director Taika Waititi plays the role of quirky
08:30Cronan gladiator Korg, and you may also know that Waititi carried out additional duties, providing
08:35performance capture for villains Surtr and the Hulk. And you may also know that Waititi carried out
08:40additional duties, including doing motion capture for some other animated bits. However,
08:44Waititi actually had a secret fourth role in the superhero threequel, appearing for a few fleeting
08:50moments as one of the three heads on the three-headed alien Hajjo who's briefly seen on Sakaar.
08:55Though Waititi did admittedly whisper about this role shortly after Ragnarok's release,
09:00it largely went over people's heads. Until three years later in 2020, when Redditor ShadyAria25
09:07noticed Waititi's distinctive face and their post went social media viral. With Waititi currently
09:12hard at work wrapping up post-production on Thor Love and Thunder, be sure to keep your eyes peeled
09:16for his face in basically every single scene. 1. Stain's Musical Giveaway
09:22And here we conclude our list on perhaps the finest secret of the lot, quite aptly hidden within the
09:28movie that started it all, 2008's original Iron Man. You may remember a scene in which the villain,
09:34Obadiah Stain, who hadn't yet outed himself as the card-carrying villain, plays the piano in the
09:39presence of Tony Stark and Pepper. You couldn't be blamed for thinking nothing of it, but for
09:44anyone acquainted with classical music, it was a dead giveaway to Stain's true intentions.
09:49The piece of music that Stain is playing is Antonio Salieri's Largetto from his Piano Concerto
09:54in C, and in pop culture Salieri is commonly depicted as the rival of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
10:00and potentially even his killer, as was immortalised in the classic 1984 film Amadeus.
10:07That Stain is playing Salieri on the piano is all too fitting, considering that,
10:11allegedly like Salieri, he grew envious of the younger talent who surpassed him and
10:16consequently went on to plan their demise. Whilst historians generally consider the
10:20popular characterisation of Salieri to be false, the saboteur slash murderer label has nevertheless stuck,
10:26and is clearly what this music choice is referencing. Even with this right in front of our eyes,
10:31it wasn't until redditor Capt Enterprise took note of the reference in 2017, over nine years after the
10:37film's release, that this brilliantly sly flourish was picked up by the wider fanbase.
10:42And on that note we've reached the end of this list of 10 obscure MCU movie secrets that took years to
10:48discover. If you can think of any more then let us know in the comments down below, and remember to check out
10:53whatculture.com for more lists and articles like this every single day. As always I've been Amy
10:58from WhatCultureNow, catch you next time!
Recommended
12:50
|
Up next
2:10
3:06
12:08
11:27
11:57
1:29
13:06
9:12
13:23