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10 Marvel Cinematic Universe Easter Eggs That Led Nowhere

Superhero movies are full of easter eggs and references that are either there just to poke fun or turn out to become a major plot point for the future. The Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are filled with tons of easter eggs and here is a list of them which we thought could lead to something big but ended up going nowhere.

Tony’s Post Hulk Cameo

At the end of The Incredible Hulk in the post-credits scene, Tony Stark showed up to meet General Ross and talk about putting up the Avengers together, just like Nick Fury showed up at the end of Iron Man to talk about the Avengers Initiative.

But as it turned out, that scene just meant to establish a proper connection to set up the shared Universe, nothing more. Hulk did end up coming in the Avengers but that was later and not because of the little meeting Tony had with Ross.

Howard The Duck in the first Guardians movie

When the credits started to roll at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, fans wondered what they are going to see, and found out a funny scene showing Howard the Duck. Everyone thought that he was gonna have a bigger role in the sequel and would be given something.

But as it turned out, he showed up as an Easter Egg once again in Vol 2. So he is just there to be referenced, poke fun and has no other purpose. Fans at least did not expect this from Guardians of the Galaxy as the movie took care of the slightest of hints & easter-eggs and gave an amazing pay-off.

Real Mandarin Exists

The Mandarin in Iron Man 3 turned out to be Trevor Slattery, a stage actor. This pissed off a lot of fans, but later he again appeared in a One-Shot called All Hail The King and was rescued from prison by a mysterious character played by Scoot McNairy.

That character actually worked for the real Mandarin as he said, which meant the Mandarin does exist, but this has not been dealt with until now, and since Iron Man 4 is not on the table, it might not be addressed at all.

Jocasta Reference In Age Of Ultron

In Marvel comics, Jocasta is the robotic bride of her creator, Ultron. She’s briefly loyal to the AI villain but then betrays him and sides with the Avengers. But in Age of Ultron, she was dealt differently, as she was only shown as an AI Chip that Tony had, and the movie took a different route.

The movie already had plenty of characters to juggle with, so it did not put in one more character which could have made things complicated. But this is just a bad excuse of Marvel as the plotline concerning Scarlett Witch and Quick Silver was totally uncalled for. Jocasta teaming up with Ultron and then turning on him would have been far better storyline than what we got. The movie lacked emotional hook and punch that makes the audience say WOW but it felt bland and nowhere close to the first Avengers movie.

Ant-Man’s 10 Rings Reference

When Darren Cross was presenting his Yellow Jacket suit to a bunch of potential prospects, as it turned out that one of those prospects was a member of the 10 Rings which is a group led by The Mandarin.

This was another nod at the real Mandarin’s existence but this trail has also gone cold sticking us with a question mark. MCU had the chance to redeem itself from the horrible portrayal of Mandarin in Iron Man 3 but as usual, they did not even try.

The Original Human Torch In Captain America

Long before the first Fantastic Four comic was printed, Marvel had one more hero by the name of Human Torch on its books. No one was expecting to see a reference to this version of Human Torch in Captain America: The First Avenger as he was shown during the Stark Expo scene in a distinctive red costume in a glass tube.

Everyone thought that he might show up later on somehow in the MCU, but it was just a mere reference like other Easter Eggs on this list. If Marvel wanted to use it beyond just one appearance, they could have and it would have been both hilarious and intriguing. (Chris Evans aka Captain America played Human Torch in Fantastic Four movie)

The Leader’s Transformation

Marvel Studios has tried it really hard to make it look like The Incredible Hulk never happened, and that includes ignoring most of the sequel setups and easter eggs it contained. One of the things set up for the sequel was the Leader’s transformation as he was also infected while the Abomination experiment.

But this also meant nothing as Marvel tied up this loose end in the digital comic series Fury’s Big Week, which revealed that Black Widow later arrived on the scene, subdued the mutating doctor and handed him over to SHIELD. This was a big opportunity lost for MCU and Hulk fans have time and again expressed their disappointment with the mishandling of their beloved superhero.

Namor In Iron Man 2

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Iron Man 2 was the movie filled with tonnes of Easter Eggs that helped build the MCU itself. One of the popular Easter Eggs was the one that showed the existence of Wakanda in Africa and Atlantis in Mid-ocean on a map.

Well, we have seen Wakanda and Black Panther, but there is no Namor or Atlantis till now. But, never say never as it might show up later in the post-Avengers 4 MCU.

Infinity Gauntlet in Thor

We saw an Infinity Gauntlet in Odin’s Vault in the first Thor movie which led us to believe that there are in fact 2 Gauntlets in the MCU as Thanos also had one and both of them could come into play in Infinity War.

But, Thor: Ragnarok cleared the air as we found out that the one in Odin’s Vault was actually a fake and was put in as a fun reference. It felt so awful when MCU said that it was there just for show as there was a huge potential of this easter-egg. Imagine just when Thanos is about to use his Infinity gauntlet with all the Infinity stones in it, Thor rise up and wield another gauntlet to save the cosmos. But what we found outrageous was that Space Stone aka Tesseract was also lying there just like that for Loki to steal it again.

Fin Fang Foom In Iron Man 3

During a scene where Tony soars across a cityscape in full Iron Man mode, a poster in the background depicts the MCU version of the extra-terrestrial creature which was believed to be the Marvel Universe’s resident dragon Fin Fang Foom.

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Although the movies are yet to build on this easter egg, Marvel had explored this version of Fin Fang Foom in Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas, a comic set within the MCU. So far, this is the closest fans have come to see a dragon in the shared universe. Would it not be amazing to get a spin-off based on Fin Fang Foom? Hehe…just kidding.

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Vansh Mehra

Content creator. Just wanna share my passion for cinema with everyone.
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