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Taika Waititi's secret cameo in Thor: Ragnarok went undiscovered for years.
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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 organisation'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 we
01:46briefly 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 is
02:02a reference to a 2016 Marvel interview with actor David Tennant, who played villain Killgrave in the
02:08Jessica Jones series. In the interview he was asked which Avenger he thought would cry the most whilst
02:13reading The Fault in Our Stars and at this point you can guess the answer. Tennant duly replied that
02:18it would surely be Ant-Man and so Ant-Man director Peyton Reed decided to pay hilarious low-flying
02:24tribute to this in Ant-Man's next cinematic adventure. It's such an off-piste nod that a fan likely only
02:30spotted it by pure chance after watching the Tennant interview and in the few seconds it took to connect
02:35the dots I bet the whole world rushed before their eyes. 8. The Hidden Avengers logo
02:42Thor Kenneth Branagh's Thor may not be one of the MCU's most beloved movies but it perhaps doesn't
02:47get enough credit for its unique visual identity, with Branagh proving the perfect director to milk
02:53the story's Shakespearean majesty for every epic drop. Branagh has always had a keen eye for composition
02:59and anyone who's seen any of his movies knows this, yet one of Thor's most impressive visual
03:03flourishes went unnoticed for almost an entire decade. In 2020, nearly nine years after Thor first hit the
03:10cinemas, Redditor KieferXJ pointed out that the mid-film overhead shot of Mjolnir being surrounded
03:16by SHIELD scientists actually contains a hidden Avengers logo. Between the patch of lighter circular
03:22dirt surrounding Thor's hammer and the A-shaped scorch mark beneath the hammer itself, the logo can
03:28actually be faintly made out. This is clearly no happy accident, but instead an astoundingly subtle
03:33nod 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
03:47Galaxy, one which director James Gunn says they have uncovered about 60% of, another secret was
03:53discovered in 2018, almost four years after the movie's release. A fan took to Twitter to note that
03:59Stan Lee's memorable cameo scene, where he plays a Xandarian ladies man speaking to an attractive woman,
04:05contains some text in the Skrull language which conceals a hidden message. The text translates to Lee's
04:10iconic catchphrase, Excelsior, which Gunn himself confirmed on Twitter, making sure to add of course
04:16that that wasn't the final easter egg and sending fans back out there to keep looking. Considering that
04:21only the most die-hard MCU fans would even consider translating some random alien text they find on
04:27screen, it's hardly shocking that this one flew under the radar.
04:316. 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 bought 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 comic
04:52book alter ego Dr. Daniel Blake, but the real easter egg here is realizing where that photo of Thor came
04:58from. If you recall the diner scene from earlier on in the film, Darcy Lewis takes a picture of Thor
05:03cracking a goofy smile on her phone, which in fact turns out to be the very same picture Selvig used
05:09for 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,
05:32it's probably nobody's favorite MCU movie anyway. However, there is a neat little surprise hidden in
05:38plain sight. When Emil Blonsky is injected with a variant of the Super Soldier Serum, note that the
05:43Stark industry label bears the name of the developer Dr. Reinstein. This might seem totally
05:47throwaway, except that Dr. Joseph Reinstein is actually the comic book alter ego of Dr. Abraham
05:53Erskine, who made his first MCU appearance a few years later in 2011's prequel film,
05:58Captain America The First Avenger, as played by Stanley Tucci. Redditor throwawayj8203 brought
06:04attention to the sneaky reference in 2018, almost an entire decade after The Incredible Hulk's release,
06:10and 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. Because really,
06:28beyond 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,
06:48the chalkboard contains the phrase The Fault on the right-hand side. No, Selvig's not talking about
06:54The Fault lines, but rather referring to a concept from Marvel Comics, a rift in the space-time continuum
07:00which subjected Earth to alternate universes. The Fault has played an important role in X-Men comics over
07:06the years, more recently serving as a breeding ground for the parasitic insectoid alien race
07:11known as the Brood. It's easy to infer from this that The Dark World's convergent event threatened
07:16to create just such a space-time rift in the MCU's Prime Universe, though the fact that Selvig is
07:21himself aware of the term is very interesting. 3. The significance of the Number 12
07:27Since the MCU's relatively early days, the Number 12 has appeared prominently in a number of situations,
07:34from 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
07:44telling Scarlet Witch that he's 12 minutes older than her. In fact, there are more than a dozen
07:48prominent uses of the Number 12 from Iron Man to Captain America Civil War alone, and whilst this
07:54emerging pattern 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
08:05with just 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 It's definitely not a secret that Thor Ragnarok director Taika Waititi plays the role of
08:29quirky Cronan Gladiator Korg, and you may also know that Waititi carried out additional duties,
08:35providing performance capture for villain Surtur and the Hulk, and you may also know that Waititi
08:39carried out additional duties, including doing motion capture for some other animated bits.
08:44However, Waititi actually had a secret fourth role in the superhero threequel, appearing for a
08:49few fleeting moments as one of the three heads on the three-headed alien Hajjo who's briefly seen on
08:54Sakaar. Though 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 hard
09:12at work wrapping up post-production on Thor Love and Thunder, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for his
09:17face 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 anyone
09:44acquainted with classical music, it was a dead giveaway to Stain's true intentions. The piece of
09:49music that Stain is playing is Antonio Salieri's Largetto from his Piano Concerto in C, and in
09:55pop culture Salieri is commonly depicted as the rival of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and potentially
10:01even his killer, as was immortalised in the classic 1984 film Amadeus. That Stain is playing Salieri on
10:08the piano is all too fitting, considering that, allegedly like Salieri, he grew envious of the
10:14younger talent who surpassed him and consequently went on to plan their demise. Whilst historians
10:19generally consider the popular characterisation of Salieri to be false, the saboteur-slash-murderer
10:24label has nevertheless stuck, and is clearly what this music choice is referencing. Even with this right
10:30in front of our eyes, it wasn't until redditor-capped-enterprise took note of the reference in 2017,
10:36over nine years after the film's release, that this brilliantly sly flourish was picked up by the wider
10:41fanbase. And on that note, we've reached the end of this list of 10 obscure MCU movie secrets that
10:47took years to discover. If you can think of any more, then let us know in the comments down below,
10:52and remember to check out whatculture.com for more lists and articles like this every single day.
10:56As always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture now, catch you next time!
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