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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.
00:3310. 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,
01:08this 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 me 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
02:02gag is a reference to a 2016 Marvel interview with actor David Tennant, who played villain
02:07Kilgrave in the Jessica Jones series. In the interview he was asked which Avenger he thought
02:12would cry the most whilst reading The Fault in Our Stars, and at this point you can guess the answer.
02:17Tennant duly replied that it would surely be Ant-Man, and so Ant-Man director Peyton Reed decided
02:23to pay hilarious, low-flying tribute to this in Ant-Man's next cinematic adventure. It's such an
02:28off-piste nod that a fan likely only spotted it by pure chance after watching the Tennant interview,
02:34and in the few seconds it took to connect the dots, I bet the whole world rushed before their eyes.
02:398. The Hidden Avengers logo. Thor. Kenneth Branagh's Thor may not be one of the MCU's
02:45most beloved movies, but it perhaps doesn't get enough credit for its unique visual identity,
02:50with Branagh proving the perfect director to milk the story's Shakespearean majesty for every epic drop.
02:56Branagh has always had a keen eye for composition, and anyone who's seen any of his movies knows this.
03:01Yet, one of Thor's most impressive visual flourishes went unnoticed for almost an entire decade.
03:07In 2020, nearly nine years after Thor first hit the cinemas, Redditor KieferXJ pointed out that the
03:14mid-film overhead shot of Mjolnir being surrounded by S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists actually contains a
03:19hidden Avengers logo. Between the patch of lighter, circular dirt surrounding Thor's hammer,
03:24and the A-shaped scorch mark beneath the hammer itself, the logo can actually be faintly made out.
03:29This is clearly no happy accident, but instead an astoundingly subtle nod towards the future of Thor,
03:35Thor, 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,
03:52another 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 fans
04:24would even consider translating some random alien text they find on screen, it's hardly shocking that
04:29this 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
04:42TheManWithoutFearTR brought it to Everon's attention, is the amusing story behind Thor's fake ID in the movie.
04:47We briefly see a fake ID created for Thor by Dr. Selvig, where he's listed by his comic book alter
04:53ego Dr.
04:54Daniel Blake, but the real easter egg here is realising where that photo of Thor came from.
04:59If you recall the diner scene from earlier on in the film, Darcy Lewis takes a picture of Thor cracking
05:04a goofy smile on her phone, which in fact turns out to be the very same picture Selvig used for
05:09the ID.
05:10It makes total sense of course, but it's easily missed if you're not paying total and complete attention,
05:15hence 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.
05:32And in fairness, it's probably nobody's favourite MCU movie anyway.
05:35However, there is a neat little surprise hidden in plain sight.
05:39When Emil Blonsky is injected with a variant of the Super Soldier serum,
05:42note that the Stark industry label bears the name of the developer Dr. Reinstein.
05:46This might seem totally throwaway, except that Dr. Joseph Reinstein is actually the comic book
05:51alter ego of Dr. Abraham Erskine, who made his first MCU appearance a few years later in 2011's
05:57prequel film Captain America The First Avenger, as played by Stanley Tucci.
06:02Redditor throwawayj8203 brought attention to the sneaky reference in 2018, almost an entire decade
06:09after 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
06:17Thor 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,
06:49the 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
07:05comics over the years, more recently serving as a breeding ground for the parasitic insectoid alien
07:11race known 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
07:33situations. From Tony Stark telling Pepper Potts to give yourself 12% of the credit in The Avengers,
07:39or 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 uses
07:49of 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
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 luck,
08:16but Gunn's explanation is arguably a bit more interesting.
08:192. Taika Waititi's fourth cameo, Thor 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,
08:35providing performance capture for villain Surtr and the Hulk. And you may also know that
08:39Waititi carried 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 few
08:49fleeting 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
09:06noticed 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
09:17basically every single scene. 1. Steyne'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 Steyne, 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 Steyne's true intentions. The piece
09:49of music that Steyne is playing is Antonio Salieri's Largetto from his Piano Concerto in C,
09:55and in pop culture Salieri is commonly depicted as the rival of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and
10:01potentially even his killer, as was immortalised in the classic 1984 film Amadeus. That Steyne is playing
10:08Salieri on the 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
10:25label has nevertheless stuck, and is clearly what this music choice is referencing. Even with this
10:30right in front of our eyes, it wasn't until redditor-capped-enterprise took note of the
10:34reference in 2017, over nine years after the film's release, that this brilliantly sly flourish
10:40was picked up by the wider fanbase. And on that note, we've reached the end of this list of 10
10:45obscure MCU movie secrets that took years to discover. If you can think of any more then let
10:50us know in the comments down below, and remember to check out whatculture.com for more lists and
10:55articles like this every single day. As always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture and I'll catch you next time.
10:59I'll catch you next time.
11:00Bye.
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