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.
00:05This is true to the extent that sometimes we notice little loopholes or secrets that
00:10we need an answer or an explanation to that we don't end up getting for a long time.
00:15You can theorise all you want, you can scour through Reddit looking for answers, but until
00:19it's canon, I'm afraid it doesn't count.
00:22And my god is it good to get official answers to these things.
00:25So I'm Amy from WhatCulture, and here are 10 Obscure MCU Movie Secrets That Took Years
00:31To Discover.
00:3310.
00:34Tony Stark's Illuminati Phone App, Iron Man 2
00:37Back in 2017, Redditor Baujay discovered a devilishly well-hidden easter egg in Iron
00:42Man 2, so 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, and I mean very closely, alongside apps for S.H.I.E.L.D. and his various
00:57prototypes, you might notice an app labelled Illuminati.
01:01The app's logo even matches that of the secret superhero organisation's logo from
01:05the comics, and whilst back when this was made this was probably just a wink and a nod
01:09to the comic book fans, it is an interesting discovery in light of the Illuminati's first
01:14proper MCU appearance in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.
01:18Given that Tony's phone screen is shown for mere fractions of a second, and the text
01:22is extremely hard to read, it's not terribly surprising that it took someone so many years
01:27to find it.
01:299.
01:30David 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
01:40to pick up on it until over two years after the fact.
01:44In Ant-Man and the Wasp, you'll probably recall that we briefly see Scott Lang sobbing
01:48whilst 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
01:56definitely targeted primarily at teenage girls, it actually goes a whole level deeper.
02:01Turns out this whole gag is a reference to a 2016 Marvel interview with actor David Tennant,
02:06who played villain Killgrave in the Jessica Jones series.
02:09In the interview, he was asked which Avenger he thought would cry the most whilst reading
02:13The 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
02:22Reid decided to pay hilarious low-flying tribute to this in Ant-Man's next cinematic adventure.
02:28It's such an off-piste nod that a fan likely only spotted it by pure chance after watching
02:33the Tennant interview, and in the few seconds it took to connect the dots, I bet the whole
02:37world rushed before their eyes.
02:398.
02:40The Hidden Avengers logo
02:42Thor
02:43Kenneth 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
02:51perfect director to milk the story's Shakespearean majesty for every epic drop.
02:57Branagh has always had a keen eye for composition, and anyone who's seen any of his movies
03:01knows this.
03:02Yet, one of Thor's most impressive visual flourishes went unnoticed for almost an entire
03:06decade.
03:07In late 2020, nearly nine years after Thor first hit the cinemas, Redditor KieferXJ pointed
03:13out that the mid-film overhead shot of Mjolnir being surrounded by S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists
03:18actually contains a hidden Avengers logo.
03:21Between the patch of lighter, circular dirt surrounding Thor's hammer and the A-shaped
03:25scorch mark beneath the hammer itself, the logo can actually be faintly made out.
03:30This is clearly no happy accident, but instead an astoundingly subtle nod towards the future
03:35of Thor, and indeed, the whole of the MCU.
03:387.
03:39Excelsior in Scroll Language
03:41Guardians of the Galaxy.
03:43Though fans are still anxiously trying to find the one remaining Easter egg in Guardians
03:47of the Galaxy, one which director James Gunn says they have uncovered about 60% of, another
03:53secret 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 Xandarian
04:02ladies' man speaking to an attractive woman, contains some text in the Scroll Language
04:07which conceals a hidden message.
04:09The text translates to Lee's iconic catchphrase, Excelsior, which Gunn himself confirmed on
04:15Twitter.
04:16Making sure to add, of course, that that wasn't the final Easter egg, and sending fans back
04:19out there to keep looking.
04:21Considering that only the most die-hard MCU fans would even consider translating some
04:26random alien text they find on screen, it's hardly shocking that this one flew under the
04:30radar.
04:316.
04:32Thor'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
04:46fake ID in the movie.
04:48We briefly see a fake ID created for Thor by Dr. Selvig, where he's listed by his comic
04:53book alter-ego Dr. Daniel Blake, but the real Easter egg here is realizing where that photo
04:58of Thor came from.
04:59If 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
05:08picture Selvig used for the ID.
05:10It 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.
05:19Dr. Erskine's alter-ego, The Incredible Hulk.
05:22In the case of 2008's The Incredible Hulk, it's been easy for secrets to sneak through
05:27the cracks due 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.
05:36However, 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
05:43Stark Industry label bears the name of the developer, Dr. Reinstein.
05:47This might seem totally throwaway, except that Dr. Joseph Reinstein is actually the
05:51comic book alter-ego of Dr. Abraham Erskine, who made his first MCU appearance a few years
05:56later in 2011's prequel film, Captain America The First Avenger, as played by Stanley Tucci.
06:02Redditor throwawayj8203 brought attention to the sneaky reference in 2018, almost an
06:08entire decade after The Incredible Hulk's release, and in fact close to seven years
06:12after the first Captain America.
06:144.
06:15X-Men easter egg on Selvig's chalkboard, Thor The Dark World.
06:19Considering that Thor The Dark World is arguably the worst MCU movie, you can't really blame
06:24fans for failing to pick up on its hidden secrets.
06:28Because really, beyond die-hard Marvel fans, who has ever desired to re-watch this movie?
06:33To that end, this deep-cut reference laid dormant for well over six years before it
06:37went viral in 2020, when a fan noticed that Dr. Selvig's chalkboard in the mental institution
06:42where he's incarcerated contains a distinct X-Men reference.
06:46Among Selvig's various multiversal scrawlings, the chalkboard contains the phrase,
06:50The Fault, on the right-hand side.
06:52No, Selvig's not talking about the Fault lines, but rather referring to a concept from
06:57Marvel Comics, a rift in the space-time continuum which subjected Earth to alternate universes.
07:03The Fault has played an important role in X-Men comics over the years, more recently
07:07serving 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
07:16just such a space-time rift in the MCU's prime universe, though the fact that Selvig
07:21is himself aware of the term is very interesting.
07:243.
07:25The Significance of the Number 12
07:28Since the MCU's relatively early days, the Number 12 has appeared prominently in a number
07:33of situations.
07:34From 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.
07:43And Quicksilver telling Scarlet Witch that he's 12 minutes older than her.
07:47In fact, there are more than a dozen prominent uses of the number 12, from Iron Man to Captain
07:52America Civil War alone.
07:54And whilst this emerging pattern went unexplained for many years, James Gunn took to Twitter
07:58in 2016 to demystify it.
08:01Gunn noted that the number 12 is often used in comedy writing because it's the highest
08:05number with just one syllable, allowing it to be plugged easily into any fun one-liner.
08:10Sadly, if you thought there was any wider comic book-y significance to the ubiquity
08:14of the number 12, then you're out of luck.
08:16But Gunn's explanation is arguably a bit more interesting.
08:202.
08:21Taika 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.
08:32And you may also know that Waititi carried out additional duties, providing performance
08:36capture for villains Surtur and the Hulk.
08:38And you may also know that Waititi carried out additional duties, including doing motion
08:42capture for some other animated bits.
08:44However, Waititi actually had a secret fourth role in the superhero threequel, appearing
08:49for a few fleeting moments as one of the three heads on the three-headed alien Hajo who's
08:53briefly seen on Sakaar.
08:56Though Waititi did admittedly whisper about this role shortly after Ragnarok's release,
09:00it largely went over people's heads.
09:02Until three years later in 2020, when Redditor ShadyAria25 noticed Waititi's distinctive
09:08face and their post went social media viral.
09:11With Waititi currently hard at work wrapping up post-production on Thor Love and Thunder,
09:15be sure to keep your eyes peeled for his face in basically every single scene.
09:191.
09:20Stane's Musical Giveaway
09:22And here we conclude our list on perhaps the finest secret of the lot, quite aptly hidden
09:27within the movie that started it all, 2008's original Iron Man.
09:32You may remember a scene in which the villain, Obadiah Stane, who hadn't yet outed himself
09:36as the card-carrying villain, plays the piano in the presence of Tony Stark and Pepper.
09:41You couldn't be blamed for thinking nothing of it, but for anyone acquainted with classical
09:45music it was a dead giveaway to Stane's true intentions.
09:49The piece of music that Stane is playing is Antonio Salieri's Largetto from his piano
09:54concerto in C, and in pop culture Salieri is commonly depicted as the rival of Wolfgang
09:59Amadeus Mozart and potentially even his killer, as was immortalised in the classic 1984 film
10:05Amadeus.
10:06That Stane is playing Salieri on the piano is all too fitting considering that, allegedly
10:12like Salieri, he grew envious of the younger talent who surpassed him and consequently
10:17went on to plan their demise.
10:19Whilst historians generally consider the popular characterisation of Salieri to be false, the
10:23saboteur-slash-murderer label has nevertheless stuck, and is clearly what this music choice
10:28is referencing.
10:30Even with this right in front of our eyes, it wasn't until Redditor Capt Enterprise took
10:34note of the reference in 2017, over nine years after the film's release, that this brilliantly
10:39sly flourish was picked up by the wider fanbase.
10:43And on that note, we've reached the end of this list of 10 Obscure MCU Movie Secrets
10:47That Took Years To Discover.
10:49If you can think of any more, then let us know in the comments down below, and remember
10:53to check out WhatCulture.com for more lists and articles like this every single day.
10:57As always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture, and I'll catch you next time.