With Easter just around the corner, what better time to start hunting for Easter eggsโฆin your favourite movies. Since MCU instalment #16 Spider-Man: Homecoming is your Sunday night movie this weekend on M-Net, we thought weโd start with a few precious nuggets you may have missed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Letโs go back to 2008, when the MCU started with Iron Man. The records on Stark's computer that expose Obadiah Stane contain references to The Big Lebowski. The cult classic from the Coen brothers stars Jeff Bridges, who plays Stane in Iron Man.
- Iron Man has since had three solo outings, and so has Thor. Cast your mind back to the first instalment, in 2011. In New Mexico, thereโs a billboard advertising the state as โLand of Enchantment โ Journey into Mysteryโ. This is a reference to the comic book series Journey into Mystery. Thor made his first appearance in #83 of this series.
- Comic book creator Stan Lee โ who co-created characters such as Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther โ is renowned for his MCU cameos. His first was in Iron Man.
- If you look closely in Iron Man 2, youโll spot a Captain America comic book amongst Howard Starkโs belongings.
- In The Avengers, Tony Stark refers to the team as โEarthโs mightiest heroes, that kind of thingโ. โEarthโs mightiest heroesโ is the description that has appeared on front covers of the comic books since 1963.
- The Milgrom Hotel in Ant-Man is a shout-out to Al Milgrom. His Marvel credits include time as a writer, penciller, and inker on Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man and as a penciller for West Coast Avengers.
- Stark Tower first appears in The Avengers. It is refurbished and named Avengers Tower in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Thereafter you can spot it in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Dr. Strange, and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
- Weโre sure you know this one, but weโre including it anyway because itโs just so awesome. King TโChaka is portrayed by legendary South African actor John Kani -ย first in Captain America: Civil War and then in Black Panther. The actor who plays the younger version of the character in the latter film is played by Kaniโs son Atandwa Kani.
- Youโll find plenty of Disney Easter eggs in the MCU. One example is Luis humming Itโs a Small World in Ant-Man. This is a reference to the title characterโs small stature and the fact that Marvel and Disney are now one big happy family.
- Spider-Man Homecoming starts with the theme to the animated Spider-Man TV series from 1967.
Watch Tom Holland in his solo outing as Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming, your #SundayNightMovie on 11 March at 20:30 on M-Net.