An eagle-eyed Avengers: Endgame fan has noticed an awesome Iron Man Easter Egg. Now that the highest grossing movie of all time is out on digitally and on Blu-ray, Marvel Cinematic Universe fans have been picking it apart and looking for any hidden details. So far, there have been more than a few cool Easter Eggs that refer back to the MCU’s eleven-year past, but this one is a pretty detailed one that shows how much care and effort Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely put into writing Endgame.
Avengers: Endgame concludes with Tony Stark wielding his own Infinity Gauntlet and sacrificing his life to save the universe, while wiping out Thanos at the same time. Even his powerful nanotech suit and arc reactor were no match for the Infinity Stones, much like how Hulk’s snap nearly killed him. Now, a fan has discovered that 2008’s Iron Man foresaw the possibility of something major happening to the arc reactor, which obviously happened in Endgame.
A meme showing Tony Stark and Ho Yinsen making the first version of Tony’s arc reactor features some interesting dialogue. Yinsen informs Tony the arc reactor could power his heart for “50 lifetimes” as Tony responds by saying “yeah, or something big” for 15 minutes. The final panel in the meme features Stark wielding the Infinity Gauntlet as he prepares to snap Thanos and his army away. The blast was too much for his suit and frail body to take, so he died on the battle field in what has to be one of the most emotional scenes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That “something big” was the Infinity Gauntlet and Stones.
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Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely admit that they tried to pack in Easter Eggs while writing Avengers: Endgame and Infinity War. The writing duo were not against the idea of fan service because “These movies would be nonexistent without the fans,” says Markus. And the screenwriter is right. The MCU is massive because Marvel Studios listens to the fans, and in turn, the fans put their trust into the studio and its team. Markus had this to say.
“Fan service is simply honoring the stories that have come before. It’s not like we’re pulling out a tiny Easter Egg that only three people are going to get. It’s just tying up the threads; it’s picking up the nuances that have been dropped earlier. I don’t see it as any kind of niche writing.”
There are obviously some Easter Eggs in movies that are stretching it a bit, but there are some, like this one, that are there on purpose. Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, The Russo Brothers, and Kevin Feige know what they’re doing, especially now, eleven years into it. It’s going to be very interesting to see where the MCU goes after the explosive storytelling in Phase 3. Whatever the case may be, the fans are certainly ready for a new experience. You can check out the Avengers: Endgame and Iron Man Easter Egg over at Reddit.
