1. The Ten Rings (Iron Man)
Here's an easter egg that will likely blow the minds of the unfamiliar, simply because it brilliantly foreshadows something that probably hadn't even been thought out yet, and still totally works within the confines of the MCU: that's to say, the Mandarin (our villain in
Iron Man 3, as played by Sir Ben Kingsley) makes a subtle appearance in the original
Iron Man. It's not quite a physical appearance, though... When Tony gets captured by terrorists in Afganistan, you can clearly see that the symbol they're using is the same one that the Mandarin uses in
Iron Man 3 during his television broadcasts - the group even call themselves "The Ten Rings," an allusion to the ancient artefacts that the Mandarin is best-known for possessing in the comics. This implies, of course, that the Mandaran has been operating for far longer than we probably realised. Is it a coincidence that his terrorists captured Tony in the first flick, or is this supposed to be an in-joke of sorts? What this "Ten Rings" reference definitely
does do, though, is build a nice story arc that extends through the entire trilogy of
Iron Man movies, slowly pushing Tony towards a climax with the one man who was apparently responsible for making him into Iron Man in the first place. Now
that's a cinematic universe.
Which amazing easter eggs have we missed? Let us know in the comments section below.