10 MCU Moments More Important Than You Realised

2. Red Skull Prophesizes The Flag Smashers (Captain America: The First Avenger)

The Avengers Captain America Steve Rogers Tony Stark Iron Man
Disney

Speaking of Red Skull and Captain America: The First Avenger, that movie contains a small moment that doesn't just foreshadow Cap's future, but the future of the entire MCU as we know it.

During the final battle between the two characters (just before Red Skull is teleported by the Tesseract), the red-headed villain hits Cap with the following line:

"You could have the power of the gods! Yet you wear a flag on your chest and think you fight a battle of nations. I have seen the future, Captain. There are no flags!"

Cap retorts with "not my future!" but as it would turn out, Red Skull was totally right.

Not only do the stars and stripes disappear from Cap's outfits as he becomes more and more disillusioned with the modern world, but the damaged society we see post-Endgame gives way to a group called the Flag Smashers, whose mission statement is to strip away borders and create a more united world.

Now obviously, both Red Skull and Marvel Studios couldn't have known that the Flag Smashers would one day feature in the MCU, but in hindsight, Red Skull seemingly foreshadowed this widespread anti-nationalist movement with a single line of dialogue, and over 70 years in advance.

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.