10 MCU Theories That Come Directly From The Creators

7. Peter Parker Met Tony Stark As A Child - Iron Man 2

A fan theory started doing the rounds in 2017 that Peter Parker (Tom Holland) actually had a cameo in the MCU many years before the character was ever introduced.

The theory dictates that Parker was the young boy who stands his ground against a Hammer drone at the Stark Expo in Iron Man 2.

Between the Expo taking place in Parker's home borough of Queens, the ages lining up perfectly and Peter obviously having an interest in science from a young age, it slots together perfectly.

It wasn't long before Tom Holland "confirmed" the theory himself, but things got even more interesting when Spider-Man: Homecoming's director Jon Watts declared that he'd actually come up with the theory himself while in pre-production on Homecoming.

After being hired for the gig in June 2015, Watts was on-set to watch Spidey make his debut in Captain America: Civil War, and then combed through the MCU's back catalogue in order to fully acquaint himself with the franchise. In his own words:

"I was watching all these other movies and being like, 'What if that little kid at the Stark Expo was Peter Parker? In the Iron Man mask.' Like, he’d be about the right age for that. And he loves Tony Stark. It’s this thing where, because it’s not completely figured out, that you can just go back and basically write fan fiction for those movies, then the fan fiction becomes reality. A lot of the Easter eggs in this movie just started by rewatching the movies...I remember watching [Iron Man 2] with Kevin Feige and everyone and being like, 'Does the math work on that?' He was like, 'It might, maybe.'"

Given that Watts, Feige and co. would've presumably come to this conclusion sometime in 2015 or 2016, they actually beat the fans to the punch by at least a solid year, even if they didn't bring their theory to light until prompted by eager fans.