MCU: 10 Fascinating Facts Behind Iron Man 2 (2010)

4. Star Wars Influenced Whiplash

And speaking of those whips, they owe Star Wars a debt for their design.

The MCU's Whiplash is an amalgamation of the comics Whiplash and the Crimsons Dynamo, and it's the latter that he takes his electricity manipulation ability from, which is sort of crucial. But for the actual weapons he uses, the production designers in charge of his concept turned to the Jedi.

His whips were heavily inspried by lightsabers and indeed a similar weapon exists in the Star Wars universe called a lightwhip.