As we’ve heard many times, “it’s all connected” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sometimes, though, it’s surprising how well everything joins up together. For instance, one fan’s now realized that a character who’s about to make their debut in the MCU in Ant-Man and the Wasp was previously referenced all the way back in 2010’s Iron Man 2.
As shared on Reddit, a video’s making the rounds that stitches together a snippet of the Ant-Man 2 trailer with a clip from the 2010 sequel. In the former, Laurence Fishburne as Bill Foster reveals to Scott Lang’s insectoid superhero that he used to work with Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym on a “project called Goliath.” It just so happens that Project: Goliath was name-checked by Tony Stark back in Iron Man 2, when he asks JARVIS to pull up some old files for him to look through.
Obviously, at the time Iron Man 2 was made, the production team didn’t know they were setting up another movie that was eight years away. It was most likely just an easter egg for the fans to pick up on that referenced Goliath, the giant-sized superhero from the comics. It’s possible, though, that Ant-Man 2‘s writers noticed the IM2 nod and made sure to name-check a project named Goliath to join the dots between the two.
This isn’t the only future corner of the MCU that Iron Man 2 foreshadowed, either. At the end of the movie, Stark meets with Nick Fury and in the background of the scene you can see a map of the world with areas that highlight superhero activity. One of those marked areas is Wakanda, home to Black Panther… who wouldn’t be introduced into the franchise for another six years.
If you’re interested, Project: Pegasus and Project: Exodus, which Tony also mentions in the clip, have Marvel significance as well. Pegasus is a prison for super-criminals while Exodus is the name of a supervillain. It remains to be seen if they’ll appear in movies beyond Ant-Man and the Wasp, but we’re certainly intrigued to find out.
