10 Awesome Moments Of Foreshadowing In Marvel Movies

With such an ardent fanbase as they have, ready to pore over every scene with a fine toothcomb, Marvel loves to tease future plotlines and characters within their movies. These are often featured in the post-credits stingers - Thanos picking up his Infinity Gauntlet at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron being a pretty obvious one. However, there are a lot of much subtler ones out there, too. For example in The Incredible Hulk, the MCU's second instalment, there is some foreshadowing of Captain America. The gamma radiation accident which causes Bruce Banner's transformation was part of a program to recreate a certain super-soldier project from World War II that is said to have been "put on ice." These sort of references and call-forwards to future films make for a strong feeling of interconnectivity between the Marvel universe, which sets it apart from any other superhero franchises we’ve seen so far. On that note, here are ten amazing moments of foreshadowing in the MCU, relating to movies and characters we have already seen as well as some that are still to come. Be warned, though, potential spoilers may ensue, as we will be discussing comic storylines that may yet happen on screen. 10) The Infinity Gauntlet - Thor It's pretty common knowledge that what the MCU has been building up to all this time is a humungous battle against purple Josh Brolin (AKA Thanos), who will gather up the Infinity Stones our heroes have encountered over the years and use them for evil. That much has been obvious since Thanos turned up at the end of The Avengers. Before we had even seen any of the Stones, though, Marvel were already teasing what lay ahead. In Thor, when the Destroyer is attacking Asgard, we get a glimpse of the Infinity Gauntlet - which Thanos uses to harness the Stones' power - sitting in Odin's Throne Room. A cool easter egg it may be, but it does raise the question of how Thanos had it in Avengers: Age of Ultron... Or at least it did, until Marvel chief Kevin Feige confirmed that Odin has one Gauntlet while Thanos has the other. Because, you know, gloves come in pairs. Duh. 9) Putting Wakanda On The Map - Iron Man 2 One of the great things about the MCU is that it has given a chance for some of Marvel’s lesser known heroes to be put on the map. In some cases, literally... During Tony and Fury's confrontation in Iron Man 2, in the background is a map marked with all the spots of superhero activity that S.H.I.E.L.D. have detected - including New York (natch), Malibu (Tony's house) and New Mexico (where Thor's hammer landed). But a couple of the spots hint at characters to come. One is pointing to the African nation of Wakanda - the home country of Black Panther, who is to make his MCU debut in Captain America: Civil War. Another points to the middle of the Atlantic - in other words, Atlantis; the kingdom of Namor the Sub-Mariner. We haven’t been told that a Namor appearance is coming, so this is probably just an easter egg rather than foreshadowing. But then again, who can tell what Marvel has up their sleeve? 8) Thanos Loves Death - The Avengers As we've already noted, Thanos is the king of foreshadowing, regularly turning up to remind us that he is the oncoming Big Bad. Most of his appearances set up his lust for the Infinity Stones, but one of them foreshadows a different kind of lust... At the end of The Avengers, Thanos' mysterious lackey the Other warns his master that to challenge humanity is to "court death.” This is a reference - and a damn clever play on words - to the fact that the Mad Titan is in love with the personification of Death in the comics. His attempt to take over the universe is a bid to impress her. A bunch of flowers wouldn’t cut it, I guess. While this could just be a nod to the comics rather than foreshadowing, it is thought that Cate Blanchett's character in Thor: Ragnarok will be Hela, the Goddess of Death. Presumably, then, she will turn out to be the object of Thanos' affections. Lucky woman, right? 7) Surtur's Realm - Thor: The Dark World Speaking of Thor: Ragnarok, a nod to the plot of the upcoming threequel can be spotted in Thor: The Dark World. At the film’s climax, the Convergence opens windows to the Nine Realms on Earth. The one with all the lava and the fire is Muspelheim – the land of the fire demons and the home realm of Surtur. In the comics, Surtur is the giant who attacks Asgard in the Ragnarok storyline. Given the film’s title, it seems a cert that we will see Surtur in the movie and this, here, is an easily-missed bit of foreshadowing of his appearance. An even subtler one occurs when Loki tells Thor “see you in hell” at one point. While this sounds like a rather generic threat, it is actually a reference to Hel – the Asgardian afterlife. Its ruler is Hela, who as we know is assumed to be played by Cate Blanchett in the film. 6) Crossbones – Captain America: The Winter Soldier Over the course of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve Roger’s apparent ally, STRIKE commander Brock Rumlow, turns into an enemy as it is revealed he is a HYDRA agent. By the end of the film, he has suffered terrible burns, though he is still alive. Fans will instantly recognize this as a set-up for the character becoming Crossbones, one of Captain America’s most fearsome foes in the comics. A very clever bit of foreshadowing to this is the position of the straps over his chest in his final scenes. They resemble the shape of a crossbones, as per the character’s name and the symbol he wears across his chest. Of course, as we all know, Crossbones is set to appear in Captain America: Civil War and may well play a very important role, if the film plans to stay close to the comics... 5) A Strange Namedrop – Captain America: The Winter Soldier As we already know, Marvel loves to give hints about upcoming superheroes, just as in Fury’s map. They are not always so subtle, however, as this namedrop from Captain America: The Winter Soldier shows. Still, what it lacks in subtlety it makes up for in pure fanboy excitement. When Cap and Natasha are interrogating secret HYDRA agent Jasper Sitwell, he lets them in on their plan to monitor those who are a threat to them. You know, the usual ones; Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange… Wait, what? Yep, this namedrop foreshadows the arrival of the Sorcerer Supreme himself, soon to be played by Benedict Cumberbatch this November. More intriguingly, Sitwell also talks of a “TV anchor in Cairo.” Though he doesn’t mention a name, this will jump out at Marvel fans as a nod to Moon Knight. Hopefully that's more than an easter egg and a nod that a Moon Knight movie is coming. 4) Passing The Shield – Captain America: The First Avenger/The Winter Soldier In our third moment of foreshadowing from The Winter Soldier (it’s fitting that it should have so many, as the film revolves around an algorithm that predicts the future), we have this scene which you could easily have missed. When fighting his former friend Steve, Bucky wields Cap’s shield. This is an allusion to the fact that in the comics, after he remembers who he is and reforms, he eventually takes on Steve’s mantle and becomes Captain America. The same thing happens in The First Avenger, also referencing this turn of events. While this could just be a fun easter egg, the fact that Chris Evans has spoken of his wish to retire from acting in the future and Sebastian Stan having a bunch of Marvel films left on his contract suggests that these moments are actually a canny bit of foreshadowing… 3) Adam Warlock’s Cocoon – Thor: The Dark World/Guardians Of the Galaxy In the post-credits scene of Thor: The Dark World, we get our first look at the Collector and his, er, collection of exotic alien life and artefacts. Hidden within it is an innocuous-looking cocoon – unless you know your comics, in which case you’ll recognize it as the cocoon of cosmic hero Adam Warlock. Fast forward to the post-credits scene of Guardians of the Galaxy and, if you can drag your gaze away from the completely unexpected appearance of Howard the Duck, you can see that Adam’s cocoon is now open… Given the character’s important role in the story of the Infinity Gauntlet in the comics, we would bet that this is no mere easter egg, but some very precisely placed foreshadowing for the imminent arrival of the character in the MCU. Expect Warlock in Avengers: Infinity War, if not Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2. 2) The Wasp Is Alive – Ant-Man In Ant-Man, we learnt that Hank Pym’s wife, Janet Van Dyne AKA the Wasp, was lost when she shrunk so much that she disappeared into the Quantum Realm (known as the Microverse in the comics). At the end of the movie, Scott Lang’s Ant-Man visits the Quantum Realm himself and barely makes it back out. If you pay very close attention though, you can see a brief glimpse of a psychedelic silhouette of the Wasp in the scene. Fans are using this as proof that Janet is alive and will be rescued (or perhaps will be shown to have escaped when Lang did) in the upcoming sequel. If this is true, then Ant-Man and the Wasp will actually feature the Wasp twice, as we know it will also see Janet’s daughter, Hope, taking on her mother’s mantle. 1) A Guy Who Crawls Up Walls - Ant-Man As well as teasing two versions of the Wasp, Ant-Man also gave us probably the most exciting bit of foreshadowing in a Marvel movie yet – our first proof that Spider-Man exists in the MCU! Probably… In Luis’ story-within-a-story at the end of the film, when Sam Wilson is asking after “a guy who gets small” he is told that “we got guys who can jump. We got guys who swing. We got guys who crawl up walls.” Though Kevin Feige has said that these descriptions were deliberately vague in terms of superpowers, any mention of wall-crawling in a Marvel context will instantly make us think of Spidey. But is this a moment of foreshadowing for Tom Holland’s upcoming first appearance as the web-slinger in Captain America: Civil War, or proof that Marvel geeks are fixating too much on every throwaway line. You decide! It is definitely the first one, though.