10 Cameos In Avengers: Endgame That Were Totally Unexpected

From the initial five-year time jump to the Time Heist which revisits past movies to the grand final battle that unites every single hero in the franchise, Avengers: Endgame is stacked full of cameos, walk-ons and brief supporting roles for a bevy of faces from Marvel past. In comparison, it makes the ballooning cast of Avengers: Infinity War look minuscule. There are fan favorite characters we've been waiting to see again in the present - like Korg and Miek - those who make one last appearance (possibly) with the aid of time travel - Loki, who manages to escape his fate in an alternate timeline - and, of course, the final cameo of the late, great, much-missed Stan Lee. But what are the appearance that we were least expecting? From those that made us think "Oh look, it's them!" to the ones that truly blew our minds, here are 10 of the most shocking cameos in Avengers: Endgame. As always, if we've missed one of your picks, be sure to let us know in the comments section down below. The Ancient One Let's start with the return of one dead character we didn't expect to see again. Tilda Swinton's Ancient One was a typical Kenobi-like destined-to-die mentor in Doctor Strange, teaching Stephen Strange all she knew before kicking the mystical bucket. So, it was a nice surprise when she showed up again during the trip back to the events of The Avengers in Endgame. The visit to New York in 2012 reveals that the Ancient One was secretly part of the battle, using her sorcery to covertly attack the Chitauri forces invading the city from the rooftop of the Sanctum Sanctorum in Bleecker Street. This is where Hulk finds her, eventually convincing her to hand over the Time Stone that the Avengers need to help reverse the effects of the Snap. There's possibly a slight plot hole here though, as the Ancient One seems to know more about the future than she did in Doctor Strange, but it was still a fun return for the character nonetheless. Even if Mark Ruffalo did his best to spoil the surprise in an interview last year. Community Cameos The Russo brothers are known for working on hit comedy Community before they became Marvel's go-to filmmakers and they’ve always been keen to tip their hat to the series in their MCU films. Jim Rash previously turned up in Captain America: Civil War, for instance, as an M.I.T. professor who badgers Tony for extra funding. Endgame, meanwhile, features not just one, but two further cameos from stars of the show. First up, you might have spotted Ken Jeong behind some glasses and a beard as the security guard of the parking lot in which Scott Lang finds himself when he emerges from the Quantum Realm in his van. Later on in the movie, Yvette Nicole Brown gets more to do as an employee of the S.H.I.E.L.D. base who shares an elevator with an incognito Cap and Iron Man and ends up ratting them out to the authorities. Frigga Endgame features two of the heroes going back in time and reconnecting with a parent. One was Tony meeting a young Howard Stark and while it was good to see the character again, it wasn't a total surprise. For one, we'd heard reports that John Slattery was appearing in the film and it makes sense for Tony to reconnect with his father, thereby finally resolving his daddy issues. If Thor was going to go through something similar, though, you'd expect it to involve Odin, as Anthony Hopkins has always been the more prominent of the hero's parents. As it happens, though, the revisitation of Thor: The Dark World means that the God of Thunder gets to encounter his mother Frigga (Rene Russo) one more time, shortly before she's destined to be killed by a Dark Elf. Frigga's always been under-utilized, so it was a stroke of genius to bring her back and mine so much emotion from her and Thor's relationship. Who knew you could make something out of the set-up of the underwhelming Dark World? Red Skull Fans of the original (ugly) face of HYDRA were overjoyed when Red Skull made a shock appearance in Infinity War, revealed as the guardian of the Soul Stone on Vormir. It was the first time we'd seen the iconic villain since The First Avenger seven years earlier. We hoped he wouldn't be a stranger now that he'd come back once, but we didn't expect him to return so soon in Endgame. And especially not in a mirrored version of his previous cameo. When Hawkeye and Black Widow travel to Vormir to collect the Soul Stone, Red Skull features in pretty much the same capacity as he did in IW, explaining the rules of the Stone. He even repeats many of the same lines. To tell you the truth though, this second appearance of a great foe like Johann Schmidt as a mere mouthpiece for the Infinity Stones felt like a bit of a waste. However, now that he's shown up in two more movies there's every chance he could return to Earth and become the power-mad maniac we all know and love in the future. How about having him face off against Sam Wilson's Cap? Edwin Jarvis Tony and Steve's trip back to the S.H.I.E.L.D. base Camp Lehigh in 1970 brings back a few familiar faces - the aforementioned Howard Stark, Hank Pym and Peggy Carter (a preview of her more significant cameo later on). The most surprising walk-on in this sequence, though, has to be Edwin Jarvis, if only because much of the audience probably won't realize who he is. When Tony hugs Howard goodbye, the elder Stark is confused by the younger man's affection and asks his driver if he's ever met him before. The non-committal Jarvis comments that he knows a lot of people and the pair get into the car. It's a tiny scene in the grand scheme of things, but it actually marks a huge deal for the MCU as a whole. James D'arcy's Jarvis - yes, the butler is where Tony got the name for his A.I. from - previously featured on Agent Carter. This means that Jarvis has the honor of being the very first character to make the jump from the TV side of the Marvel universe over to the film side. It's a testament to the breadth and popularity of the MCU that the filmmakers now trust fans to recognize a character we haven't seen on the small screen since 2016. Jane Foster Jane Foster never really took off with fans as other Marvel leading ladies have, with the character being unceremoniously dropped from the Thor franchise in Ragnarok (due to a "mutual dumping," as the God of Thunder put it) to be never seen again. It's been reported that Natalie Portman fell out with Marvel over creative differences with The Dark World, but that remains unconfirmed. It was a surprise then when Portman attended Endgame's world premiere, fueling theories that she'd be making a shock return as Jane in the film. And return she did, in a small role as Rocket has to take the Aether out of her so that the heroes can add the Reality Stone to their collection. We've since learned that this was actually unused footage from TDW, but Portman was required to record a few lines that can be heard when Thor watches Jane from afar. Joe Russo's Cameo The fact that co-director Joe Russo gave himself a cameo in Endgame isn't a surprise, as he's had walk-on roles in two of his previous movies, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War. It's the nature of his cameo here, though, that's worth mentioning, as it offers us an MCU first that's long overdue. Russo appears as part of Cap's Snap survivors support group, opening up about how he's just had his first date in five years. It's casually revealed that his date was a man, thereby making Russo's part the first explicitly LGBT character in any MCU movie. The director has explained that he wanted to play this role as a message to other filmmakers that they need to up their game with equal representation in their work. You could argue this minor character is too little too late, but the good news is Kevin Feige has insisted that this is just the beginning, as the franchise is set to have its first gay superhero soon in The Eternals. Alexander Pierce Though it starts out as a callback to The Avengers, the scenes in 2012 allow the Russos to serve up a homage to their first Marvel movie, The Winter Soldier. Memorably, there's a reprise of the iconic elevator sequence, which allows for the return of both Jasper Sitwell and Brock Rumlow AKA Crossbones. As fun as it was to see these two double-crossing scoundrels again though, it's more of a shock when Robert Redford shows up as Alexander Pierce. Iron Man and Ant-Man seize their chance to steal the Tesseract when the 2012 Tony's cornered by Pierce, who wishes to take the weapon on behalf of the World Security Council. Pierce was last seen back in The Winter Soldier as Nick Fury's old friend and trusted boss. You'll recall that he was actually the latest head of HYDRA though, who was planning a global uprising. We know that the organization ended up with the Mind Stone and it seems, if Pierce had his way, they would have got the Space Stone, too. Harley Keener It might be hard to recall all the details of Tony's funeral scene, as most of us watched it through watery eyes, but there's a face in the crowd of mourners gathered at the memorial that might ring distant bells. All the other characters present we've met either in Endgame itself or Infinity War, but you might not recognize who's at the back of the group, as he looks pretty different from when he was last in the MCU. Of course, we're talking about Ty Simpkins, who played Harley Keener in Iron Man 3. Harley was quite popular with fans back in 2013, though he was soon replaced as Tony's surrogate son by Peter Parker, so we thought there wasn't much chance of him coming back. It wasn't exactly a surprise to see him in the movie though, as Simpkins has been listed on Endgame's IMDB page for a while, but the fact that he returned at all is still unlikely. In any case, we're left to wonder now at whether Marvel has big plans for Harley in Phase Four or whether this was just a tip of the hat to his role in IM3. Joe Russo has hinted that he could feature in another movie after this, so you never know. I've previously suggested he could be given an Iron Man suit and factor into the Young Avengers as a version of Iron Lad, but again, nothing's been confirmed just yet. Howard The Duck It's clear by now that Avengers: Endgame features a lot of surprise cameos, but there's one that takes the crown for the most unexpected appearance. Think back to the grand finale battle against Thanos' forces - where every MCU hero ever assembles to save the universe. There's no hero missing from the line-up. Avengers, Guardians. Howard the Duck. They're all there. Wait, what? Howard the Duck? Yup. Overwhelming as this scene is, you might not have spotted him the first time around but Howard is definitely there. Have a look in the screenshot above and you'll spot Howard behind Wasp on her right surrounded by the Ravagers. We're guessing the portal behind them opens up from Contraxia, the less-than-reputable planet frequented by the duck and the space pirates. The fact that Howard is in the MCU at all is hilarious, thanks to James Gunn dropping him in the Guardians of the Galaxy post-credits scene, but it's even funnier than he's part of this mythic battle that wraps up the whole of the franchise so far. If you think about it, his appearance brings Marvel's cinematic history full circle. 1986's Howard the Duck was the first ever Marvel movie and, 30 years later, now we're getting films like these. But, most importantly, Howard is still around.