Warning: This article contains spoilers for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
It looks like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has successfully pulled the MCU out of its slump. The movie has grossed upwards of $300 million worldwide and is all set to make more. Critics and audiences are both praising the Letitia Wright led film for its deep storytelling while still connecting it to the larger MCU. And one of the ways it maintained the interconnectedness generally seen in Marvel movies is by name dropping the Avengers. So here are all the Marvel heroes the movie name dropped:
Iron Man
The first reference we get of Tony is in the scene where Shuri and Okoye are in Riri’s garage and get surrounded by federal agents. When the agents get armed and enter the garage they encounter Riri in her Mark I armor. And here one of the agents remarks that it looks like she’s wearing an Iron Man suit.
And this is the first verbal reference to any Avenger or MCU hero we get in the movie. Of course, apart from this, there are also plenty of deliberate visual parallels between Ironheart and Iron Man throughout the film. And this isn’t just the fact that their armors are named ‘Mark’.
Ant-Man
The Ant-Man reference in Black Panther 2 is much more sneakier. It’s not a verbal one but rather one in the background. In one of the TV news reports we see a scrolling news headline that states Scott Lang has finally published his book. It’s an autobiography titled ‘Look Out For The Little Guy’.
Now, this is a perfect Easter egg that further fits in with Ms. Marvel as well as Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania’s trailer. Both suggested that Scott had found a unique way to make money from his time fighting with the Avengers.
Thor and Valkyrie
Thor isn’t directly referenced in the movie but just like with Ant-Man, there’s a scrolling news headline during one of the news reports that references New Asgard. It’s about a new treaty that’s getting negotiated there. Since Valkyrie is now King of New Asgard so she might be the one presiding over the negotiations. Or maybe Thor is. Hopefully future movies will give us more information on this.
Hulk
The Hulk reference comes in quite late in the movie. When everyone goes to M’baku to discuss about Namor and his powers, he says that the underwater king is as strong as the Hulk. This confirmation about Namor’s strength shouldn’t come as a surprise to people since Ryan Coogler had previously clarified that the Talokan King is as strong as Hulk and Thor.
These were all the Easter eggs we could catch regarding the Avengers. Did you catch anymore? Let us know.