This 'Iron Man 2' Easter Egg Could Solve a 'Doctor Strange 2' Mystery
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below."
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness spoilers follow.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had a lot going on, so it's not a surprise that the MCU sequel raised as many questions as it answered.
We're not talking about Wanda's fate here either, but the questions raised by the Illuminati sequence which, among other things, debuted Fantastic Four in the MCU and brought back Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier.
As ever, when new characters are introduced, fans question just where they've been up to this point. For the Illuminati, it's slightly different as they're in Earth-838, but it still begged the question of whether they exist in the main universe, now designated Earth-616.
While we wait for an official answer, there is a potential answer to be found in an unexpected place: Iron Man 2.
A decade before the Illuminati were brutally ripped apart by Wanda, there was a nod to the secret supergroup in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Easter egg in the Iron Man sequel on Tony Stark's phone.
Early on in the movie, Tony is called to a Senate Armed Forces Committee hearing about the Iron Man armor. It's demanded that he hand over the technology to the military, especially as other countries have started to develop their own weaponry inspired by the Iron Man suit.
However, Tony quickly hacks into the screens at the hearing to show that none of those countries are close to having a successful replica, and neither is his rival Justin Hammer, who was testifying against him. Tony declares himself the US's "nuclear deterrent" and it's thanks to him that the country is safe.
It was discovered a couple of years ago by a fan on Reddit that this sequence has a nod to the Illuminati. When Tony opens up his phone to hack into the screens, he has an App on the top right of his phone screen called 'Illuminati'.
Now, this is clearly just an Easter egg placed there for diehard Marvel fans to discover, but that doesn't mean we can't wildly speculate about how it could be retconned into the Illuminati's arrival in Earth-616.
At the time of Iron Man 2, Tony was considered "unsuitable" for the Avengers line-up by Nick Fury, even though he's offered a consultant position at the end of the movie. What if when he was dismissed as an Avenger, Tony still thought the idea of a group to protect the world was a good one?
In the comics, it's Iron Man who is instrumental in setting up the Illuminati in the aftermath of the Kree-Skull War. He meets with Black Panther, Namor, Charles Xavier, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt and Reed Richards in Wakanda, suggesting they form a United Nations-esque group.
They're not massively enthused by the idea and Black Panther decides against being involved. However, the rest of them agree to continue having secret meetings to share information on potential threats in the future.
Of course, at the time of Iron Man 2, it's not like Tony could have reached out to the likes of Black Panther and Doctor Strange, neither of whom were close to their MCU debuts. But the idea of a secret government could have appealed to Tony at the time when he thought he was single-handedly protecting the US.
Maybe it never went further than this as Tony became a full-blown Avenger or maybe the plans were always ticking along in the background. It wouldn't be too hard for a future movie to explain how Tony was instrumental in setting up the group, and we just never knew because they were, you know, a secret.
If there really is an Illuminati already in Earth-616 though, we really hope that Doctor Strange warns them about taking on somebody like Scarlet Witch in the future without a plan.
You Might Also Like
