MCU Easter Eggs

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Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Release (US): April 26, 2019 | Directors: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo | Runtime: 181 minutes

Five years after Thanos wiped out half of all life, the surviving Avengers find a way to travel back through their own history for one last attempt to undo the damage. It closes the 22-film Infinity Saga and says goodbye to several of the heroes who started it.

Source: Wikipedia: Avengers: Endgame

Hidden Details & Easter Eggs

Cap finally says 'Avengers assemble', four years after Ultron cut him off

Age of Ultron ends with Captain America saying 'Avengers...' before the film cuts to the credits. Joss Whedon said he made sure Chris Evans was never filmed saying the full line, so no executive could add the missing word later. Endgame finally lets Cap finish it when the portals open before the last battle.

Source: CinemaBlend: The final line of Age of Ultron explained by Joss Whedon

Evans meant to shout the line, but the quiet first take stuck

Evans said the line almost seemed to need shouting and he planned to yell it on the first take. Instead he went low and let the army roar around him. The Russos told him that was the one and to skip the shouted version, and Evans said he isn't sure a shouted take was ever filmed.

Source: Screen Rant (Evans to MTV News)

Cap lifting Mjolnir pays off the Age of Ultron party scene

At the party in Age of Ultron, every Avenger tries to lift Thor's hammer. When Steve tries, Mjolnir moves very slightly and Thor looks briefly worried. Anthony Russo said that in the directors' heads, Steve realized then that he could lift it and held back out of respect for Thor. Joe Russo said that moment is where the big Endgame payoff came from.

Source: CBR: Russo Bros. explain Captain America and Thor's big Endgame moment

The writers disagree: Cap wasn't fully worthy in Ultron

Screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely see it differently from the Russos. During a 2020 watch-along, Markus wrote that Steve wasn't completely worthy yet in Age of Ultron, because he was still keeping the truth about Tony's parents' deaths a secret. So both readings come from the filmmakers.

Source: Inside the Magic

Stan Lee's 1970 cameo is the last one he filmed

When Tony and Steve travel back to the 1970s, a digitally de-aged Stan Lee drives past dressed as a hippie and shouts 'Make love, not war!' His car has a bumper sticker with his catchphrase "'Nuff Said." The Russo brothers confirmed it was the last cameo Lee filmed before he died in 2018.

Source: MovieWeb: Endgame directors break down Stan Lee's final MCU cameo

The grieving man in the support group is director Joe Russo

Early on, in a grief support group, a man talks about going on his first date since losing his male partner when half of all life vanished. That man is co-director Joe Russo, who is usually credited as Gozie Agbo in his small roles. Deadline called him the first openly gay character in a Disney/Marvel film, and Russo said the directors wanted one of them to play the part.

Source: Deadline

The 2012 Hulk in the time heist is the original 2012 model

For the return to the 2012 Battle of New York, the effects team pulled the old Hulk digital sculpt from The Avengers, re-rigged it and gave it newer shaders. The Hulk there matches how he looked in 2012, not his Ragnarok redesign. Several cast members were also lightly de-aged to match their 2012 selves.

Source: befores & afters (VFX supervisor Dan DeLeeuw)

Thanos's creator Jim Starlin has a cameo

Jim Starlin, the comics creator who invented Thanos, appears as one of the grieving people in the film. That gives the man behind the villain a small part in the movie that ends Thanos's story.

Source: Wikipedia: Avengers: Endgame (citing Entertainment Weekly)

2026's Endgame Encore adds new scenes that set up Doomsday

In September 2026 Marvel put the film back in theaters as Avengers: Endgame Encore, with four new scenes shot during the making of Avengers: Doomsday. In the extended ending, Loki in a TVA uniform knocks on Steve and Peggy's door during their dance. Other new scenes show Doctor Doom breaking into Bruce Banner's underground hideout and the TVA watching the multiverse collapse.

Source: Variety

Encore turns the final clang into Doctor Doom forging his mask

In 2019, the only thing after the credits was a clanging sound fans took to be Tony hammering his first armor in Iron Man. Encore keeps that sound but adds quick shots of Doctor Doom, also played by Robert Downey Jr., forging his metal mask. Joe Russo said the shot was meant to be almost identical to the original to show a duality between good and evil.

Source: Empire: Endgame Encore's new scenes explained by the Russo brothers

After the Credits

The original 2019 release has no mid- or post-credits scene. As the score fades at the very end, you can hear only a faint metal clanging, widely read as Tony Stark forging his first armor in the cave in Iron Man (source: Den of Geek, https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/avengers-endgame-post-credits-sound-explained/). The 2019 'With Bonus Content' re-release added about seven minutes after the credits, including a Stan Lee tribute and a deleted scene (source: IGN, https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/20/avengers-endgame-rerelease-release-date-runtime-new-footage-description). The 2026 Endgame Encore re-release adds a credits scene of Doctor Doom confronting Bruce Banner and puts images of Doom forging his mask over the closing clang (source: Variety, https://variety.com/2026/film/news/avengers-endgame-encore-new-scenes-doctor-doom-hulk-loki-1236873843/).

Deleted Scenes

6 scenes cut from the film and released as home-media extras. See them all →

Setups and Payoffs

Moments in this film that pay off later, or pay off something earlier. All callbacks →

Characters in This Film

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