An ‘Iron Man 2’ Easter Egg Could Solve a ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Mystery

This is… illuminating.

    This article contains SPOILERS for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness..

    Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had a lot of work to do, so it’s no surprise that the MCU sequel raises as many questions as it answers.

    We’re not talking about Wanda’s fate, but about the questions raised by the Illuminati sequence that, among other things, served as the Fantastic Four’s debut in the MCU and brought back Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier.

    As always, when new characters are introduced, fans wonder where they’ve been so far. In the case of the Illuminati, it is slightly different, as they are located on Earth-838, but it continues to raise the question of whether they exist in the main universe, now designated Earth-616.

    While we wait for an official confirmation, there is a potential answer that is hidden in an unexpected place: ‘Iron Man 2’.

    A decade before the Illuminati was brutally destroyed by Wanda, there was a nod to the secret supergroup in an easter egg found in the sequel to ‘Iron Man’, specifically on Tony Stark’s phone.

    Early in the film, Tony is summoned to attend a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing regarding his Iron Man armor. They demand that he hand over the technology to the military, especially since other countries have begun developing their own. own weaponry inspired by the Iron Man suit.

    However, it doesn’t take long for Tony to hack the audience’s screens to show that neither of those countries is close to having a successful retort, and neither is his rival Justin Hammer, who was testifying against him. Tony self-declares “nuclear deterrence” and, thanks to him, the United States remains safe.

    A couple of years ago, a fan discovered on Reddit that this sequence has a nod to the Illuminati. When Tony opens his phone to hack the screens, he has an App on the top right of his phone screen called ‘Illuminati’.

    Now, this is neatly presented as an easter egg sitting out there for die-hard Marvel fans to discover, but that doesn’t mean we can’t speculate on how this might play out in the Illuminati’s arrival on Earth-616. .

    Around the time of ‘Iron Man 2’, Tony was deemed “unsuitable” for the Avengers lineup by Nick Fury, although he is offered a consulting position at the end of the film. What if, when he was written off as an Avenger, Tony still thought the idea of ​​a group to protect the world was a good one?

    In the comics, it is Iron Man who contributes to the creation of the Illuminati after the Kree-Skrull War. He meets with Black Panther, Namor, Charles Xavier, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, and Reed Richards in Wakanda and proposes that they form a group similar to the United Nations.

    They are not too enthusiastic about the idea and Black Panther decides not to participate. However, the rest agree to continue holding secret meetings to share information about possible future threats.

    Of course, at the time of ‘Iron Man 2’, it’s not like Tony could have gotten to the likes of Black Panther and Doctor Strange, neither of whom were even close to making their MCU debuts. But the idea of ​​a secret government might have appealed to Tony at a time when he thought he was alone protecting the United States.

    Maybe it never went beyond this, as Tony became a full-fledged Avenger, or maybe the plans were always on the back burner. It wouldn’t be too hard for a future movie to explain how Tony was instrumental in creating the group, and we just never got to know because it was really a secret.

    However, if the Illuminati really do exist on Earth-616, we hope that Doctor Strange will warn them that in the future they should not confront someone like Scarlet Witch without a plan.

    ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ is already in theaters, while ‘Iron Man 2′ (and pretty much every other MCU movie) can be seen on Disney+.

    Source: Fotogramas