Warning: this article contains spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp, Infinity War, and potentially Avengers 4.
With all the movie taking place within one all-encompassing cinematic universe, spotting and teasing out these hidden treasures has become a pastime for many.
And now one Ant-Man and the Wasp’s previously hidden Easter egg has been spotted – which could have a huge twist for future movies.
Does the Ant-Man and the Wasp Easter egg hint at a huge Avengers 4 twist?
Yes, depending on how deeply you want to read into what was, at first, a throw-away line of dialogue.
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At the outset of the movie, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) aka Ant-Man is on the brink of finishing out his two years of house arrest.
The incarceration comes after he used Ant-Man technology (the ability to shrink at will with super-strength) to help Steve Rogers during the events of Captain America: Civil War.
Relegated to a life at home, Scott has bided his time by learning magic tricks via a series of videos from ‘Online Close-Up Magic University’.
One video which is shown to audiences features the instructor describing by saying: “Snap your fingers. That gets them to look over there. Now that is misdirection. Easy-peasy.”
A simple instruction, for a magic trick, it seems.
But while the line could be taken at face-value, the image of snapping fingers is meaningful in the Marvel world.
After all, it was with a click of his fingers the Mad Titan wiped half of life in the Universe out of existence at the end of Infinity War.
The idea the snap was a magician’s misdirection has now added further fuel to fan theories, which suggest the fallen heroes are not dead but simply trapped in some alternate dimension or inside the Soul Stone.
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Ant-Man’s ability to travel into the Quantum Realm is said to be integral to the resurrection of the heroes, who were turned to dust by Thanos’ snap.
Having an Easter egg which hints at this misdirection in the Ant-Man sequel is telling and poignant.
But we have a long wait ahead to find out if the fan theories were correct.
Another popular fan-theory of how the presumed-dead heroes will come back to life involves time travel.
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The use of time travel as a theory has been bolstered by photos from the Atlanta Avengers 4 set showing Ant-Man alongside the Avengers.
They also feature Thor with long hair and Tony Stark in a shirt he wore in the 2012 Iron Man film, as well as Loki (whose appearance in Avengers 4 is the stuff of wild speculation).
Not to mention, other set photos showed Captain America, Tony Stark, and Ant-Man with unknown watch-like devices on their hands.
Between the leaked photos and Easter eggs, fans have plenty of fodder to keep their theories going until the eventual release of Avengers 4.
Avengers 4 is in UK Cinemas on April 26, 2019, and in US cinemas on May 3, 2019.