How the Harry Potter movies inspired the Easter Eggs in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is chock-full of Easter Eggs. In Avengers: Endgame alone, lines from earlier movies are echoed, storylines from Marvel comic books are referenced, bit players make blink-and-you’ll-miss-them cameos, and more. Marvel Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige and his team pay attention to the details, but while these little extras are there to be found and delighted over by diehards, more casual fans can still enjoy the movies without missing anything.

As it ends up, that’s by design. Speaking to students at the New York Film Academy, Feige revealed where he got the idea to use Easter Eggs as he does. “I always default to my experience watching Harry Potter movies,” he said.

"I never read the Harry Potter books, my kids aren’t old enough and aren’t into it yet, and I didn’t read them when they first came out, but I went to see every Harry Potter movie opening weekend…And those movies were so well made because I could follow it all. I could follow it, I could track it, occasionally I have to go ‘Who was that?’ but for the most part I could totally track it.Now if I had watched every movie ten times, if I had read every book, I bet there are dozens of other things in there that I would see and appreciate, but they never got in the way of me just experiencing it as a pure story. So that’s kind of what we try to navigate is if an Easter egg or a reference or something is so prevalent that it gets in the way of the story you’re telling so that people who aren’t aware of it go ‘What is this? What’s happening?’ then we usually pull back on it."

Considering that four of the top 10 highest grossing movies of all time are from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I’d say the approach is working for him.

But seriously, that’s a canny strategy. People talk about the Easter Eggs in Marvel films long after they debut. People can even find new ones months or even years later, which will get the movie back into the conversation, which is something you want if you’re a movie studio. But the secrets are never so important to the plot that casual viewers feel left out. Marvel has created a big tent for itself and its fans, and they’re reaping the benefits.

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h/t Digital Spy