Warning: This article contains mild SPOILERS for Thor: Ragnarok.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is ever-expanding. And with every new film, fans scour every inch of the screen (and absorb every word of dialogue) for references to the comic-book world outside the film they’re watching. Whether they’re nods the original comics, or films — past or future.
Thor: Ragnarok is no different to other Marvel films in its placement of Easter Eggs throughout its narrative. In fact, we’ve written a whole article detailing all the Easter Eggs we found, from the faces carved into the exterior of the Grandmaster’s palace on Sakaar, to an appearance from Black Widow and beyond.
Director Taika Waititi has gone on record to confirm some of these, but he has also been talking about a special secret Easter Egg he snuck in, needle-in-a-haystack style, in the film — and it’s by far the film’s most difficult to spot.
“There’s an actual Easter Egg in the junkyard on Sakaar,” he reveals in an interview with FANDOM. “Not a big one. Just one of those little Christmas ones that’s got caramel in it. And it’s in a wide shot. It’s about a kilometre away from the camera. But it’s there. Blink and you’ll miss it. But it’s there. And that’s the secret Easter Egg: there’s an actual Easter egg in the movie.”
Whether he’s joking or not, it’s not easy to tell but he seems deadly serious, and it sounds like something the eccentric New Zealand-born director of zany vampire mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows and the quirky Hunt For the Wilderpeople would do.
A Few Others You Might Have Missed
As for other Easter Eggs in the film, Waititi references the cameos in Loki’s play about himself. In the play, which he puts on disguised as Odin on Asgard, Matt Damon plays an actor in the role of Loki, while Sam Neill is cast in the role of Odin. As for Thor, he’s portrayed by Chris Hemsworth’s real-life brother Luke Hemsworth, of course.
Finally, Waititi details the design of the Commodore, the spaceship commandeered by Thor and co.
“The spaceship that they escape from Sakaar on [features] the Aboriginal flag rearranged into a pattern on the [exterior],” he explains. “We shot in Australia and I thought it would be a nice thing for the heroes of the film for their hero ship to be an indigenous symbol.”
Thor: Ragnarok is out in U.K. cinemas now and hits U.S. screens on November 3.