The Best Marvel Easter Eggs

The new trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder just dropped this week, and fans are incredibly excited. Not only was this our first full look at Christian Bale playing Gorr the God Butcher but also our first good shot of Russell Crowe as Zeus. Not to mention a little look at the relationship between Thor and Jane Foster.

But aside from all the core story, we get a few Easter eggs, hints at possibilities of future marvel projects, and looks into connections with other heroes.

Thor: Love and Thunder has been long-awaited by fans, and we can’t wait to see what happens to the traveling god as he goes on a journey to find himself after helping the Avengers defeat Thanos. And everything we get in this new trailer has been worth waiting for while withholding just enough to keep everyone hungry for more.

In this breakdown, we’ll be going through some main points of interest for Marvel fans and posing questions as to what certain sights could hint at for the future of the Marvel Universe.

Gorr the God Butcher: ‘All Gods Will Die’

By far, the loudest reaction from fans is concerning Gorr the God Bucher. For the reveal in the trailer, we watch as Christian Bale slowly lowers his cowl to reveal his terrifying white face marked by black tattoos. The only color on his face comes from his poisonous yellow eyes. And the stare he gives the camera is as cold as the vacuum of space.

A lot of the fan’s reaction was just as terrified as we were when we saw the trailer. But some were disappointed that Christian Bale hadn’t grown tentacles for the role. No stranger to playing the villain, or at least a frightening psychopath, Bale seems the perfect fit for playing a deicidal serial killer. He seems to channel a bit of his Batman seriousness as we hear him say, “All gods will die.”

Related: Thor: Love and Thunder’s First Full Trailer Arrives to Ignite the Hype

This trailer is also our first look at All-Black, the infamous Necrosword. The sword is meant to be a shape-shifting symbiote, but in the trailer, it appears to take the form of a simple medieval-style broadsword. A powerful weapon in Marvel lore, the Necrosword was the weapon used to slay the celestial whose severed head became Knowhere, a location frequented by the Guardians of the Galaxy.

While the weapon was first crafted and wielded by Knull, an evil god from the Venom comics, the sword ended up in the hands of Gorr and aided him in his god-killing rampage. We’ll have to wait until the movie to see whether it is genuinely made of sentient shadow or if it is just a mighty sword.

The Living Tribunal: A Reminder of the Powers that Exist

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Some of the biggest moments in the trailer came just as fleeting moments but had significant implications. One came when Mighty Thor was calling down lightning through Mjolnir. She seemed to be standing in a temple or important ceremonial place. Surrounded by statues whose faces are just slightly less than recognizable, one stands out: the Living Tribunal.

Slightly off to the camera, right as Mighty Thor powers up her hammer, we see a face, or three, shrouded in a hood. The Living Tribunal is the ultimate power in the Marvel Universe had already made appearances in both Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Though it usually only appears for a second, as it does here, the fact that it shows up at all could be a hint that Marvel is building to something, or it’s just a reminder that we are dealing with powers that exist on a multiversal scale.

Bast

The next and most exciting Easter egg is Bast. Credited to be played by Akosia Sabet on the IMDb page for Thor: Love and Thunder as Bastet, we can see the god in human form sitting just in front of Valkyrie and Jane as they are assembled with the other gods in their scene with Zeus. At this time, it is unclear what similarities this deity shares with the god of the Marvel Comics, Bast, who is the god from which the Black Panther draws their power.

It has been theorized that Bastet could point to some link between Black Panther and the Egyptian gods of Moon Knight, but nothing is certain yet. In Marvel lore, Bast predates the Egyptian gods, and they could be the same being sharing only a similar name. But the fact that she appears here could mean that we might see her again, embodying the spirit of the Black Panther in Wakanda Forever.

Related: Thor: Love and Thunder Image Sees The Mighty Thor & Valkyrie Take the Throne

Whatever the case may be, this trailer has shown Thor fans a glimpse at the new movie and worlds beyond. And perhaps too much of a glimpse beyond Thor’s undergarments. Regardless, if nothing else happens, we are still excited to see Taika Waititi reprise his role as Korg, the lovable Kiwi rock monster.

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