I know what you’re thinking after reading that headline. Yes, obviously the brand new Marvel One-Shot short film titled ‘All Hail The King’ teases a potential future villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I’m not talking about the obvious one here. A new clip from the short written and directed by ‘Iron Man 3’ scribe Drew Pearce has hit the web and if you’re very familiar with the vast rogues gallery in the world of Marvel Comics, then you might recognize a few miniscule things that jump out at you to hint at an appearance from a more obscure villain onscreen somewhere down the line.
Next week when the Blu-Ray for ‘Thor: The Dark World’ is released, you’ll get to see this new short starring Ben Kingsley as he reprises his role as Trevor Slattery, the delusional actor who was brought in Aldrich Killian to play the fictitious terrorist mastermind known as the Mandarin. After the events of the film, we find that Trevor was sent to Seagate Prison, where some of his fellow inmates adore him. And that’s where the new clip from USA Today picks up. Check it below and pay close attention to see if you pick up the Easter egg:
If you didn’t know what you were looking for, then you definitely would have missed it. Luckily, Pearce told MTV exactly what to look for in a recent interview:
“There’s a lot of Trevor Easter egging in there. I think it’s definitely worth looking up the young prisoner that asks Trevor to do an impression of the Mandarin. It’s definitely worth people keeping an eye on as a character. What you can’t quite see is that there’s a tattoo by his eye that isn’t a teardrop, as one might normally expect, but is actually a tiny chess pawn tattoo.”
That young prisoner played by Allen Maldonado is listed in the credits as Fletcher Heggs. In the Marvel Universe, that character’s alter ego is the Knight, an assassin from the group known as the Chessmen. That explains the chess pawn tattoo, but another interesting piece of trivia is that these assassins happen to work for Obadiah Stane, the villain from ‘Iron Man’ played by Jeff Bridges. Does that mean that Stane could be making a comeback in a future Marvel Studios project? It’s possible, but I think we’re more likely to see Heggs again, potentially in the upcoming Marvel shows on Netflix because another famous occupant of Seagate Prison is the future Hero For Hire/Avenger, Luke Cage.
What do you think about this Easter egg in ‘All Hail The King’ teasing the Knight, the Chessmen, and potentially Obadiah Stane? Where in the Marvel Cinematic Universe do you think they will pop up if they are indeed on their way to a screen near you? Share your thoughts and theories in the comment section.
