Dan Murrell: In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is it just a coincidence that Mace Windu looks like Nick Fury, or is it like in Last Action Hero where Sylvester Stallone plays all the Arnold Schwarzenegger parts?
Anthony Russo: You’re hurting my brain.
Anthony Russo: You’re hurting my brain.
— Discussion about the Honest Trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The sheer number of actors involved with the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point or another makes it almost impossible to include a pop-culture reference without invoking this trope in relation to someone. Some examples are listed below.
- In The Avengers, Clint is referred to as "Legolas". Hugo Weaving (Red Skull/Elrond), Andy Serkis (Ulysses Klaue/Smeagol/Gollum), Liv Tyler (Betty Ross/Arwen), Karl Urban (Skurge/Éomer), David Wenham (Harold Meachum/Faramir), and Cate Blanchett (Hela/Galadriel) play major characters in the film trilogy, while Richard Armitage (Heinz Kruger/Thorin), Lee Pace (Ronan the Accuser/Thranduil), Evangeline Lilly (Hope Van Dyne/Tauriel), Martin Freeman (Everett Ross), and Benedict Cumberbatch (Stephen Strange/Smaug) all play major characters in its prequel trilogy with Freeman being The Hero, Bilbo Baggins.
- Of course, The Lord of the Rings may just be a well known series of books rather than a movie in this universe...
- Iron Man 3:
- Happy Hogan's favorite show is Downton Abbey. Charlie Cox, who plays Matt Murdock aka the titular Daredevil (2015), plays the series' Starter Villain, the Duke of Crowborough.
- Tony at one point meets a kid who resembles Ralphie from A Christmas Story that he loved him in the movie. Peter Billingsley himself, who played Ralphie, was actually the scientist involved in the Iron Monger project in the first movie Iron Man and the character would return in Spider-Man: Far From Home, where he's named "William Ginter Riva".
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
- An episode mentions Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, despite Paul Rudd, who plays the (second) titular Ant-Man, playing Brian Fantana in that movie.
- An episode mentions "The Dude" from The Big Lebowski despite that character being played by Jeff Bridges (Obadiah Stane), the very first Big Bad of the MCU.
- So does Tony in Avengers: Endgame, calling a Formerly Fit Thor "Lebowski". The Dude looks like his traitorous former Stark Industries second-in-command.
- An episode mentions the Harry Potter film series. David Tennant (Zebediah Kilgrave) played Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Toby Jones (Arnim Zola) played Dobby in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. David Bradley, who portrayed Argus Filch, made a brief appearance as a peasant in The First Avenger. In addition, Kenneth Branagh (the director of Thor) played Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Assuming that the Fantastic Beasts Spin-Off series of the Potter films do exist in the MCU, then Claudia Kim (Helen Cho/Nagini), Jude Law (Yon-Rogg/young Dumbledore), and Gemma Chan (Minn-Erva/Sersi/Ya Zhou) were also involved, having starred in those films.
- The show establishes that Power Rangers exists in the MCU. However, Vladimir Ranskahov, a member of the Ranskahov crime syndicate, is played by Nikolai Nikolaeff, who played Dom Hargan, the Rhino Ranger in Power Rangers Jungle Fury. Other Ranger actors, coincidentally also from Disney-era seasons, star in MCU series, namely Malcolm Ducasse, played by Eka Darville (Scott Truman, the RPM Red Ranger), and Brigid O'Reilly, played by Emma Lahana (Kira Ford, the Dino Thunder Yellow Ranger).
- In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve is seen holding a list of things he need to catch up on. Specifically:
- Star Wars. Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury/Mace Windu), Natalie Portman (Jane Foster/Padmé Amidala), and Peter Serafinowicz (Garthan Saal/Darth Maul) were in the prequel trilogy. Lupita Nyong'o (Nakia/Maz Kanata), Benicio del Toro (The Collector/DJ from The Last Jedi), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost/a First Order soldier in The Force Awakens) and Andy Serkis (Ulysses Klaue) were in the sequel trilogy, with Serkis playing Disc-One Final Boss Snoke. Forest Whitaker (Zuri), Ben Mendelsohn (Talos/Orson Krennic), and Mads Mikkelsen (Kaecilius/Galen Erso) were in Rogue One with Whitaker playing The Obi-Wan, Saw Gerrera. Donald Glover (Aaron Davis/Lando Calrissian), Paul Bettany (Vision/Dryden Vos), and Jon Favreau (Happy Hogan/Rio Durant) were in Solo. Furthermore, Favreau and Clancy Brown (Surtur) starred in both Star Wars: The Clone Wars (as Pre Viszla and Savage Opress, respectively) and The Mandalorian (as Paz Vizla in one episode and Burg, respectively), the latter of which also starred Taika Waititi (Korg/IG-11). And in Jessica Jones, Jessica calls Kilgrave "Obi-Wan Kenobi" after he goes "We can go about our business, move along" to two cops. David Tennant (Kilgrave) guest-starred in the fifth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars as Professor Huyang.
- Star Trek. In Star Trek (2009), Chris Hemsworth (Thor) plays Captain Kirk's father George in flashbacks, Faran Tahir (Raza) played George Kirk's commanding officer Richard Robau, and Zoe Saldana (Gamora/Nyota Uhura), Karl Urban (Skurge/Leonard McCoy), and Alice Eve (Typhoid Mary/Dr. Carol Marcus) play main characters in that film series. Likewise, Benedict Cumberbatch (Stephen Strange) and Idris Elba (Heimdall) play Khan and Krall, the Big Bads in Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond, respectively. In the original timeline films, Miguel Ferrer (Vice President Rodriguez) had a small role in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Neal McDonough (Dum Dum Dugan), Alfre Woodard (Mariah Stokes/Miriam Sharpe), and Alice Krige (Eir) were all in Star Trek: First Contact (as Lt. Hawk, Lily and the Borg Queen), Gregg Henry (Grandpa Quill) was in Star Trek: Insurrection as Son'a Gallatin, and Alan Dale (Councilman Rockwell) was in Star Trek: Nemesis as Hiren. On the TV side, William Sadler (President Ellis) and Bill Smitrovich (General Gabriel) both appeared in a couple of episodes in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Finally, Michelle Yeoh (Aleta in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) appeared in Star Trek: Discovery.
- The Rocky film series. Sylvester Stallone (Stakar) plays the eponymous protagonist of the film series, while Michael B. Jordan (Erik Killmonger) and Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie) play Adonis Creed and Bianca, The Hero and the Love Interest, respectively, of Creed, an official Spin-Off of the film franchise.
- Sherlock: In the UK release the list is altered to include this series. Benedict Cumberbatch (Stephen Strange) and Martin Freeman (Everett Ross) play, respectively, Holmes and Watson.
- In Winter Soldier, Steve has a copy of All the President's Men on his bookshelf. The film adaptation of the book stars Robert Redford (Alexander Pierce) as Bob Woodward. At one point Pierce even stares out of his office window at the Watergate complex. Pierce also has a bottle of Newman's Own spaghetti sauce in his fridge, which is a nice tribute to Paul Newman, who Redford costarred alongside in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting.
- In Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter calls one of the guards at the Kyln "ninja turtle". The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were originally created as an Affectionate Parody of many elements in Daredevil, which of course was later adapted into the Daredevil (2015) tv show.
- Peter also compared the Orb to three iconic MacGuffin from pop culture when discussing what it is in the Kyln, one of which is the Ark of the Covenant. While the Ark is a Public Domain Artifact, Peter could only have known about it from Raiders of the Lost Ark prior to getting abducted by Yondu. The fourth film of the franchise it started featured Ray Winstone (Dreykov in Black Widow (2021)) as Mac, and has Cate Blanchett (Hela) as its Big Bad, Irina Spalko.
- Speaking of Ant-Man, Titanic (1997) and its male lead Leonardo DiCaprio were mentioned early in that film. Bill Paxton, who plays The Clairvoyant in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., played Brock Lovett there, while Paul Rudd and DiCaprio were in William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet together (Rudd played Paris), which also featured Vondie-Curtis Hall (Ben Urich in Daredevil (2015)).
- Agents Fitz and Simmons are confirmed to be fans of Doctor Who, despite the fact that the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy and their ally, Agent Weaver, looks suspiciously like the character played by Christine Adams in "The Long Game". Additionally, Christopher Eccleston (the Ninth Doctor) plays Malekith in Thor: The Dark World, Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) plays Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy, David Tennant (the Tenth Doctor) plays Kilgrave in Jessica Jones (2015), Tony Curran (Vincent van Gogh in "Vincent and the Doctor") plays an Irish mob boss in season 2 of Daredevil and the list goes on...
- Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) made a Retroactive Recognition appearance in The First Avenger as part of Steve and Bucky's double date to the World's Fair.
- An episode of Jessica Jones (2015) has the titular hero referring to Grey's Anatomy. That show also guest-starred Rachael Taylor (Trish Walker, Jessica's adoptive sister and best friend) in a couple of 2011 episodes, one 2009 episode of that show guest-starred Elden Henson (Foggy Nelson), and LaTanya Richardson Jackson (Mama Mabel Stokes) is set to be a recurring guest star in 2017. Incidentally, the eponymous protagonist of that TV series is played by Ellen Pompeo, who had portrayed Karen Page in the 2003 Daredevil film, which is not part of the MCU.
- In the second season premiere of Jessica Jones, when Trish with her boss at the radio station about her IGH research, she exasperatedly tells him, "You can say IGH, Ian, they're not Voldemort," which makes things odd since David Tennant (Kilgrave) played Barty Crouch Jr. in Goblet of Fire.
- In Captain America: Civil War, Iron Man calls Spider-Man "Underoos". The actual Underoos brand was kick-started by the Spider-Man franchise (along with other major superhero franchises, including several Marvel and even DC characters), making the brand's origin within the Marvel Cinematic Universe surprisingly nebulous.
- In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Peter talks quite a bit about how he idolized David Hasselhoff growing up, and the man himself even puts in a brief appearance. He played Nick Fury in a failed pilot which was released as a standalone TV movie in 1997 (though conveniently, Peter himself would have no idea about that as he hasn't been on Earth since The '80s).
- The Final Battle of The Defenders (2017) is set to "Protect Ya Neck" by the Wu-Tang Clan, which must have been chosen at least partly because Spider-Man is mentioned in the lyrics. The song is non-diegetic, but one wonders if it exists in the MCU, given its version of Peter wasn't even born when the song was written.
- Black Panther:
- During the scene where T’Challa, Nakia, and Okoye enter the casino in Seoul, the song “Pray For Me” by The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar is heard diegetically. However, this song was created specifically for the soundtrack of the film itself.
- At the end of the film, Shuri mentions that she expected her brother to take her to Disneyland. Not only does Disneyland have plenty of Marvel-related characters and attractions, but the fact that Disney itself exists opens up so many rabbit holes:
- Samuel L. Jackson as both Nick Fury and Frozone.
- Jeff Bridges as both Obidiah Stane and Kevin Flynn.
- Idris Elba as Heimdall in addition to Chief Bogo from Zootopia and Rudder from Finding Dory.
- Chris Pratt and Tom Holland as the two leads of Onward.
- Zachary Levi as Fandrall in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok, and as Flynn Rider from Tangled.
- John C. Reilly as Rhomman Dey in Guardians of the Galaxy and the titular character in Wreck-It Ralph.
- Michael Keaton as the Vulture and Ken in Toy Story 3.
- Melinda May apparently played Mulan. Oh, and Miguel Ferrer, who played the vice president in Iron Man 3, was Shan Yu.
- Patton Oswalt has a recurring role on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but has also voiced Remy in Ratatouille and Professor Dementor in Kim Possible.
- Patrick Warburton made an appearance on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., despite also being Kronk and Mister Barkin.
- J. K. Simmons's return as J. Jonah Jameson means that he now coexists with the actor for both Mayor Lionheart and The Author/Stanford Pines from Gravity Falls.
- Kurt Russell was in both Miracle and Sky High, and apparently resembles Ego's humanoid avatar.
- Sigourney Weaver was in The Defenders (2017), and also appeared in WALL•E as the Axiom's computer and in Finding Dory as an As Herself Running Gag.
- Sebastian Stan played a version of the Mad Hatter on Once Upon a Time.
- Hayley Atwell played a significant role in Christopher Robin.
- Jake Gyllenhaal, aka Mysterio, was the lead actor in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
- Owen Wilson is set to have a role in the Loki Disney+ series, apparently coexisting with Lightning McQueen.
- Stellan Skarsgård had a role in the Cinderella remake.
- Donald Glover was Aaron Davis in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Simba in the remake of The Lion King. The same movie had Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mordo in Doctor Strange, as Scar.
- The remake of The Jungle Book was directed by Happy Hogan and starred Ben Kingsley as Bagheera... or was it Trevor Slattery in this universe? The film also featured Scarlett Johansson and Idris Elba.
- Evidently, Kilgrave is the current voice of Scrooge McDuck, on a show where Rhodey briefly voiced Donald Duck.
- Avengers: Infinity War makes a blatant SpongeBob SquarePants Shout-Out. Clancy Brown, who plays both Ray Schoonover and Surtur, is Mr. Krabs in the cartoon series. Also, Scarlett Johansson, who plays Black Widow, was the voice of Princess Mindy in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
- Spider-Man refers to the Facehuggers from Alien when he meets Mantis. The star of the first four films, Sigourney Weaver, appears in The Defenders (2017) as Alexandra (Although Alexandra being centuries old might excuse that). Bill Paxton, who plays The Clairvoyant in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., was Hudson in the second film. Guy Pearce, who plays Aldrich Killian in Iron Man 3 and Idris Elba, who plays Heimdall, both appeared in the prequel Prometheus.
- In Captain Marvel, Stan Lee makes his customary cameo appearance. He is reading the screenplay of Mallrats on the LA Metro. This means that Stan Lee is playing himself.
- The Blockbuster Video store Carol Danvers crashes into is a treasure trove for this trope:
- Carol blasts a True Lies cardboard cutout. Bill Paxton played Simon in it, and would go on to play John Garrett in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
- Carol passes by the VHS of Hook. Young Wendy would look like Pepper Potts growing up, and the film had a Crosscast Role cameo by Glenn Close (Irani Rael) as Gutless.
- There's also the VHS of First Knight. Ralph Ineson played Ralf in it, as well as a Ravager pilot in Guardians of the Galaxy.
- Carol picks up a VHS of The Right Stuff. Scott Glenn (Stick) and Jeff Goldblum (The Grandmaster) played Shepard and one of the NASA recruiters in it.
- Carol passes by the VHS of Last Action Hero, which had (and here's a Celebrity Paradox inside a Celebrity Paradox!) a cardboard cutout-only cameo of Sylvester Stallone (Stakar Ogord).
- When Carol emerges from the video rental store, she passes a poster for Babe, which features the voice of Hugo Weaving (Red Skull) as sheepdog Rex, on the wall.
- Nick Fury mentions Hannibal Lecter. Means Anthony Hopkins exists in the same world as Odin, who's played by him. Which also, in turn, means Mads Mikkelsen exists in the same world as Kaecilius.
- A Street Fighter II arcade cabinet is visible in one flashback. Ryu and friends, of course, have famously crossed over with the Marvel Universe many times.
- The Blockbuster Video store Carol Danvers crashes into is a treasure trove for this trope:
- Avengers: Endgame:
- Korg is introduced playing a game of Fortnite, which Thanos made an appearance in during a limited-time event.
- Scott and Rhodey reference Hot Tub Time Machine, where Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes) played Blaine.
- Another time-travel movie referenced by them is Terminator. J. K. Simmons appeared in Terminator Genisys, as well as Spider-Man: Far From Home. Christian Bale also played John Connor in Terminator Salvation, and is set to play the Big Bad of Thor: Love and Thunder.
- Yet another time-travel movie mentioned here is Bill & Ted, which featured William Sadler, who played the President in Iron Man 3, as Death.
- Scott erroneously states that Die Hard is a time-travel movie. Samuel L. Jackson co-starred in the third movie.
- Daredevil (2015):
- In "World On Fire", Detective Blake sarcastically refers to Wilson Fisk as King freakin' Kong. Andy Serkis (Ulysses Klaue) plays the titular character (as well as the team chef) in the 2005 remake, while Tom Hiddleston (Loki/James Conrad), Brie Larson (Carol Danvers/Mason Weaver), Shea Whigham (Roger Dooley/Earl Cole), John C. Reilly (Rhomann Dey/Lt. Marlow), and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury/Lt. Col. Preston Packard) star in the 2017 reboot Kong: Skull Island, with Terry Notary (Cull Obsidian) portraying that movie's Kong.
- Speaking of Kong: Skull Island, it is set in the same universe as Godzilla (2014), which also starred Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Pietro Maximoff) and Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff) as Ford and Elle Brody.
- Luke Cage (2016):
- Method Man cameos As Himself. Method Man played Cheese in The Wire, and many of that show's alumni have guest-starred in the MCU Netflix shows and some of the films, including Frankie Faison (Ervin Burrell / Henry "Pops" Hunter), Sonja Sohn (Kima Greggs / Captain Betty Audrey), and Michael Kostroff (Maurice Levy / Dr. Noah Burstein) in Luke Cage; Clarke Peters (Lester Freamon / Det. Oscar Clemmons) in Jessica Jones; Domenick Lombardozzi (Herc / Bill Fisk) and Peter Gerety (Judge Phelan / Silke) in Daredevil; Ramon Rodriguez (Renaldo / Bakuto) from Iron Fist; Idris Elba (Stringer Bell / Heimdall) in the Thor films; Wood Harris (Avon Barksdale / Gale) in Ant-Man; Michael K. Williams (Omar Little / Bystander) in The Incredible Hulk; Delaney Williams (Jay Landsman / O'Connor) in The Punisher; and Michael B. Jordan (Wallace / Killmonger) in Black Panther. Plus, Clark Johnson, a regular director and Gus Haynes in The Wire season 5, has directed several episodes of Luke Cage.
- Tone likens his shooting up of Pops' barbershop to the Candieland massacre in Django Unchained. Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) played Stephen in that film, while his wife LaTanya Richardson Jackson is in Luke Cage as Mama Mabel Stokes. The fact that Quentin Tarantino's films exist in the MCU is already a paradox, as Jackson (Jules Winnfield), Tim Roth (Emil Blonsky/Ringo), Ving Rhames (Charlie-27/Marsellus Wallace), and Frank Whaley (Rafael Scarfe / Brett) played characters in Pulp Fiction. Whaley's character, Brett, incidentally died at the hands of Jules Winnfield. Speaking of which, Winnfield's iconic "Ezekiel 25:17" speech is embedded on Fury's fake gravestone.
- Jackson and Roth were also in The Hateful Eight as Major Marquis Warren and Oswaldo Mobray, alongside Kurt Russell (Ego the Living Planet/The Hangman) and Walton Goggins (Sonny Burch/Mannix). Jackson was in Jackie Brown as Ordell Robbie opposite Michael Keaton (Vulture/Ray Nicolette). Roth also appeared in Reservoir Dogs as Mr. Orange, and Jackson also narrated Inglourious Basterds.
- When Pop is telling his backstory to Luke, he says, "I thought you was innocent, Shawshank," obviously comparing Luke to Andy from The Shawshank Redemption. That movie's cast included Bob Gunton, Clancy Brown (who appeared in Daredevil as Leland Owlsley and the Blacksmith, respectively) and William Sadler (who appeared in the MCU films as President Matthew Ellis), who played Warden Norton, Captain Hadley and Heywood, respectively.
- Misty Knight makes a Ghostbusters quip when arriving at the scene of the junkyard shootout. The original Ghostbusters duology featured Sigourney Weaver (Dana Barrett/9, who appears in The Defenders (2017) as Alexandra, while the 2016 remake features Chris Hemsworth (Thor/Kevin Beckman), and Ghostbusters: Afterlife features Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Mr. Grooberson). In season 2, she likens herself to Ripley from the Alien movies when strapping up to go into a Yardie lair. The Sigourney Weaver paradox can be explained away by the fact that Alexandra is several centuries old, born long before Weaver came along.
- Al Pacino's name is on the list of celebrities who get free haircuts at Pop's Barbershop. He played Shylock in the 2004 film adaptation of The Merchant of Venice, which also featured Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock) as Lorenzo.
- The Godfather Part II is referenced during a conversation Luke and Squabbles have about movies in prison. That movie (in which, incidentally, Pacino starred as Michael Corleone) starred Robert De Niro as Young Vito Corleone, and De Niro co-starred with Charlie Cox in Stardust. Furthermore, the bar that Luke owned in Jessica Jones (2015) season 1 previously appeared in The Godfather Part II as the location of a staged assassination attempt on Frank Pentangeli.
- Luke makes a reference to Game of Thrones in season 2 when trying to defend himself against some Harlem residents who think Bushmaster beat him a second time. One wonders if he ever has noticed how much Loras Tyrell resembled Danny Rand, or how much Nymeria Sand resembles Colleen Wing. Especially since minutes after this reference is made, Danny himself appears in Pop's Barbershop. Ramsay Snow/Bolton and Ornela also happen to resemble Maximus and Ava Starr for some reason. Averted with Eitri the Dwarf King, who looks nothing like Tyrion Lannister. And now Robb Stark and Jon Snow are appearing in The Eternals.
- Shades says he cries watching This Is Us. Maybe because he's noticed how William is played by Ron Cephas Jones (Bobby Fish)? Also, Randall Pearson happens to look a lot like Prince N'Jobu of Wakanda.
