Marvel fan unearths Captain America Easter egg in The Incredible Hulk

2008 film was released three years before Steve Rogers made his debut

Marvel fans have discovered a new Easter egg in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk.

The secret was pointed out by a Reddit user, and references the character of Captain America, who would appear three years later in Captain America: The First Avenger.

In The Incredible Hulk, Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) fights a dangerous adversary called Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth). Blonsky consumes a “super serum” to transform into the superpowered villain known in Marvel comics as Abomination.

As Redditer u/JoJosapiens states, the formula given to Blonsky has a label bearing the name “Dr Reinstein”, the scientist who developed it.

They explain: “In the Marvel comics, Reinstein was a codename used by Dr Abraham Erskine, whose serum turned Steve Rogers into Captain America.”

In the comments underneath, another user cites a similar Easter egg found in The Incredible Hulk.

The military programme that gives birth to Abomination is referred to as “Weapon Plus”.

In Marvel comics, the first iteration of the “Weapon Plus” programme created Captain America, and the tenth created Wolverine, the X-Men hero who was known as “Weapon X”.

With 23 interconnected films and counting in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, eagle-eyed fans are constantly searching for hidden secrets and references.

Recently, a deleted scene from Avengers: Endgame suggested that Josh Brolin’s villainous Thanos might not be definitively dead after all, leaving the door open for a dramatic (if unlikely) return to the franchise.