Marvel head Kevin Feige recently revealed the Star Wars reference you’ll find in every Marvel Phase Two movie. Cinema Blend pointed out to Feige that a character in almost every Star Wars movie has an arm or hand cut off, and the same trend was true of every Marvel Phase Two movie so far, with only Avengers: Age Of Ultron and Ant-Man left in Phase Two.
Feige admitted this was intentional, although not at first. As soon as they realized characters were dropping hands and arms all over the place like infinity gems, they decided to make it a running gag throughout Phase Two. Feige explains:
“So is this a spoiler for Ant-Man… not really. I’m obsessed with Star Wars. Who’s not? I’m 40 years old. I’m in the movie business. I went to USC. So I’m obsessed with Star Wars — and it didn’t start out as intentional, but it became intentional, including that beat that you referenced. It sort of happens in every Star Wars movie, but I was sort of looking at it, ‘Okay, is Phase Two our Empire Strikes Back?’ Not really, but tonally things are a little different. Somebody gets their arm cut off in every Phase Two movie. Every single one.”
Cinema Blend posted a supercut of all the hand/arm removals in Phase Two so far:
- Iron Man 3 — Stark cuts off Aldrich Killian’s arm in Act III.
- Thor: The Dark World — Loki projects an illusion of cutting off Thor’s hand to trick the Dark Elves.
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier — Bucky has a flashback of losing his arm.
- Guardians Of The Galaxy — Gamora cuts off both of Groot’s arms when they first meet on Xandar. They grow back.
And that’s why you always leave a note.
(Source: Cinema Blend via Comics Alliance)
