By and large, the reception to Avengers: Infinity War has been mostly positive. Everyone from hardcore fans to casual moviegoers thought that this was one hell of a ride, albeit one with a rather unexpected ending. After you’ve seen the movie, all that’s left is to try to digest what you have just seen.
That’s when you realize something interesting about Infinity War: the best thing about it is also the worst thing about it. Fans gushed at the chance to see all their favorite heroes onscreen at the same time, and we got to see many of the hilarious interactions we had hoped for (like Star-Lord and Iron Man or Thor and Rocket Raccoon). However, there were so many characters and plots flying at the audience and with such speed that it can be tough to catch everything.
There is a whole lot to catch! This movie had cameos galore that ranged from brief onscreen appearances to voices to character cameos from cult TV shows. You’d probably need a Stark supercomputer to catch everything, but don’t worry - this is where we come in!
Want to know about every hidden cameo in Infinity? Keep reading 15 Cameos You Completely Missed In Infinity War to get the lowdown. Trust us: it will make your second (third? fourth? fifth?) re-watch even better!
Stan Lee
It would hardly be a Marvel movie without Stan Lee, would it? This Marvel icon has appeared in a variety of Marvel films over the years, both within the MCU and without. This is only fitting, as Stan Lee is the architect behind many of the most famous characters and stories that have helped define the entire Marvel brand. He's basically a brand ambassador now, which is why his movie cameos make a lot of sense.
He has a pretty great cameo in Infinity War, but it’s also really brief: if you happened to be looking at your soda or running to the bathroom, it’s pretty easy to miss!
Specifically, Stan Lee is driving Peter Parker’s school bus near the beginning of the movie when the alien craft first appears over New York. Obviously, the various students are transfixed by the sight of it, while Peter’s spider-sense warns him that this is bad news.
Stan Lee comes across as very jaded, wondering why the school kids are acting like they’ve never seen an alien ship before!
It’s a funny reference to not only his long Marvel publishing history but the events of the first Avengers movie back in 2012.
The World Security Council
In many ways, the World Security Council were the third-tier bad guys of The Avengers. Loki was our primary threat, but we soon find out that he is just a pawn being manipulated by Thanos. They worked together to try to take over the world, but thanks to the World Security Council, we nearly lost Manhattan to a nuclear bomb before Iron Man disposed of it through the wormhole. Even at the end of the movie, they are chiding Nick Fury for the decisions he has made regarding the Avengers and highly implying that they will still play a behind the scenes role when it comes to major world affairs.
Faithful Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. viewers know that at least one member of this Council, Gideon Malick, was a member of Hydra.
They have stuck around past the apparent defeat of Hydra and can be seen in the background when General Ross is talking to the Avengers.
The fact that they are involved is another reason why it’s probably good that Captain America and War Machine effectively turned their backs on General Ross to go fight the enemy on their own terms. Somehow, though, we don't think we have seen the last of them!
Chitauri
When Loki invaded Earth back in Avengers, he didn’t come alone. Once he was able to open a portal to Earth, the entire planet was under attack by an enigmatic race of alien beings known as Chitauri. They were fierce and unrelenting foes right up until Iron Man destroyed their mother ship. This meant they had a fairly large role within the MCU: they represented the greatest threat our heroes have taken on and also confirmed to the entire world that aliens are very real. As it turns out, Earth isn’t the only planet they’ve attacked!
In the flashback sequence where we see Thanos destroying half the population of Gamora’s planet, we can see Chitauri all around.
It can be a little difficult to make out the individual aliens, but their big, flying “space whales” that gave Iron Man and Hulk so much trouble in Avengers are pretty hard to miss. Judging from how efficiently they subjugated an entire planet, it looks like Earth was really lucky they had a Hulk!
Interestingly, they seemed confined only to flashbacks in this latest movie, but we have a sneaking suspicion we'll see more of these aliens and their background in the Captain Marvel movie.
Tobias Funke
Assuming you sat around for that post-credits scene, that means that you watched quite a few credits going by. While many people use this time to quietly gossip with their friends or check their e-mail, there was a weird little surprise hidden in those credits. No, we're not talking about a mid-credits stinger that you somehow missed. Instead, we're talking about pretty much the last thing you'd expect to see within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Specifically, the film thanks Fox for the use of characters from their classic TV show Arrested Development.
What’s up with that? Well, back when he was among the land of the living, The Collector liked to, well, collect unique specimens from all over the galaxy. If you look very closely during the movie, it looks like he has collected the character Tobias Fünke. This is from the episode where he auditioned for the Blue Man Group and described the process of painting himself blue by infamously declaring “I blue myself.”
It's a very funny cameo in and of itself, but it also set fans in something of a tizzy by basically confirming that the TV show and the MCU share the same universe. It's not that strange, though: in a world of blue aliens like the Kree, Tobias actually fits right in!
Ned
Ned is an interesting figure in the MCU. While he has no special powers or abilities, he really dove right into his role as Spider-Man’s assistant, previously describing himself as “the guy in the chair” who helps the hero accomplish his various missions. It looks like we are likely to have more movies in which Ned plays this special support role in helping Spider-Man carry out whatever his mission in. Shortly into Infinity War, the movie gives us a very literal version of this.
This is because Ned is riding the bus with Peter Parker, and he doesn’t do a whole lot besides sit in the bus chair. He is useful, though, when Peter needs a distraction to slip out of the bus, causing Ned to begin screaming out to distract everyone with the alien ship.
Ned pulls off the acting perfectly, but it's also an understandable reaction: the main aliens Ned and the other students will be familiar with are the Chitauri that tried to once take out everyone on Earth. It’s a funny scene that is also brief and easy to miss. Those who see it, though, are readier than ever before to see more of Ned in the MCU!
Nick Fury
Some characters are easy to miss because they are onscreen for so little time or are basically buried in the background. Some are easy to miss because they are genuinely puzzling to anyone not steeped in Marvel lore. When it comes to the Nick Fury cameo, though, he’s mostly easy to miss if you’re not patient. This is only fitting, as he has played the role of the ultimate spy in the MCU, often biding his time in the shadows and striking at the real threat when the time is right. You'll need Fury's patience to spot him in this film.
We only see Nick Fury after the marathon of credits at the end of the movie.
Even after ten years of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, there are still plenty of people that bail when the credits star rolling. In this case, you miss a fun scene that both sets up the next MCU movie while poking fun at Samuel L. Jackson’s tendency to use profanity in his movies!
While we're not likely to get an MCU movie in which he can finish the vulgar sentence he was in the middle of, we're looking forward to seeing more of his classic appearances in the future MCU movies.
Mariah Hill
Mariah Hill is often part of a package deal with Nick Fury. Since the first Avengers movie, we have seen her be his most trusted Lieutenant. If Hawkeye is “his one good eye,” as he once claimed, then Mariah Hill is certainly his strong right arm. She is tough and resourceful, and it's quite likely she will eventually lead what's left of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the MCU just as her comic book counterpart has previously done. It’s only fitting, then, that she was also in Infinity War.
As with Fury, you can only see Mariah Hill if you stick around for the post-credits scene. She is not given a lot to do, even in comparison to Nick Fury, who doesn’t do a whole lot. Their collective appearance is mostly notable because it shows that even with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s public disbanding and Fury’s seeming goal of slipping quietly back into the shadows, these two are still first on the scene when the entire world’s population is put in harm’s way.
We don't think it's a coincidence that we see Hill in this movie, and it's likely that her importance to the franchise will only grow over time, perhaps as early as the next movie.
Collector
As a group, comic book fans like to split hairs and have pretty intense debates about very minor things. This trend continues into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and those same argumentative fans have an interesting new subject to debate: whether we actually saw The Collector in this movie at all!
In this sense, the plan Thanos hatched to help bring order to the universe has actually served to drive some passionate fans further from one another. This debate is going to rage on long after those final credits finish rolling.
Why is this a contentious topic when we clearly see Thanos hurting him for information? By the time we see this interaction, Thanos already has control over the Reality Stone. This is why he is able to make a super-realistic copy of himself that Gamora promptly ends uptaking out.
The Collector is clearly another fabricated part of this scenario Thanos has laid out for his daughter, meaning the character both is and is not properly a part of the movie!
This not only makes us question his appearance, but we're also forced to question whether the character is truly gone or not. Maybe the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie will help to clarify this!
Red Skull
Arguably, the most surprising cameo in the entire movie was that of the Red Skull. While the character faced a very ambiguous disappearing end in Captain America: The First Avenger that left the door open for future appearances, Red Skull actor Hugo Weaving very firmly didn’t want to come back to the role.
Because of disinterest in returning to the franchise, fans figured we'd never see Red Skull again because we didn't think Weaving himself would ever return. As it turns out, he didn’t: the role was played by the Walking Dead actor Ross Marquand instead.
As cameos go, his was brief and relatively mysterious: while the red face seems pretty unmistakable, everything from his clothes to his movements seemed completely unlike anything we have seen from Red Skull before.
Throw in the fact that he made it sound like he had been trapped on the planet for an endless amount of years, and it’s enough to make some fans speculate if this was truly the Red Skull at all. If this truly was Red Skull, then his story highly implies that the Space Stone was able to transport him in time as well as space, which is a pretty damn major mystery to leave dangling!
Peter Dinklage
Like we mentioned, there are different reasons that people might miss a cameo or not fully understand it. One big factor is if this is an entirely new character, and that factor is only compounded if the character happens to be played by a famous actor. That is basically the case with Eitri the dwarf, a character who plays a surprisingly large role in both the personal story of Thor and the larger story surrounding Infinity War. It's such an interesting role that we are forced to ask if we will see him again anytime soon!
On one hand, he plays a pretty prominent role in the movie, helping Thor forge a new weapon, Stormbreaker, that might be powerful enough to take on Thanos with. At the same time, he is a “dwarf” who is actually giant who is actually being played by none other than famous TV “imp” Tyrion Lannister, Peter Dinklage.
In short, it’s a confusing character on top of a distracting casting on top of a weird plot, so we’ll forgive you if you didn’t fully grok what this guy’s deal was.
We're pretty sure that many people, should they remember the character, will simply call him "that Game of Thrones guy" anyway!
General Ross
It was tough to predict what a big role General Ross would have in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At first, he was an antagonist to both Bruce Banner and The Hulk in the one and only solo Hulk movie. When plans for Hulk sequels fizzled, it looked like we might never see Ross again, but then he popped up in Captain America: Civil War as the Secretary of State pushing the Avengers to sign the Sokovia Accords. Even then, though, the idea of a return from the character seemed uncertain, as it didn't seem like there was much else for him to do in his role as Secretary of State. He pops up briefly in Infinity War in the same capacity.
Ross is still drawing a hard line regarding Captain America, Black Widow, and anyone else who refused to sign the Accords.
He does prompt War Machine to make a big move, though, and fully support Captain America, effectively becoming himself a fugitive from the law. Regardless of how Infinity War wrapped up, it looks like Ross is around for a good, long time! Personally, we're hoping he will eventually take a cue from Marvel's comics and become The Red Hulk, mostly because we want to see that Green on Red fight!
Hank Pym
Part of what made Infinity War so notable and so ambitious is the sheer number of characters inhabiting a single movie. At first glance, it might have seemed like every MCU movie star was on full display, but we had a few big omissions, including Hawkeye and Ant-Man. It's also a sure thing that there were plenty of scenes that were left on the cutting room floor and that we will not be able to see until the movie is released on Blu-Ray. Thanks to Winter Soldier star Sebastian Stan, we know about at least one special cameo that nobody was allowed to see!
To be fair, Stan kept the gossip to a minimum when he spoke to The Independent, admitting that he couldn’t tell them too many particulars about a particular scene. However, he says he remembers distinctly that Michael Douglas (who plays the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym) was in the scene.
Since Pym did not appear in the movie, it looks like this scene was either shuffled to the next movie or will simply appear as a deleted scene.
Either way, we can't help but speculate about how this unknown threat might be able to help our heroes turn the tables on Thanos.
Janet Van Dyne
The Ant-Man sequel has been picking up buzz lately. And “buzz” is quite fitting, as this movie is going to prominently feature another big Marvel character: The Wasp!
On top of that, the movie will feature Michelle Pfeiffer as the original Wasp, Janet Van Dyne. If you'll remember, she was once a superhero alongside the original Ant-Man, but she got lost in the Quantum Realm in her attempt to disarm a missile that was going to kill countless lives. And as it turns out, we were meant to see her first in Infinity War!
Remember Sebastian Stan talking about that scene with so many fellow stars in it? In addition to name-checking Michael Douglas, he also explicitly mentioned Michelle Pfeiffer as well. Because Stan didn’t say anything else, we can only speculate what this scene would have been like, and getting to watch it is just one more reason that we’re already counting down to the Blu-Ray release.
If we were to get our wish, she would join together with many other heroes that Thanos and Ross alike have overlooked and form a Secret Avengers group to help put the world back together the way it once was before the Gauntlet!
Kenneth Branagh
From all accounts, it’s pretty fun to direct a Marvel movie. That’s why many MCU directors find some unorthodox ways to get involved on camera: James Gunn modeled the dancing of young Groot, for instance, while Taika Waititi served as the hilarious voice of Korg. In this way, the directors ensure that their vision is brought to life while also involving themselves onscreen in a project that is much, much larger than any one person. In Infinity War, we get another special director appearance, though it’s very easy to overlook.
As soon as the opening credits are over, we hear an unknown Asgardian broadcasting a distress call.
This is the same distress call that the Guardians of the Galaxy later respond to. While we don’t get to place a face with the voice, that distress call seems to be coming from none other than Kenneth Branagh. This is only fitting, as he brought the world of Asgard to life in the first Thor movie, and now he gets to preside over the seeming destruction of most of the surviving Asgardians.
We are hoping that Asgard might eventually be returned to glory in some capacity, and perhaps we can see Branagh onscreen to put a face along with his voice!
Captain Marvel
The post-credits scene of Infinity War was something of a paradox. For big fans of Marvel comics (or even those who stay up to date on behind-the-scenes news), this scene was full of excitement. For more casual fans, it was full of confusion. What was up with Nick Fury’s weird communicator? And just what was that symbol on there?
As it turns out, this complex scene has a pretty straightforward explanation. And once you know what we know, you'll be more excited than ever for the next movie!
That was technically our first glimpse of the MCU’s next big hero: Captain Marvel.
Right now, it’s our only glimpse, but she’s getting a solo movie that mostly takes place in the past shortly before the next Avengers movie comes out. That will give Marvel a chance to establish her character and help explain why Fury sees her as the last, best hope for humanity. Chances are good that her movie will show her experience in dealing with various alien races, making her the ideal person to unite the galaxy against Thanos.
So when everyone is gushing about her awesome solo movie, don’t forget where you first saw her pop up in the MCU!
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Did we miss any other cameos in Avengers: Infinity War? Let us know in the comments!