Eagle-eyed fans picked out a couple of MCU Easter eggs in the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever script that harkens back to a couple of classic Marvel Studios films.
Black Panther 2 is just about to finish up its run in theaters around the world, as the super-powered sequel introduced the world to the next generation of the Wakandan hero.
Since its inception, this Ryan Coogler-directed blockbuster has been in a state of flux. There have been many stories about the changes that went into the film, both related to Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman's untimely passing and not.
It was recently revealed that Marvel originally had plans for two Black Panthers to be suiting up in the epic, with "T'Challa and Shuri [being] Black Panther alongside each other."
And now, as the Wakanda Forever script surfaced online, even more changes were discovered that must have happened while filming the Wakandan epic.
Black Panther 2 Easter Eggs That Got Scrapped
A pair of MCU Easter eggs were revealed by way of a full Black Panther: Wakanda Forever script that popped up online.
Spotted in a script for the film on r/screenwriting on Reddit, Black Panther 2 was originally set to feature callbacks to both the Iron Man trilogy and Captain Marvel.
In a section of dialogue between Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), Shuri (Letitia Wright), and Okoye (Danai Gurira) the fictional company Roxxon and secret government initiative Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. get brought up.
The conversation looks to be a different take on the chat between the three when searching for the scientist behind the Vibranium-detecting machine at the center of the film.
After Ross brings up Riri Williams (the young genius behind the machine), Shuri and Okoye go into listing possible places this brilliant mind must be involved with, asking, "Roxxon then?” and “Project PEGASUS?:”
Everett Ross: "Not just careful, you gotta be fast. The US needs another machine and this kid is the only one who knows how to make one. So, they’re coming for her."
Shuri: “Kid?”
Okoye: “We’ll be discreet.”
Shuri: “I bet the scientist is working for DARPA.”
Ross: “It’s not DARPA.”
Shuri: “Roxxon then?”
Ross: “Nope.”
Shuri: “Project PEGASUS?”
Ross: “You’re way off. It wasn’t a government contract.”
Shuri (at a loss): "Where then...?"
For those who don't remember, Roxxon Oil Corporation had a presence in the first three Iron Man films (along with Loki and Agents of SHIELD), with the final Iron Man 3 battle between the Iron Legion and the Extremis soldiers (led by Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian) taking place on an impounded Roxxon oil drilling platform.
And as for Project PEGASUS (aka Project Potential Energy Group - Alternate Sources - United States), the mysterious government group shows up in 2019's Captain Marvel.
PEGASUS is the team that was tasked by the US government to try and harness the power of the Tesseract, a project that Brie Larson's Carol Danvers was a test pilot for before her memories were erased and she began training as a Kree warrior.
Even More Black Panther 2 Changes
It is funny to take a look at a script and comb through it for changes such as this. Obviously, this conversation never made it into the final cut of Ryan Coogler's latest Marvel epic, but one has to ask, "Why?"
A similar conversation happens in the film right before audiences get officially introduced to Dominuqe Thorne as Riri Williams; however, it is just missing this pair of MCU Easter eggs.
So, why was it that Roxxon and PEGASUS did not make it into the movie? These seem like harmless callbacks to the MCU back catalog, something that happens all the time in this franchise.
It is this connective tissue that makes the Marvel Studios formula tick. Sure, there is an entire Multiverse-spanning story being told at this point, but it's these tiny minute details that make this franchise feel like an actual world.
What is most likely the case here is simply that the dialogue did not work when it finally got in front of the camera. It may have felt a little too forced when the actors were working with it, thus the sequence was changed for the final cut.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to hit Disney+ on February 1.
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