There is a fine line between what elements Marvel plants as purposeful foreshadowing and what is a small hint that escalates into a fan theory. It's Marvel's job to keep the fans guessing, especially with shows such as WandaVision, but at what point does it become such a large hint that it surely must be a foreshadow to something greater?
With so many characters and locations at their disposal, Marvel has dropped hundreds of references throughout the Some have paid off incredibly well, but there are also those scenes and pieces of dialogue that have yet to deliver any pay-off at all.
The Real Mandarin
Fans will the appearance of "the Mandarin" in Iron Man 3. For anyone that doesn't, Trevor Slattery was revealed to be the Mandarin before it was revealed he wasn't. Aldridge Killian was then revealed to be the real Mandarin before it was revealed that the real real Mandarin took Trevor's character out of prison and was not happy with his impersonation. Confused?
In the Marvel short All Hail The King it was teased that the actual Mandarin is still out there, yet fans have not seen anything of him in the last eight years. But Shang-Chi movie, so it looks like the Mandarian plot will finally be paid off.
Thor's Magic Belt
In Homecoming, as Happy loads up the plane that Vulture is planning to hijack, he lists off a number of items that are included in the manifest. One of those items is, as mentioned "Thor's magic belt."
Fans of the comics will recognize this as Megingjörð — a belt that can double Thor's strength and power. Many fans thought this would appear in some of the Thor: Love And Thunder set photos, it still won't.
Cap's New Shield
Similarly to Thor's magic belt, Happy also mentions "Caps' new shield" in the manifest, again teasing a new shield for Cap for the third and fourth Avengers movies. It makes sense considering the Avengers need all the tools they can get to go up against Thanos and his army.
Although Cap did get some new Vibranium shields courtesy of Wakanda, the shield that Happy was referring to also turned out to be nothing more than a line of dialogue.
Bucky And The Shield
In Captain America: Civil War (in a deleted scene), he manages to wield Cap's shield. This happens once on the Hydra train, then again in battle against Cap, and then while throwing the shield at Rhodey in Civil War before saying "I gotta get me one of those."
Many fans took these moments as foreshadowing that Steve would his shield to Bucky in some way. However, it was Sam who ended up getting the shield from Steve before it was given to John Walker by the government.
The Collector's Infinity Stone Quest
In the post-credit scene of the Collector for safekeeping, after which he says "One down, five to go..." hinting that the Collector will have his own Infinity Stone quest.
Given the monumental task that the writers and the Russo brothers had in connecting all the plotlines in the last two Avengers movies, it's safe to say that adding in another story of Taneleer Tevan collecting the stones would have been overkill, but a very intriguing story to say the least.
Mephisto
As many fans will , one of the most popular WandaVision fan theories going around was the inclusion of Mephisto, one of Marvel's most powerful demons, as the series' main villain. With so many hints and references to the character, it was undoubtedly him behind everything, right?
Wrong. Agatha Harkness turned out to be the main antagonist. At what point does it go from foreshadowing to throwing fans completely off course?
Courting Death
When Thanos first appeared in the end credit scene of The Avengers, his henchman, known as the Other, stated, "To challenge them is to court...death." This alluded to Thanos' love for death in the comics, which is why he wanted the Infinity Stones in the first place.
However, when Hela, the goddess of death, appeared and then died in Thor: Ragnarok, it was clear that the MCU was taking another route with Thanos and the stones and the "Death" that is present in the comics, would not play a part in the movie.
Retro-Reflective s
In Iron Man 3, when Tony is in Harley's barn, Harley mentions that Tony could add retro-reflective s to his suit to enable a stealth mode. Not only that, Tony, then follows up by saying "It's actually a good idea. Maybe I'll build one."
With the retro-reflective s being used in the Helicarrier in The Avengers, fans would have loved to see a stealth version of Tony's armor, but sadly, such an idea was never put into practice.
Vision Without The Stone
One of the plot points of Avengers: Infinity War was the possibility of Shuri taking the Infinity Stone out of Vision's head. Bruce Banner said "If we take out the stone, there's still a whole lot of Vision left, maybe the best parts," hinting at a version of Vision that could survive without the Mind Stone in his head, and this version of Vision could be the best yet.
However, as fans now know, this line was never taken any further. Audiences were left wondering if Shuri managed to finish her work and if they would ever see Vision without the stone, but sadly, Vision was killed and the stone was lost to Thanos.
Atlantis
Way back at the end of Iron Man 2 when Nick Fury briefed Tony about the Avengers Initiative, a map can be seen on one of the background screens. The map highlighted places such as Wakanda and Atlantis. Now that Wakanda has entered the story, fans are wondering when Atlantis will make its appearance in the MCU.
As the MCU has no signs of slowing down, it could still be years before fans see Atlantis in the movies or the characters that could be associated with it, such as Namor or Harran.
