Iron Man 3 Had The MCU"s Weirdest Captain America Easter Egg (& It Spoiled Its Twist)

:0:1

Like every other movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man 3 is packed with Easter eggs and references to past movies and other characters, and among them is a weird Captain America Easter egg that actually spoiled the movie’s biggest twist. Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man was the hero that kicked off the MCU, and while his first movie is considered among the best in the Infinity Saga, the same can’t be said about his sequels. Iron Man 2 is considered one of the weakest movies in the MCU, while Iron Man 3 divided the audience as it was darker than previous Iron Man movies, yet it still lacked some of the spark that made the first movie a success.
Set after the events of The Avengers, Iron Man 3 saw Tony Stark dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety after his near-death experience during the Battle of New York. In addition to that, Tony faced Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), a scientist and creator of the Extremis virus, with which he was creating a new and dangerous type of soldiers. If that wasn’t enough, there was also the presence of The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), the leader of the Ten Rings, but it was through him that Iron Man 3 had a major plot twist that is a big part of the reason why the movie is so divisive – but The Mandarin’s twist was actually given away by a weird Captain America Easter egg.
Iron Man 3’s Trevor Slattery Had A Captain America-Inspired Tattoo

When The Mandarin was announced as the villain for Iron Man 3, there was hope that it would bring to a close the storyline Iron Man started between Tony Stark and the Ten Rings, but the big twist in Iron Man 3 was that The Mandarin wasn’t the real leader of the Ten Rings. The Mandarin was actually an actor named Trevor Slattery, who was hired by Killian to pose as The Mandarin in order to masquerade his failed Extremis experiments as terrorist attacks. This was all revealed when Tony Stark arrived at The Mandarin’s headquarters, where Slattery explained to Stark what was actually happening. Killian and company went to lengths to make Slattery look like a terrorist, and there’s one weird Captain America Easter egg found on Slattery’s body: a tattoo.
A tattoo on the back of Slattery’s neck can be briefly seen in Iron Man 3, and it’s a very peculiar one, as it’s Captain America’s shield but instead of the star in the center, it has an anarchist’s “A”. Iron Man 3 director Shane Black confirmed this is Captain America’s shield on Slattery’s body, explaining that it was part of the character's design as he’s “very cobbled together”, and it represents the corruption of America. Co-writer Drew Pearce added that the anarchist Captain America tattoo also represented how The Mandarin was created in-universe, with Killian and company putting together “a mood board of all the symbols of modern Western power”, and following the Battle of New York in The Avengers, Captain America’s shield would have definitely been one of them.
Trevor Slattery’s Tattoo Gave Iron Man 3’s Villain Twist Away

Trevor Slattery’s anarchist Captain America tattoo not only represents what The Mandarin stood for and his posture against power and more, but it also gives away Iron Man 3’s big twist. The Mandarin was supposed to be the leader of the Ten Rings, a terrorist organization that has been active for many, many years, so even if Captain America’s shield had become a symbol of power, it wouldn’t have made sense for the leader of the Ten Rings to have a tattoo like that. Iron Man 3’s The Mandarin could have been one of the greatest and scariest villains in the MCU, but the twist in his story ended up being one of the worst moments in this connected universe, and the audience should have known something was off when they caught the tattoo on Trevor Slattery’s neck.
Key Release Dates