You're Not A Geek If You Didn't Spot These 25 Tiny Hidden Details In "What If...?" Episode 3

????WARNING: Spoilers ahead, this article is for people who are watching What If…? on Disney+. Do not read on unless you have watched “What If…?” Episode 3 titled “What If…? the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?”.????

With the mind blowing possibilities that What If…? is exploring, the show exhibits no signs of slowing down. Based on how the Earth’s reality in the MCU would’ve twisted if some events of the sacred timeline would’ve changed, the show has received a massively great response.

“What If…?” Episode 3 explores the possibilities of events which might have followed if the Earth’s mighties heroes, The Avengers would have died before becoming a team. The episode is stuffed with some crazy MCU Easter eggs and callbacks.

Here’s a list of all the tiny hidden details and easter eggs that we spotted in “What If…?” Episode 3

The style of the episode is a callback to Marvel comic Fury’s Big Week, which was published in 2012, right before The Avengers. According to the comic Iron Man 2, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk apparently took place in the same week and Fury recruited all of them for The Avengers.

Fury’s opening line in the episode to Natasha is exactly what he tells Tony and Steve during The Avengers in order to motivate them.

For the first time ever, we learn about what Fury was up to before we saw him for the first time in Iron Man 2. We even get an animated visual of the iconic Donut scene

When The Watcher talks about assembling The Avengers, in the background, you can hear the iconic “Avengers Theme” playing that has been used countless times in MCU movies. The shot here is a mirrored image of The Avengers during the battle of New York in The Avengers.

When Coulson discovers Thor’s hammer in the desert, the shot is a nod to when he finds Mjölnir in the post-credits scene of Iron Man 2. However, we even get to hear Fury’s side of the conversation this time.

We meet Brock Rumlow in this episode, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who arrests Natasha. We first met Rumlow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Brock quotes Alexander Pierce while talking to Natasha. This is sheerly brilliant as Brock and Alexander were part of the HYDRA cell within S.H.I.E.L.D. in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

While guarding Mjölnir, Clint tells Fury that even Jackson is unable to lift the hammer. Jackson was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in Thor as well.

The hoodie and glasses that Natasha dons to visit Betty Ross is a perfect callback to the kind of disguises she wore in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War.

Natasha spots a pizza delivery outfit in Betty’s lab which is a callback to a disguise Bruce Banner used in The Incredible Hulk.

Bruce’s first line to Natasha in this episode is reminiscent of what he tells her after she hunts him down in The Avengers

Coulson makes a pop culture reference when he mentions Middle-earth from Lord of the Rings.

Fury turns down Loki’s request and tells him that they don’t kneel before anyone on Earth. The scene is possibly a nod to when T’Challa tells Bruce the same thing in Avengers: Infinity War.

When Loki arrives on Earth, what we see in his possession is the Casket of Ancient Winters, which he found out he could use in Thor, which confirmed that he’s a Frost Giant.

Bruce’s transformation into The Hulk on campus is a mirrored shot of how it happened in The Incredible Hulk.

Also Read: ‘What If…?’ 25 Easter Eggs In Ep 2 Explained: Everything You Might Have Missed

Natasha performs her signature landing pose, which is hard to not notice ever since Yelena mentioned it in Black Widow.

Coulson’s password tells us how big of a Steve Rodgers fanboy he is. His password is a nod to his love for Captain America, which we saw in The Avengers.

The “04” in Coulson’s password could also be a nod to Avengers Issue #4. where Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, is unearthed from the ice and registered in The Avengers.

While looking at the S.H.I.E.L.D. database, you can spot that Janet van Dyne, Maria Hill, and Alexander Pierce’s files were all accessed, alongside Coulson and Fury’s files.

When Fury is playing Natasha’s message about “hope,” on loop, he’s sitting inside the same diner where Thor did the iconic coffee cup smash in Thor.

Coulson puts before Fury his original Avengers Initiative memo. We last saw him writing this same memo at the end of Captain Marvel.

When Hell broke loose in Avengers: Infinity War, Fury’s last resort was to use his beeper that called Captain Marvel to Earth. Here as well after the fall of the Avengers, Fury picks up his Captain Marvel beeper.

On his hunt for Hank Pym, Fury comes across The Destroyer, which we last saw in Thor.

When Fury pays a visit to Hope’s grave in San Francisco, the visuals of the cemetery are similar to to the Wall of the Vanished which we saw in Avengers: Endgame.

The outfit that we see Hank Pym donning has uncanny resemblance to Yellowjacket’s suit from the comics and in Ant-Man. Even in The Avengers comics, the first person to use Yellowjacket as his superhero name is Hank Pym.

Fury explains that Hope van Dyne’s death was due to a mission outside of Odessa, Ukraine. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Natasha makes a mention of Odessa when talking about Bucky/Winter Soldier. This implies that he probably killed Hope in this timeline.

When Carol Denvers shows up at the end of the episode, you can hear the Captain Marvel theme song playing in the background.

Was there any other cool Easter egg that we miss but you were able to catch in “What If…?” Episode 3. Share with us in the comment section below!

Catch the fourth episode of What If…? only on Disney+ on Wednesday, September 3rd, at 12:01 a.m. PT and 3:01 a.m. ET

You’re Not A Geek If You Didn’t Spot These 25 Tiny Hidden Details In “What If…?” Episode 3