Hawkeye Easter Egg May Link Back to Iron Man’s First Nemesis

The beauty of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that we’re all still learning about things months after they’ve come out. This time, we’re still learning about things in Hawkeye that can link to other properties in the MCU and who we could see in the future. This time, we’re talking about the villain Obadiah Stane, played by Jeff Bridges in the 2008 film Iron Man.

Screen Rant pointed out that there is an Easter Egg in the first episode of Hawkeye that should excite fans of the first Iron Man movie. When Kate is trying to shoot at the bell to get it to ring (destroying the entire tower in doing so), she’s shooting at Stane Tower—you know, like Obadiah Stane, but as we all know, Obadiah died pursuing his greed and left a stain (pun intended) on the Stane name.

What we didn’t explore in Iron Man or the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Univers—yet—is Stane’s son in the comics.

Ezekiel Stane

In the comics, Ezekial is someone who has a hatred for Tony Stark because of his father and has made it his job to put honor back on the Stane name—which, you know, would put him right in with the rest of the villains who want to get revenge for something that Tony did, even though Tony is dead.

As Screen Rant points out, the tower was built long before Obadiah Stane ever lived, and the plaque says that it was rededicated to Obadiah in 2006, two years prior to his death from his encounter with Iron Man. So, the destruction of this tower, especially to someone like Ezekiel, could be a point of pride and bring him into the MCU to get retribution for his father.

The old meets the new

Ezekiel would work in the MCU as a whole because we keep learning about characters we’ve come to love in a new way, and most recently, we’ve been getting to meet new characters that tie back to them. We got Clint Barton teaching Kate Bishop the ways of being Hawkeye. We had Wanda and Vision bringing in Billy and Tommy in Westview. And we know that we have America Chavez coming in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as well as Kamala Khan in Ms. Marvel. The new wave of heroes is on the way, and sometimes, that brings connections to the people we’ve known and lost—including Obadiah Stane.

Stane Tower could have been just a nod to the character and showing that Stane is still around in spirit, since we did see his legacy reflected back against Peter Parker in Far From Home. Or maybe this was our first look into the inclusion of Ezekiel Stane in the future. He was, after all, created by Matt Fraction (who also contributed to one of the great Hawkeye runs featuring both Clint and Kate).

Whatever the tower means for the future of the MCU, it seems to fit in perfectly with everything that Phase 4 has been setting up.

(via Screen Rant, image: Marvel Entertainment)