Buffy The Vampire Slayer is one of the most popular television programs of the last 20 years. So, when its creator Joss Whedon was hired as the writer and director of The Avengers, and its follow-up Avengers: Age Of Ultron, fans of the show couldn’t have been prouder. And to showcase his own devotion to the Buffyverse, Joss Whedon even managed to sneak a little Easter egg to Buffy and its spinoff, Angel into Age Of Ultron.
The Easter egg was hidden in the scene when Thor had his visions of Asgard in Age Of Ultron after the Scarlet Witch performed her voodoo mind-trick on him. This saw Joss Whedon go all crazy with his images, framing, and quick cuts, to represent the prince's mind being taken over by Elizabeth Olsen’s character. In amidst this sequence was a quick image of three masked men standing in the archways of Asgard.
Just in case you missed it, or if you believe I’m a flat out liar, you can check out the evidence of this trio of spooky individuals below:
I know what you’re thinking: these three are probably going to be in my nightmares for quite some time, too. But, how exactly do the threesome pay homage to Buffy The Vampire Slayer? Well, the trio are wearing a wolf mask, a ram mask, and a hart mask, the latter of which is a medieval word for stag.
Basically, they are wolf, ram, and hart. And for fans of Angel, the Buffy The Vampire Slayer spinoff that the filmmaker also created, this was a wink of the eye to the villainous trio of Wolf, Ram and Hart. According to Screen Crush, Joss Whedon confirmed that this was the case during his director’s commentary for Avengers: Age Of Ultron.
In Angel, Wolf, Ram and Hart were the senior partners at the Los Angeles law firm, Wolfram & Hart, as well as an ancient trio of demons that constantly caused havoc for David Boreanaz’s Angel by representing an array of ne’er-do-wells.
It’s quite a turn up that Joss Whedon managed to squeeze this homage to Angel and Buffy into Age Of Ultron. That’s because he previously admitted to Collider that he just didn’t have the time to include any in his films. Whedon explained:
It’s so hard for me to make a movie, especially [Age Of Ultron], I don’t spend a lot of time going, ‘You know what else would be hilarious?!’
Obviously he couldn’t resist the temptation this time round though. Avengers: Age Of Ultron will be available to buy on Blu-ray and DVD at the beginning of October, though it is available digitally now.
