You may not know this unless you’re a hardcore Star Wars fan, but there is one particular violent act that occurs in just about every single film in the Star Wars franchise: someone gets a hand or an arm cut off. It happens to Luke Skywalker; it happens to both Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader; it happens to Mace Windu… the list goes on and on. What you may not know, however, is that Marvel Studios took a great deal of inspiration from this piece of trivia, and that’s why every single film in Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe includes a scene in which a character gets a hand or arm cut off.
This may sound like a crazy fan theory, but it's 100 percent real. How do I know? Because Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently gifted me with this fun bit of information when I sat down to interview him during The Avengers: Age of Ultron's press day in Los Angeles. The producer/executive admitted to me that the "tribute" didn’t start out as intentional, but eventually it was decided that the movies in Marvel’s Phase Two would all have the same little nod to George Lucas’ legendary franchise.
Think that’s impossible? Here's video proof in one special supercut.
It was in the middle of our conversation that Kevin Feige revealed this amazing Easter Egg – wearing the wry smile of a man who has successfully kept the lid on an awesome secret for a number of years. Discussing the origins of Marvel's secret Star Wars nod, he explained
So is this a spoiler for Ant-Man… not really. I’m obsessed with Star Wars. Who’s not? I’m 40 years old. I’m in the movie business. I went to USC. So I’m obsessed with Star Wars - and it didn’t start out as intentional, but it became intentional, including that beat that you referenced. It sort of happens in every Star Wars movie, but I was sort of looking at it, ‘Okay, is Phase Two our Empire Strikes Back?’ Not really, but tonally things are a little different. Somebody gets their arm cut off in every Phase Two movie. Every single one.
Given that Phase Two isn’t quite over yet, our supercut above is incomplete, but this is still pretty awesome, right? Not only is Marvel Studios regularly including little Easter Eggs from the history of Marvel Comics, but they are finding a way to squeeze some great Star Wars tributes in there as well.
Did this blow your mind like it did ours? Hit the comments below with your thoughts!
