The four Marvel movie universe movies directed by Anthony and Joseph Russo (Captain America: Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinite Warand Avengers: endgame) are packed with these Easter eggs, including those honoring two of the Russo Brothers’ most famous works – Arrested developmentan early 2000s sitcom with several episodes directed by the duo, and Communitya late 2000s sitcom also featuring several episodes directed by the pair.
We’ll focus on those Easter Eggs for this article, breaking down chronologically, the Community Cameos and the Arrested development Easter eggs.
The first Community cameo is harder to spot, but eagle-eyed fans will recognize Aaron Himelstein as the same actor who played Greendale’s rival student from City College that Jeff and Annie had to compete against in the debate tournament.
This time, however, instead of sporting a ponytail and a snobbish attitude, Himelstein’s agent Klein takes on Rumlow when Steve Rogers broadcasts the broadcast and asks the agents to stop the HYDRA Helicarriers during the Battle of the Triskelion. This character, SHIELD Agent Cameron Klein, is an original character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
You see him inside again Avengers: Age of Ultron and the character is also mentioned in Avengers: Infinite War. It’s a big jump from cameo to in-universe staple, and we’ll be looking forward to more of Agent Klein in upcoming MCU movies.
While not the most recognizable face on the show, it’s important to note this Greendale Student’s appearance in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. DC Pierson, who has played a member of the Greendale Gazette named Mark Millot, comes here as the annoying Apple support tech Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff have to deal with while on the run. His last appearance in Communityas a member of Troy’s armed forces in the season three episode “Digital Exploration of Interior Design”, was just two years before the film’s release.
This next Community Cameo was much easier to spot since the actor was one of the main cast. During the scene The winter Soldier when Steve Rogers breaks in to make his announcement, the terrified SHIELD communications officer is Danny Pudi – most recognizable as Abed, the neurodivergent movie buff of the Greendale Seven.
Here he plays a movie stereotype of his Community counterpart would point and ridicule – the infamous “I’ll check it out” guy. Community was still running at this point, so who knows? We may have gotten an MCU reference in the show and not even noticed!
Looking forward to the next Captain America movie in the franchise, this Community actor is also considered a major character by many, although not one of the Greendale seven. In a character not unlike his role on the show, but toned down a bit, actor and writer Jim Rash plays The MIT liaison who is very excited to tell a distracted Tony Stark about his new self-cooking hot dog idea.
Rash’s role in Community was Dean Craig Pelton, a character that it’s not hard to imagine inviting Iron Man to speak at his school and explaining to him his nonsensical schemes to squander money. Somehow in the world he has risen from a community college to a prestigious private university. Maybe all those sponsorships weren’t so crazy after all.
Arrested development Easter Egg: The Stair Car – Captain America: Civil War
While the Community Easter Eggs are more prevalent, being cameos from the actors, the stopped development Easter Eggs are a bit harder to spot. The first comes during the airport scene in Captain America: Civil War.
If you look closely, you can see a strange looking vehicle in the background. Fans of the 2003 sitcom will recognize it as the Bluth family’s pedal car, which has been used several times throughout the series.
How it got from Newport Beach, California to Schkeuditz, Saxony is anyone’s guess, but one thing’s for sure: all the discord in this MCU movie would have been over much more quickly if Gene Parmesan was on the case.
Arrested Development Easter Egg: Tobias Fünke – Avengers: Infinity War
Another hard-to-spot but rewarding ever-found hidden treat that references Arrested Development comes in the Russo Brother’s post-Civil War MCU movie, Avengers: Infinity War. If you look at the background during the scene with the Guardians of the Galaxy, in the blink of an eye of two seconds and you miss the shot, you will see Tobias Fünke, our favorite never-naked and future actor, sitting in one of the collection cages in full blue and short jeans.
A few movies ahead in the MCU timeline, next Community Cameo comes half way through the first third of Avengers: endgame. Many fans will recognize Ken Jeong, aka Ben Chang (or Kevin), the deranged Spanish teacher-turned-student-turned-math teacher in Greendale. He’s the guard completely rocked by Scott Lang bursting out of a van after being trapped in the Quantum Realm for five years, kickstarting the Avengers’ journey to try and “change” the past.
Our last Community Cameo comes to the past during Tony and Steve’s journey to get more pym particles. During one of his many elevator scenes, Captain America has a timid conversation about his employment status with an administrative assistant – which arouses her slowly growing suspicion in the two time travelers and causes her to report them to S.H.I.E.L.D. This co-worker is played by Yvette Nicole Brown, who fans will recognize as the same actress who plays Shirley Bennett – the good-natured, but furious, Christian member of the study group. While this is one of the smaller cameos on our list, featuring just a few short lines, it’s certainly memorable for those who recognized what the small role actually meant in the history of the Russo Brothers’ work.
That’s every Community and Arrested Development Easter Egg and Cameo in the four Russo Brothers MCU movies! While there are more cameos and actor overlaps in non-Russo MCU movies (and there are other Easter Eggs in Russo Brothers MCU movies unrelated to the two shows), there’s definitely more love and connection in the ones on this list, knowing the history behind them. Who knows? Perhaps there could be more of this kind, if the Russo Brothers ever return to the MCU!