With the premier of Falcon and the Winter Soldier only hours away, the marketing fever pitch has reached an all-time high. As part of that marketing campaign, Marvel has recently partnered with Xbox to release a promo showing Anthony Mackie as Falcon shopping for video games and playing several games on the new Xbox Series X. While the promo is mostly a way to cross-advertise between the two brands, it does feature a surprise reveal that answers one of our favorite (and most ridiculous) lingering questions from Avengers: Endgame, specifically, who is Noobmaster69?
As you recall, when we catch up with Thor in Endgame we find that he has been chilling in New Asgard with his roommates Korg and Miek, and essentially giving us a Big Lebowski version of Thor…something I never knew how much I needed. In that scene, while Rocket and Hulk try to convince Thor to drop the beer-chugging and join them in their time-travel quest, Korg and Miek are playing Fortnite in the background. He asks Thor to help him deal with a particularly frustrating online player known as NoobMaster69, which sends Thor into a fit of gamer rage that was one of the funniest jokes of the entire movie.
After the film debuted, fans immediately started jumping into outlandish theories about NoobMaster’s identity, guessing that the player was anyone from Tony Stark to Deadpool. Well, thanks to the new Xbox promo, we finally know who the mysterious and elusive Noobmaster69 is. Check out the video for yourself below…
You don’t need a Vibranium shield to be a hero. Admittedly, it does help.
Explore @XboxGamePass on Xbox #SeriesX and #SeriesS then stream #TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier to unlock your inner hero starting March 19 on Disney+: https://t.co/qpAS5V068A pic.twitter.com/1YEspmRYrk
— Xbox (@Xbox) March 15, 2021
At first glance, this just seems like a quick, funny reference in an otherwise real-world promo for the two brands. But hardcore fans will recall that we’ve actually seen this character in the MCU before! Back in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Cap and Black Widow have to go into an Apple store to track down one of Shield’s hidden bases, and they are helped by none other than Aaron, the same character as the video-game store employee above! He’s even wearing a nametag to clear up any confusion about him being the same character.
This right here is the perfect example of why I love the MCU so much. Everything is so intricately connected, and even something as simple as a quick ad can reward hardcore fans with its attention to detail and incredible world-building. Not only do they give us a funny payoff to all of our ridiculous memes and fan-theories, but they do so by bringing back a character from a quick scene 7 years ago. Stan Lee always said that the Marvel Universe was “the world outside your door”, and it is amazing to get little nods and Easter eggs like this to remind us of the little people in this universe of fantastical characters. I suppose we can imagine that after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Aaron quit his job at the Apple store in the mall and started working for GameStop, only to run into our new Captain America when he walks in for some much-needed R&R. Here’s to hoping we see him pop up again in some form or another!
Check out the clip below if you don’t remember Aaron, but who wouldn’t? He’s quite the specimen…
Source: Xbox
