Since the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 3, fans have been speculating about the direction the MCU might take, and one name keeps popping up: Mephisto.

Seen here, having a nice time with the Fantastic Four

From the reveal of Peter Parker’s secret identity at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home to the presence of Agatha Harkness in Disney+’s WandaVision, people can’t seem to stop finding Marvel’s resident devil in every corner of every story.

But what if Mephisto was there already? What if Mephisto has been in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from the very beginning? Here’s a look at just some of the MCU characters who may have been Mephisto and we just didn’t know it.

1. Christine Everhart (Iron Man)

The first adversary that Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark faced in the original Iron Man movie wasn’t a corporate raider or a member of the Ten Rings, but a crusading Vanity Fair journalist trying to show the world the man behind the Armani. There are those in the real world who regularly demonize the press, which is not something The Beat supports, and Leslie Bibb’s Christine Everhart certainly received her fair share of dismissive hate from both Tony and Pepper Potts (Goop) in the movie. Still, Bibb was and still is a recognizable face for such a small role, and just as Clark Gregg’s Agent Phil Coulson was setup for later storylines, so too could Christine Everhart have been the real Big Bad of the MCU in disguise from the very start.

2. Justin Hammer (Iron Man 2)

Throughout the history of the MCU Tony Stark was always just a hair’s breadth away from being outright evil. He was always ethically challenged, but typically he ultimately ended up doing what was right. Justin Hammer is basically Tony Stark if he went in the other direction, and as portrayed by Sam Rockwell in Iron Man 2 it’d be easy enough to just see him as another greedy person if he wasn’t so damn charming.

Hammer utilizes the silver tongue of the Prince of Lies like no other, but it’s those dance moves that indicate he either sold his soul to The Devil or he just plain is him.

3. Miek (Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Endgame)

He’s an insect. He has knives for hands. Miek (Miek) is primarily known as the unintelligible sidekick and best friend of Korg (Taika Waititi) in Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Endgame. In the comics, though, the Sakaarian insectoid becomes an antagonist for Earth’s heroes during the World War Hulk story line, and faces a few more times over the years. Could a villainous turn for the character be in order in the MCU as well? Miek is set to return in Thor: Love & Thunder, and what better way to tie the film to the other goings-on of the MCU than to have Miek turn out to be Mephisto in disguise?

4. Pvt. Lorraine (Captain America: The First Avenger)

They say the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist, but I would argue that an even greater trick is luring Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) away from his Canonical One True Love (COTL), Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). The Devil is always trying to corrupt pure hearts and souls, though, so it’s not a huge leap to think that Natalie Dormer’s Pvt. Lorraine could actually have been Mephisto in disguise.

5. Fandral (but just the first one) (Thor)

Remember how there were two Fandrals? That was weird, right? Sure, rumor and IMDB trivia have it that Josh Dallas was cast as Fandral in the first Thor movie after Zachary Levi, who would play the character in two subsequent movies, was unavailable, but could there have been more to the casting strategy than meets the eye? Perhaps the Fandral featured in the original Thor was actually a demon from Hell in disguise, and no one noticed because they were all distracted by Chris Hemsworth’s arms?

They’re god arms, Brent.

6. Thanos (but just at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron)

Look at this.

What is this? Come on. The smirk? The one-liner? That’s not Thanos. That is clearly Mephisto. If you don’t see right through that disguise I don’t know what movie you’re watching. 

7. Ed Brubaker (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

Former Captain America writer Ed Brubaker was notably quoted earlier this year as saying that he earns more in residuals for his brief appearance in the second Cap movie than he does for having resurrected Steve’s former partner, Bucky Barnes, as The Winter Soldier. Perhaps part of the reason he makes so much for the appearance is that he was playing more than just a nameless scientist working for Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford, can you believe they got Robert Redford to appear in a comic book movie)? What if he was secretly playing Mephisto himself, pulling the strings of events in the MCU from behind the scenes as usual?

8. The person driving the car that Stephen Strange’s car hits (Doctor Strange)

Stephen Strange: World-renowned surgeon. Egomaniac. Reckless driver. It’s hard to argue that the car crash that robs Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) of his hands is his own damn fault — he takes distracted driving to an entirely new level. Still, it takes two to tango, and it took another car with another driver in it to collide with Strange’s car (or, rather, for Strange to collide his car into).

We never see who was in the other car, so who’s to say it wasn’t Mephisto?

9. This guy watching Gamora and Quill fight (Guardians of the Galaxy)

If you were an alien, living on an alien planet, living your normal alien life doing alien things, eating alien foods, and alien working at an alien job for an alien paycheck, and then out of nowhere you’re on your alien lunch break and you see these four other aliens – a kind of douchey-looking guy, a badass green woman, a talking raccoon, and an ambulatory tree – having an alien fight in the alien town square, how would you alien react? Probably shock and a little fear, I would wager. So what’s the deal with the guy at 1:45 of this video?

Gamora just slammed into a fountain right in front of him. Everyone else around him – the blue guy, the purple woman, everyone – looks shocked or concerned. Him? He seems more annoyed than anything else. What’s he hiding? Could he actually be an immortal demon in disguise?

10. Stan Lee (all of them)

Smilin’ Stan Lee is known for his role in helping create many of the Marvel Universe’s most iconic characters, but in the MCU Stan tended to just pop up when least expected, be it as a bus driver, an astronaut, a bartender, or an alien barber. The only person to appear consistently in each of the first 22 Marvel Cinematic Universe films is Stan, and fans have long theorized that Stan was an otherworldly being, akin to The Watcher, traveling throughout the MCU observing events to ensure the story progressed as it should. But what if he was really there to make sure things went wrong? What if “Smilin’ Stan,” in all of his many forms throughout the MCU, was actually “Sinister Stan,” playing yet another of his many co-creations, the malevolent Mephisto?

I mean, why not?

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