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Falcon and Winter Soldier Easter egg may confirm a huge Sharon Carter twist

One wild Hollywood rule could reveal The Power Broker’s secret identity.

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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has yet to reveal the real identity of The Power Broker, but that hasn’t stopped fans from theorizing about who the powerful figure could be.

The most recent episode of the Disney+ series dedicated a lot of its runtime time to establishing the character as someone to be feared throughout the MCU, one who also happens to bear a major grudge against Karli Morgenthau and the Flag-Smashers.

Now, one small detail in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 3 is leading some Marvel fans to think they’ve already figured out who The Power Broker is.

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The Theory — It’s a little-known Hollywood fact that movie and TV villains are not allowed to use Apple products on screen. Indeed, the tech company has a rule that only allows the good guys in films and TV shows to use or own Apple technology.

“Apple, they let you use iPhones in movies—but, and this is very pivotal, if you’re ever watching a mystery movie, bad guys cannot have iPhones on camera,” filmmaker Rian Johnston said in a 2020 interview with Vanity Fair. “Every single filmmaker who has a bad guy in their movie that’s supposed to be a secret wants to murder me right now.”

Assuming Johnston’s rule is true, then it seems safe to assume that if one character in a movie or TV show uses an iPhone but another character doesn’t, then the first character is probably a hero and the other ... well, maybe not so much.

It’s for that reason that TikTok user @3noracha believes Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter may not only secretly be a villain in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier but possibly The Power Broker. Why? Because the phone that Sharon is seen holding in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 3 is strangely not an iPhone, despite both Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson and Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres having already been seen using iPhones in the show.

What This Means — This is an admittedly tiny detail to base a theory off on, and it also assumes that Apple does indeed enforce its no-villain policy on every movie and TV show that features its products, as Johnston suggested. However, it wouldn’t be the first time that a behind-the-scenes Hollywood rule has revealed something about a high-profile TV show or movie’s story, so it’s worth considering all the same.

This also isn’t the only reason that some Falcon and the Winter Soldier viewers think Sharon Carter is The Power Broker. The theory has actually been circulating online quite a bit these past few days, and we here at Inverse think there’s real weight to it as well. In fact, on the list of characters currently rumored to be The Power Broker, Sharon seems like one of the most plausible candidates right now.

Old friends, old foes.

Marvel Studios

The Inverse Analysis — Sharon Carter’s strong position within Madripoor’s criminal hierarchy is reason enough to believe that she could be The Power Broker. This detail, while small, only adds to the list of reasons fans have to think the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is now the top crime lord of Madripoor. It’s also possible Sharon just canonically isn’t a fan of Apple, but that’s a way less exciting explanation, isn’t it?

If it pans out that Sharon’s the Power Broker because she doesn’t use an iPhone, then consider it further proof that Sam was right about The Big Three: wizards, aliens, and Android.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is streaming now on Disney+.

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