She-Hulk’s most recent episode made a sly reference to The Leader, a Hulk supervillain that was teased recently when Marvel announced Tim Blake Nelson would return to the MCU. Although The Leader or his former identity Samuel Sterns was not mentioned, She-Hulk openly referenced a secret organization of supervillains that he founded: Intelligencia. Theoretically, episode 6 of She-Hulk just opened the door for a few more villains in the MCU.

In the episode, Intelligencia was your average internet hate group, apparently full of incels and violent memes aimed at She-Hulk. So this actually might not be just a self-contained wedding episode. Also, why didn’t we get to see Jen walk down the aisle with a tiny dog?

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Intelligencia isn’t Marvel’s most well-known group of evil villains, but it is a dangerous one. Both M.O.D.O.K. and Doctor Doom have been members. And introducing this group now, especially considering what we know about the future of the MCU, has huge implications for what lies ahead. Perhaps it won’t be around for very long or just be a website full of hateful morons, but it’s a big Easter egg with many possibilities now that it’s out there. With the bits of information that Marvel has already given us about The Leader and She-Hulk’s enemies, you can connect some pretty big dots.

Tim Blake Nelson Returns as The Leader

     Marvel Studios

At the D23 expo, Marvel confirmed that Tim Blake Nelson will return to the MCU, reprising his role as Samuel Sterns, AKA The Leader. The last we saw of Nelson was in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, where he had just suffered an accident at his lab, and his skull was beginning to mutate. As that evil smile spread across his face, comic book fans knew that The Leader had just been born. This is a rare opportunity for Marvel to pick up right where they left off with a character without any sort of explanation. And this cameo of Intelligencia is an excellent way of folding him back into the MCU.

The Leader is a powerful mastermind of a villain with some telepathic abilities and a penchant for resurrecting himself. He is famous in the comics for pursuing the science of gamma radiation and, in this case, Hulk blood. In the comics, he once lost his powers when he couldn’t get access to it. This might explain why the Wrecking Crew were going after Jennifer Walters’ blood with such fervor. And why that weirdo Todd is so interested in her skin. When they mentioned how their “boss” wouldn’t be happy, it was probably because he was a green-skinned megalomaniac with a giant head.

When Marvel announced that Nelson would return, they specifically said The Leader would be back in Captain America: New World Order. That’s five movies we can expect him to live through! If The Leader is out there right now, he could make some big, world-changing moves in that time. We can probably expect him to be involved in the multiverse as well.

In the comics, The Leader was famous for studying the Green Door, a dimensional portal to the Below-Place or the ultimate rock bottom to the multiverse. He suffered torment from the One Below All during his several afterlives unfortunately allowed him passage into the Earth-616 universe. But hopefully, that won’t happen this time.

What is Intelligencia?

     Marvel Comics

When The Leader formed the Intelligencia, it was meant simply for exchanging information between some of Marvel’s most sinister minds. That’s most likely what this website from She-Hulk is at the moment; the early stages of Intelligencia. Wouldn’t it be funny if M.O.D.O.K. was just sitting at his computer with his giant head, hate-posting memes all day?

The group did eventually become actively evil, though mostly by accident. The villains independently had their own evil machinations, but all needed vibranium to accomplish them. Intelligencia got together to create a tachyon ray that attracted a vibranium meteor to Earth. However, they didn’t realize that this tachyon ray would ultimately open a portal to the Beyonder, thus causing Secret Wars. That’s right, the last film in Phase 6 begins here in episode 6 of She-Hulk.

Intelligencia also saved the world once, linking them to two of the most anticipated possibilities in the MCU right now. Ever since Hulk left Earth at the end of She-Hulk’s second episode, everyone has been hoping for World War Hulk or, god help us, Maestro in the MCU’s future. Well, when Hulk returned to Earth and began to conquer the planet, it was Intelligencia that got together and channeled cosmic energy through defense satellites in order to stop him. By this time, he had killed or imprisoned many superheroes.

But this energy, along with gamma radiation, also allowed the group to create a Red Hulk. Though William Hurt has unfortunately passed, the MCU may still see a Red Hulk through the workings of the Intelligencia.