When Deadpool & Wolverine, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, made $438m worldwide on its opening weekend, Marvel executives must have felt as if Christmas had come early. It is Easter, though, that deserves part of the credit: Easter eggs, that is, those fan-centric surprises with which the modern blockbuster is sprinkled, or in this case cluttered.

They take many forms: unpublicised cameos, in-jokes that only franchise devotees would clock, surprise scenes stowed away in the end credits, abundant references to other movies, even allusions to controversies on the sets of other movies. The Easter eggs in Deadpool & Wolverine belong to all these categories and more. There are so many, in fact, that it’s tempting to ask: which came first, the movie or the eggs?

Whatever the style of Easter egg, the point is the same: to encourage, flatter and reward the deepest possible level of fan engagement and to keep completists coming back for more. One downside is that this can be alienating for anyone not up to speed with the latest Marvel minutiae. “I was lost from the first minute, when some time cops try to stop Deadpool’s plan to resurrect Wolverine to stop the apocalypse,” wrote Jonathan Dean in the Sunday Times. “To make that make sense, you need to have seen both series of the Disney+ show Loki, which I gave up on after two episodes.”

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Given the success of Deadpool & Wolverine, Easter eggs are likely to remain a staple item on the menu. “I grew up watching Wayne’s World, which operated on much the same lines,” says McCahill. “But I fear, after Deadpool & Wolverine, every big Hollywood movie is now just going to be a series of meme-able moments. Directors should be storytellers, not winkers. And as with their chocolate equivalents, Easter eggs should be consumed in moderation.”

As Critical Kate points out, 21st-century Easter eggs haven’t developed very far beyond that 1973 shout-out to McDonald’s in Moonlander: “Today, this is what most Easter eggs are: brands hidden in the background that we freeze-frame so we can see how many we recognise and then write a blog post about it.” Nevertheless, they tap into twin desires that remain achingly human: our need for a shared community; and the hope that there is a secret that will finally confer meaning on to our lives. That may well be the case. Just don’t expect to find it behind Reynolds’s smirk.