Speaking at Wonder Con on February the 23rd, Favreau had this to say about what his movie’s impact will be on the Marvel world. "I don't want to blow anything, and also I don't honestly know where it's all going to land. I know that there are sort of things that have been discussed and tried and talked about. I know at the end of the day on the horizon is The Avengers, and the idea is to have chapters of all of the characters that would contribute to being The Avengers. ... Hopefully, we're all going toward The Avengers."
As I mentioned, we’ve all heard a lot of reports of various characters rocking up and winking towards a future Avengers movie. Many of us will remember the news that Samuel L. Jackson will (probably) be playing Nick Fury in the Iron Man movie, and we all know about the link between Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk.
Granted, the Samuel L. Jackson news is supposed to be quiet; "I'm not going to talk about who's in what, but for the fans, there's definitely enough to keep you leaning forward and paying attention and stuff," he said. "And your girlfriend's not going to know what you're so interested in in certain scenes. It's just going to fly by for certain people. But I think we threw enough breadcrumbs around to reward you for giving a shit."
That last bit about the interest in certain scenes has definitely got me excited, because I can remember from other similar films what he means. The parts of the film where you lean forward and exclaim, having just seen a nod or a wink or a nudge to something past, future, present, while your friends just try to separate themselves from you while sitting right next to you.