Major SPOILERS ahead for Captain Marvel.
Here's how cliffhanger ending of Avengers: Infinity War. Endgame is expected to be the end of many character arcs that have spanned the MCU, including Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.).
But first, MCU fans get to meet major player in Avengers: Endgame.
Related: All The MCU Characters Who Return In Captain Marvel
Now that Captain Marvel is in theaters, fans have a chance to learn much more about Carol Danvers after the vague tease in Infinity War. Of course, since the MCU is all connected, Captain Marvel also works as a precursor to Avengers: Endgame, the next Marvel Studios movie to hit theaters this year. As such, we break down all the ways in which Captain Marvel directly connects to and sets up Avengers: Endgame.
- This Page: Fury's Pager, Captain Marvel's Return & Her New Costume
- Next Page: Captain Marvel's Powers, Avengers Inspiration & Spectrum
Where Nick Fury's Pager In Infinity War Comes From
In the Nick Fury ed Captain Marvel: With his pager that she upgraded using Kree tech so its signal could reach across at least two galaxies.
After the pager was shown in Infinity War, and knowing Captain Marvel takes place in the 90s, fans suspected it had something to do with Carol giving Fury a way to reach her using technology available at that time. Now, Captain Marvel has confirmed as much, and even established throughout the movie that she's able to rewire Earth tech to the Kree Starforce team.
Captain Marvel Is With The Avengers Before Endgame
The Captain Marvel post-credits scene reveals what happened to Fury's pager after he turned to dust as a result of Thanos' snap: The Avengers located it and have been keeping it going to make sure the signal gets to whoever's on the other end. It's clear none of the remaining Avengers - Captain America, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Bruce Banner aka. Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and James "Rhodey" Rhodes aka. War Machine (Don Cheadle) - don't know who Captain Marvel is or that she's the one the pager s.
Related: Captain Marvel’s End-Credits Scenes Explained
However, at the end of the scene, Captain Marvel appears in the laboratory where the pager was being powered. She seems to be as confused as the Avengers, asking, "Where's Fury?" While it's open to interpretation just how much Carol knows about Avengers: Endgame trailers have depicted him with a clean-shaven face. So, Captain Marvel is on Earth at the start of Avengers 4. And, as revealed in the Avengers: Endgame footage description from the Disney shareholders meeting, we know she sticks around to form a plan with the rest of the team.
Captain Marvel Has A New Costume In Avengers: Endgame
The color-changed Starforce uniform she wears at the end of her solo movie. Although we don't see her full costume in the post-credits scene, she's sporting new gold shoulder pads. Also, the details of the logo in the center of her chest are slightly different, and it's a little bigger. Since we don't get a full shot of Captain Marvel, though, it's difficult to compare the two suits in detail.
We won't know what other differences there are between Captain Marvel's costume in her solo movie versus Avengers: Endgame until we get a better look at the suit in the team-up film. But considering most of the characters in the MCU get suit or costume tweaks from movie to movie, it makes sense that Captain Marvel would as well.
Page 2 of 2: Captain Marvel's Powers, Avengers Inspiration & Spectrum
Captain Marvel's Powers Come From An Infinity Stone
Though Carol Danvers spends much of Captain Marvel believing the Kree gave her the powers she possesses, it's revealed later on that her abilities actually come from the Tesseract, which was powering Dr. Lawson/Mar-Vell's (Annette Bening) light-speed engine. From Avengers: Infinity War, we know the Tesseract is actually the Space Stone, one of six Infinity Stones that Thanos collected and used to decimate half the universe.
Like Scarlet Witch, whose powers derive from being experimented on with the Mind Stone, this means that Captain Marvel will defeat Thanos remains to be seen, but fans have theorized Carol is one of the missing pieces needed to save the world in Avengers: Endgame.
Related: The MCU Has So Much More to Do With the Quantum Realm
Further, Carol's powers coming from the Space Stone disproves theories that realm housing the decimated heroes - it doesn't seem to be as connected to Carol as previously believed. That makes Ant-Man all the more important to the Avengers: Endgame Quantum Realm plot.
Captain Marvel Was The Inspiration For The Avengers
Since it was known that inspiration for the Avengers Initiative that was the basis for the MCU's very first post-credits scene tag in Iron Man. Now, Captain Marvel reveals she didn't only give Fury the idea for his initiative that became key to the entire MCU, but had a little more influence than previously known. At the end of the movie, Fury can be seen typing up something called The Protector Initiative. But, after seeing the name on one of Carol's planes reads "Captain Carol 'Avenger' Danvers," he changes his initiative's name.
Related: Captain Marvel Creates An Avengers Plot Hole (Or Nick Fury Is Lying)
As a result, not only does Carol inspire the the Avengers Initiative itself, she gives it its name, which means the Avengers owe more to her than fans even speculated. And, once Avengers: Endgame hits theaters, fans will get to see Captain Marvel the team she inspired.
Captain Marvel Sets Up Spectrum In The MCU
Captain Marvel also sets up another Marvel Comics hero to one day the MCU: Spectrum aka. Monica Rambeau, played in the movie by Akira Akbar. Monica is the daughter of Carol's best friend Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) and is only portrayed as a child in the movie. However, Marvel Comics fans know Monica Rambeau grows up to become Spectrum - previously known as Photon and Pulsar - a superhero with powers that let her control electromagnetic energies.
In the comics, Spectrum fights alongside the Avengers, but it remains to be seen if the hero will appear in Avengers: Endgame. Still, with the character having been introduced to the cinematic world in Captain Marvel, the movie paves the way for Spectrum to eventually fight alongside Carol Danvers in a potential sequel.
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So, Captain Marvel sets up Avengers: Endgame in many ways, some more subtle than others. But, fans wanting to know all the ways in which Captain Marvel connects to Avengers Endgame will have to wait for the latter film to hit theaters this spring.
