At the end of Avengers: Infinity War, we watch – in horror, might we add – as Thanos does what he promised to do earlier in the film – that being snapping his fingers and making half of all life in the universe disappear. He does so while in Wakanda and immediately, we see heroes like Bucky and Black Panther vanish before our very eyes. Meanwhile, on Titan, Iron Man’s team sees the same thing, with characters such as Spider-Man turning to dust. It’s a shocking and bold way to end things, but what we don’t get to see is what’s happening in the rest of the world.
Thankfully, that’s where the post-credits scene comes in. It kicks off with Maria Hill and Nick Fury driving in New York when they crash into another car. As Fury runs out to see who the driver was, he finds that there’s no one in the vehicle. The two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents then look up and see a helicopter crash into a building. Pretty quickly, it’s clear to us that the effects of Thanos’ snap are still being felt.
It’s not long before Hill and Fury themselves begin to disappear, but before they do, the latter uses a paging device of some sort to send out a message for help. As his body vanishes, it drops out of his hand and onto the floor, where the camera zooms in on the device, showing us that the message has been delivered.
While we don’t see the person on the receiving end of it, or what the message says, an emblem pops up on the screen which seemingly confirms that it’s been received. And that emblem belongs to none other than Captain Marvel. It’s a great tease of things to come, but it does leave us with a pretty pressing question: where has Carol Danvers been this whole time? And perhaps more importantly, why is Fury only calling on her now? After all, this is far from the first time Earth’s been in trouble.
Unfortunately, the answers we so desperately seek won’t arrive until next year, when Captain Marvel flies into theaters. But from what we know so far, we can at least begin to put some of the pieces together. For instance, Fury’s device which he uses to contact Carol looks pretty old, and likely comes from the 1990s, which is when the aforementioned film takes place.
As such, it stands to reason that perhaps the heroine gave it to Nick back then and told him to use it to contact her but only if it was an absolute emergency. Kind of like a last resort type thing. True, the Battle of New York, among other MCU events, have all been pretty dire situations, but Thanos is by far the biggest threat Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have ever faced and perhaps Fury knew that they wouldn’t be able to take him down without some additional help.
But that still begs the question: Where has Carol been for all these years?
