Based on the post-credits teaser for Avengers: Infinity War, Nick Fury is banking on Captain Marvel playing an important role in the fight against Thanos, and sure enough, there’s plenty of reason to believe that Carol Danvers will be of great significance beyond her film debut. But while the build-up seems to be framing the star of Captain Marvel as an important player in Avengers 4, one Reddit user thinks that the Russo Brothers may be about to pull one subversive twist on us.
According to this theory, Carol has been strangely absent from the set photos for the upcoming Infinity War sequel, with the spotlight instead going to pre-established figures like Tony Stark and Scott Lang. What’s more, while Avengers 4 will be paving the way for what’s to come in Marvel’s Phase 4, the focus will likely be more on resolving the arcs of some of the franchise’s longest-running characters, giving Phase 1 Avengers like Captain America the send-offs they deserve.
This leads the Redditor to question where this brand new Captain could possibly fit into a film that already looks to be bursting at the seams with more familiar heroes. The solution offered is that Carol will be put out of action for much of movie’s runtime. Specifically, it’s speculated that Fury’s message to the character will go unheeded, as a post-credits scene of Captain Marvel will show the titular heroine turn to dust in Thanos’ snap. It will only be after the original Avengers find a way to reverse this genocidal event that she comes back into the fray, perhaps in time for the final showdown against the Mad Titan.
If Marvel Studios really do have such a subversion of expectations lined up for next year’s releases, then they’re sure putting up a convincing façade to persuade us otherwise. But either way, we’ll see what surprising developments Captain Marvel has in store when it hits theaters on March 8th, 2019, followed by Avengers 4 on May 3rd.
