Spoilers ahead for Captain Marvel, all the way through!
Ever since Thanos snapped his big purple fingers and wiped out half the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Avengers: Infinity War, fans have been speculating about how his actions might be reversed in Avengers: Endgame.
So when Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige teased the fact that Captain Marvel (played by Brie Larson) would be the most powerful hero in the MCU, it seemed obvious that she would be the key to defeating Thanos.
Eyyyyyyy!
After all, she wasn’t around when the evil gem-hoarder won the first time, and she’s crucially been introduced in her own movie not two months before the release of Avengers: Endgame. She’s the main point of difference between the first fight against Thanos and the second (well, there’s also Scott ‘Ant-Man’ Lang and Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye – but that’s a story for another time).
Captain Marvel confirmed a lot of speculation about just how powerful Carol Danvers is, and there’s no doubt she’s only become more powerful in the intervening time since the ‘90s-set events of that movie. That in itself should be enough to make Thanos start shaking in his giant space-boots.
But an interesting revelation in Captain Marvel could make Carol’s edge even stronger.
Go on…
In the movie, we learn that Carol’s superpowers are actually derived from the Tesseract. The explosion she’s caught up in that forever changes her DNA is caused by Yon-Rogg’s attack on the Tesseract-powered engine built by Kree scientist Mar-Vell.
A quick refresher on the Tesseract: it’s a super important object in the MCU, playing a key role in multiple movies, most significantly in Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers.
It houses the Space Stone, which, as its name suggests, is imbued with the power to manipulate space. It can create portals from one universe to another, which is how Red Skull got yeeted to Vormir (home of the Soul Stone) at the end of The First Avenger.
The Space Stone-generated explosion likely gave Carol herself this power, if her unexpected appearance back on Earth at the Avengers headquarters in the mid-credits scene of Captain Marvel is anything to go by.
CAPTAIN MARVEL
MID? CREDITS? SCENE?
GOT ME LIKE pic.twitter.com/vtWks5UqAE— ChrisEvans Reactions (@CEvansReacts) March 8, 2019
Significantly, the Space Stone is also the first stone we see Thanos get his hands on in Avengers: Infinity War, when he attacks the Asgardians and obtains the Tesseract from Loki. If he’s to be defeated in Avengers: Endgame, it makes sense that the Space Stone will be a turning point in the fight against him somehow.
Carol’s Space Stone-powered abilities aren’t just important in themselves, but they might also mean she knows a lot about the stone – how it works and, critically, how it can be manipulated. Maybe she is still connected to it and will be able to manipulate it herself, perhaps without even touching it.
HER POWER.
Or maybe it’ll all come down to the team travelling back in time (as many fans believe), and Carol’s knowledge of the Space Stone’s whereabouts in the ‘90s will be crucial to retrieving it in that time period and preventing Thanos from ever getting it in the first place.
No matter how it happens, one thing’s for sure – Carol Danvers has changed the game, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
