Can Captain Marvel Time Travel & Other Questions From That Scene

Warning: Spoilers for Captain Marvel ahead. If you’ve been paying attention to the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the last 10 years, you know that all the Marvel movies are connected together, and Captain Marvel's Avengers post credits scene proves it isn’t about to break that tradition. It also might be the most important Marvel movie to tie into all the other Marvel movies, because it leads directly into the end-all be-all for this phase of movies, Avengers: Endgame. Even though the movie is set in the past — 1995, to be exact — the events of the film lead directly into Endgame in more ways than one. We actually see this happen during the first of two end credit scenes during the new film, where Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel appears to time travel and is suddenly standing next to Captain America.

As you fondly remember, the end of Avengers: Infinity war finds Nick Fury sending Captain Marvel an SOS message, via a beeper. He manages to get his message out to her, wherever she is in the cosmos, even though he slowly starting to turn to dust. Towards the end of Captain Marvel, Carol actually hands Fury this beeper, and it’s just a regular beeper that she’s updated so it has a ridiculously long range (the two have a cute running joke about beepers in the movie, and also it’s 1995, so it’s not like Carol could be like, “Hey if you need me, just Snapchat me in the future”). Carol tells Fury to use it in case of emergency, and 20 years later, thanks to Thanos’ snap, we actually see him use it.

Captain Marvel ends in 1995, but the first end credit scene of the movie is clearly present day — because this scene includes a frantic looking (bearded) Steve Rogers, Natasha, Bruce Banner, and Rhody. They’ve got Captain Marvel’s pager, and Bruce has hooked it up to some giant battery hoping to keep the signal going... to whoever it is they’re calling. See, these remaining Avengers don’t yet know about Captain Marvel, so they’re not really sure who they’re trying to call, if anyone (let alone if this pager can be trusted). In the scene, the beeper dies, and Natasha starts to camly freak out about it. But, before anyone has time to try anything else to get it back up and running, Captain Marvel is standing with our foursome, demanding to know Fury’s whereabouts.

Pause for cheers, because Captain Marvel is finally with the Avengers, something that’s been teased for years.

This scene is, without a doubt, a small snippet of a larger scene in Endgame, the same way that the end credit scene in the first Ant-Man was just a clip from Captain America: Civil War. Honestly, that’s all we really need to get pumped for the upcoming movie, and Captain Marvel’s chance to team up with everybody else. The scene also majorly teases what’s going to happen when she does finally show up.

It’s safe to assume that Captain Marvel shows up early on in Endgame, if only because Steve still has his beard in this scene. From the Endgame trailers we’ve seen, we know Steve shaves (but we still don’t know why he shaves, but we’ll mourn his beard another time). Also, it’s clearly early on in the movie, because if we’re an hour into Endgame and everyone is still trying to crack Fury’s pager, we’re in trouble. How the Avengers got their hands on his pager to begin with, who knows? But it obviously works because it manages to locate and call Captain Marvel.

Captain Marvel literally just appears in the room, like, poof. Does she have the ability to apparate like she graduated from Hogwarts? It’s a possibility, because it’s doubtful she rang the doorbell (like Scott Lang) and asked to come inside. We also don’t know where Captain Marvel came from in the first place — like, was she out in space or somewhere closer to Earth when the pager message came through? There are a thousand different ways she could arrive at the Avenger’s campus, but from this quick scene, it’s impossible to tell.

In the latest Endgame trailer, Natasha narrates to someone Thanos’ grand plan and how he succeeded. There are really only two Avengers out there who don’t know what’s happening: Captain Marvel and Scott Lang. Judging from Natasha’s tone, she’s probably not talking to Scott. She’s more than likely explaining what happened to Captain Marvel, to bring her up to speed so she’s in the loop.

Just like Captain Marvel has been teased for the past few years, time travel has also been teased in regards to Endgame. There’s never been any concrete information about time travel and Endgame, but the idea has been floating around. That’s only been backed up by Samuel L. Jackson’s comments about how Captain Marvel is the only Avenger who can time travel. When Captain Marvel shows up in the end credits teaser, her hair's a little bit longer, signifying the passing of time. But what time? Is Captain Marvel’s pager calling her present day, or has it located her in the past, circa 1995-ish, to come back and save the Avengers? The scene cuts before there’s any more dialogue, so we’re going to have to wait and see.

Back in Infinity War, Doctor Strange teased that there’s one timeline where the Avengers actually defeat Thanos. Even if Captain Marvel didn’t time travel to show up with Steve and Natasha right here and now, she might time travel (or help everyone time travel) to get to where they need to be in order to win.