WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp, in theaters now.
Where is Captain Marvel?
That's the question every Marvel fan is asking. We've known for some time that Brie Larson will bring the character to life, and we know Cap's solo film will explore the her origin in the '90s. But then, at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, Nicky Fury sent out a distress signal to present day Carol Danvers, just before the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. crumbled to ash as a result of Thanos' reality-altering finger snap. Captain Marvel is coming to help in the fight against the Mad Titan -- that much we know. After all, early concept art of Avengers 4 has shown that Captain Marvel will stand alongside the remaining Avengers to save all of reality.
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But where has the character been all this time? If she started her superhero career in the '90s, what happened to her, and why hasn't she been seen, much less mentioned, even one time in all the years the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been developing since it launched with 2008's Iron Man? Since the character is known to operate in the far reaches of space, most fans assumed that the character has been away somewhere deep in the cosmos, and that she will return in her time of need. But what if that's not the case at all? What if the character is instead connected to the Quantum Realm? It's certainly possible, especially given what we just learned about the microscopic realm in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
When we study the clues that have been given these past few years, it seems more and more likely Captain Marvel will be revealed to be tied to the Quantum Realm. After all, all of this gained traction when Dr. Spiros Michalakis was brought on-board the production of Ant-Man as a scientific consultant. In a 2017 interview with Inverse, the doctor revealed that there was a connection between Ant-Man, Doctor Strange (which we kind of figured out a while back) and, of all people, Captain Marvel. "I think they did a great job describing [the multiverse]," the quantum physicist said. "Where these other states exist concurrently with yours. You don’t have to go somewhere else. It’s not like there’s another bubble universe out there, and you can travel to it or something."
At the time, Michalakis was referring to Doctor Strange, but seeing as how Captain Marvel is also connected, this makes us wonder if Carol Danvers could be trapped in the Quantum Realm, if not in another universe entirely. The doctor wouldn't elaborate specifically on the subject of Danvers, teasing only that "there are different ways that some of these ideas appear on-screen in a few years. Not just for Ant-Man, but also for Captain Marvel."
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But what, exactly, is in the Quantum Realm? Ant-Man and the Wasp took us deeper into this microscopic reality than ever before, by going past the void that we glimpsed in the original Ant-Man film. When Hank Pym reaches the depths of the realm to save his lost wife Janet, we see the infinite possibilities at the heart of this world. There is much we don't know about it, but we do see that it's bursting with energy we can't imagine to comprehend. Better yet, Janet Van Dyne was somehow able to develop superpowers because of her time in this place. Could this also be where Captain Marvel gets her massive, planet-moving powers from?
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The plot only thickens when taking into consideration what Ant-Man and the Wasp director Peyton Reed had to say about the Quantum Realm. In an interview with io9, Reed confirmed that there were teases to the future of the MCU hidden in the Quantum Realm. Much like the first Ant-Man film hid a frame where Janet Van Dyne's Wasp could be seen, the sequel appears to hide the same types of nods to future stories. "Like the first movie there are clues in the Quantum Realm to other possibilities and things," the director said. "We have definitely laid some groundwork for some stuff down there... similar to what we did in the first movie."
What could be hidden in the sequel's Quantum Realm scenes? Captain Marvel is the only upcoming Marvel film before Avengers 4, meaning that it's definitely possible that Carol Danvers' solo film may tie into the Quantum Realm in some shape or form. On top of that, we now know that Ant-Man and the Wasp ends with Scott Lang trapped in the Quantum Realm, with no form of escape. Could this be where Captain Marvel comes in? If she has also been trapped there, or in an alternate reality, then perhaps she will be the key to saving Scott, and to finding a way to defeat Thanos.
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Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and Captain Marvel all share a mysterious connection to the Quantum Realm. The Sorcerer Supreme was the one who foresaw the only winning scenario out of millions of possible outcomes. Did Strange see Scott trapped in quantum space, and did he see the arrival of Captain Marvel? It seems more than likely. If the three are linked together, and if this very space holds secrets to the future of the MCU, then there is a strong chance that Captain Marvel may be trapped, directly or indirectly, in the Quantum Realm. Perhaps she is fighting another battle after being swallowed by a black hole, and perhaps she even crossed paths with Janet Van Dyne before.
As with everything else Marvel, there are an infinite number of possibilities, and the studios' interconnected universe only paves the way for bigger and better things to come. And what is coming next? Oh right, Captain Marvel, of course.
In theaters now, director Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man and The Wasp stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Judy Greer, David Dastmalchian, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, Hannah John-Kamen, Randall Park and Walton Goggins.