SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War, in theaters now.

Make no mistake: Captain Marvel is well on her way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ahead of her solo movie, which arrives early next year, Nick Fury put out the call to her in Avengers: Infinity War after Thanos killed half of all life in the universe. However, since Captain Marvel is set in the 90s and she has been noticeably absent since then, that begs an important question: Where has she been all this time? We think we may know the answer: out in the multiverse.

First, let's go over that Avengers: Infinity War post-credits scene. As we now know, Thanos the Mad Titan was successful in uniting the Infinity Stones, which made him the most powerful being in the universe. This enabled him to carry out his one true goal of killing half of all life in the universe, in an insane effort to "save" the universe from using up its finite resources.

So, in the post-credits scene, Nick Fury and his right-hand woman Maria Hill began to feel the affects of that. As he witnessed several people turn to dust, including Hill, he immediately went for his bag. He pulled out a strange device that looked like a modified pager. As he himself began to disintegrate, he sent a signal. When it finally connected, it revealed Captain Marvel's logo, heralding her arrival in both her solo film and the as-yet untitled Avengers 4.

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Since then, many fans have speculated that Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, has been in space all this time -- and for good reason. The character is intrinsically linked to the Kree, an alien species introduced to the MCU in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy. In the comics and likely in the film, Carol received her powers when her DNA was meshed with that of the Kree soldier Mar-Vell. Further, the movie is confirmed to tackle The Kree-Skrull War, which will find Carol "caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races."

It's entirely feasible, then, that Carol has spent the past two decades in outer space. However, that doesn't quite explain why she will stay so young between the next few MCU films. That is to say, Brie Larson will fill the role for both Captain Marvel and Avengers 4, but we don't know how or why she hasn't aged between those two films. If she spent that time in the multiverse, though, that could answer this critical question.

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The first glimpse of the multiverse appeared in 2015's Ant-Man, when Scott Lang went subatomic; that is, when he shrank beyond his suit’s limitations. As he continued to grow smaller and smaller, he passed through the microverse, where — in original Ant-Man Hank Pym’s own words — “all concepts of time and space become irrelevant.” If Carol is in a dimension like the quantum realm, a year could pass in her alternate reality while 20 pass in the MCU.

Though Carol won't necessarily go to the quantum realm, it's important to remember that the quantum realm is part of a larger multiverse. Evangeline Lilly, who plays Hope van Dyne, aka Wasp, confirmed this in an interview late last year. Perhaps more intriguingly, she suggested that -- in her character's exploration of the quantum realm --  Ant-Man and the Wasp will burst the mutliverse wide open: "In Ant-Man and the Wasp, they are trying everything in their power to safely enter the quantum realm and return back from it because they have evidence from the first film that Scott Lang was able to do that. If he can do it, why can’t we? If we do succeed in Ant-Man and the Wasp, then that does open a whole entire new multiverse to enter into and play around in."

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What's more, 2016's Doctor Strange further expanded the multiverse. It is from the multiverse that Strange derives his power; by manipulating it, he is able to bend space — and, in the conclusion, time. At one point, the Ancient One pushed his astral form through it in order to open his eyes to the unlimited possibilities of the multiverse. There, he encountered bizarre, neon-colored landscapes and Steve Ditko-inspired psychedelic visions, confirming the existence of multiple alternate dimensions.

In February, Doctor Strange actor Benedict Cumberbatch teased that the MCU is about to undergo a massive multiverse expansion. "What we’ve seen happen within the Marvel Cinematic Universe is this ever-expanding coterie of superheroes,” he said at the time. “And I think now we’re at the stage where this universe, even within our world, has gotten quite crowded and it’s just about to explode into other dimensions.”

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Although both Lilly and Cumberbatch teased a wider multiverse just prior to its release, Avengers: Infinity War certainly didn't deliver on that promise. That suggests, then, that one or more of the announced MCU films will. At the time of writing, that leaves just Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel and Avengers 4. Since every film in the MCU is connected, that means a multiverse expansion could happen in any one of those films and extend to the others.

If Captain Marvel is in alternate universe, that would explain why she's been completely absent for the past ten years. This would also excuse her lack of involvement in the events of The Avengers or the galaxy-spanning Guardians of the Galaxy, which directly dealt with the Kree. Further, it would also explain why she won't look much older in Avengers 4 than she did in Captain Marvel. If this is the case, it remains to be seen where exactly she went, why she headed into the multiverse in the first place and what, exactly, she's fighting. Hopefully, for the sake of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, she isn't in the MCU's equivalent of the Negative Zone holding back a villain like Annihilus.

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Captain Marvel stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Jude Law as Walter Lawson/Mar-Vell, Gemma Chan as Minn-Erva, Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, Djimon Honsou as Korath, and Ben Mendelsohn and Lashana Lynch in undisclosed roles. The film is targeted for release on March 8, 2019.