Captain Marvel's Infinity War Pager Debuts in Teaser Trailer

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Captain Marvel Trailer Features a Key Infinity War Callback

By Tim Adams

Published Sep 18, 2018

A handheld device used by a young Nick Fury in the Captain Marvel trailer looks very similar to one in the post-credits scene of Infinity War.

Captain Marvel may not have physically appeared in Avengers: Infinity War, but that doesn't mean her presence wasn't felt in the ensemble film. A post-credits scene put the spotlight on Nick Fury and Maria Hill as they discovered the fallout of Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet-powered finger-snap, which erased half of life in the galaxy.

Hill and Fury were two of the Mad Titan's casualties, but before Fury completely turned into dust, he went into a bag in the back of his vehicle to pull out an oversized pager. As he turned into dust the pager dropped to the ground, with the camera zooming in on the display to reveal the logo of Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel.

Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel will take place in the '90s, which is where Nick Fury and Carol Danvers first meet. The studio will use special effects to de-age Samuel L. Jackson to show the early days of S.H.I.E.L.D. The duo will work together to stop an alien invasion from the Kree and Skrulls, and the first teaser trailer for Captain Marvel introduces a similar pager to the one featured in Infinity War.

If you compare the pager held by Fury in the Captain Marvel trailer to the one seen in the Infinity War post-credits scene, there are a few notable differences. The Infinity War pager has added attachments and a case that make it much larger than the one from the trailer. By the time Captain Marvel comes to a close, it is possible Fury adds some extra items to it, or those additions may come in the 30 years between Captain Marvel and Infinity War.

Another explanation for the pager differences could be as simple as them not being the same. For example, if Fury is using the Infinity War pager to contact Captain Marvel, then she must also have a pager of her own to receive the message. Fury's Captain Marvel pager could be passed on to Carol to be answered in Avengers 4, which will mark her second appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as she teams up with Earth's Mightiest Heroes to take on Thanos yet again.

The Captain Marvel trailer made sure to give extra attention to the mysterious pager, putting the focus on it in not one, but two separate instances. Marvel Studios clearly knows fans are curious to learn more about the device, and we may have gotten a clue in the new MCU trailer.

Fury is shown typing the words "WITH TARGET" on the pager, but who is the target in question? Fury could be typing this to someone at S.H.I.E.L.D. after making contact with Captain Marvel, or it could also be in reference to a Skrull on Earth. The alien race has the ability to shape-shift, allowing them to hide in plain sight as undercover agents among humans. One scene of Captain Marvel punching an older woman on a public form of transportation could be one of these Skrull agents.

As significant as the Infinity War post-credits scene was to lay the Carol Danvers Easter egg, we feel pretty confident the pager is bound to have an origin story in Captain Marvel. The film may even go on to reveal why there are physical differences between the pagers in Infinity War and Captain Marvel. After all, the MCU tagline is, "It's All Connected."

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck from a script they wrote with Liz Flahive, Carly Mensch, Meg LeFauve, Nicole Perlman, and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Captain Marvel stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Jude Law as Mar-Vell, Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, Djimon Hounsou as Korath the Pursuer, Gemma Chan as Minn-Erva, Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, and Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau. The film arrives on March 8, 2019.