WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Avengers: Endgame, in theaters now.

The Marvel Universe has no shortage of superhero captains defending it from all manner of threats: Captain America, Captain Marvel, Captain Universe. The list goes on. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe has two heroic captains in Steve Rogers and Carol Danvers, Avengers: Endgame has a major tease for a third captain potentially making his way into the MCU soon: Captain Britain.

While Captain America and Iron Man are in 1970 to recover the Tesseract and Pym Particles from a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility in New Jersey, Steve finds himself hiding in the office of his former flame and current S.H.I.E.L.D. director, Peggy Carter. Steve is then surprised by Peggy herself, as she walks into an adjoining room with an associate, informing him that an operative named Braddock hasn't checked in. While the figure remains unseen, it is potentially an Easter egg referencing Captain Britain's civilian alter ego, Brian Braddock.

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Rumors of Captain Britain's introduction into the MCU have gone around for several years now, with reports surfacing in 2016 that producers were putting together a pitch for Marvel Television starring the character for a proposed television series. The following year, while promoting Spider-Man: Homecoming, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige admitted that there had been discussions about possibly introducing Captain Britain into the MCU, without elaborating if it would be on television or a feature film.

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Created by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe in 1976's Captain Britain Weekly #1 for Marvel's British-exclusive publisher Marvel UK, the character drew heavily from British mythology, particularly Arthurian legend. The character would be introduced two years later to American audiences in Marvel Team-Up #65 by Claremont and John Byrne, with the character temporarily becoming Peter Parker's roommate while the two are students at New York's Empire State University.

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Brian Braddock is young man from England with a younger sister named Elizabeth, who would eventually join the X-Men as Psylocke. After his parents are killed in an apparent laboratory accident, Brian is attacked by a villain known as the Reaver and barely escapes with his life by motorcycle.

Brian is gravely injured after crashing the motorcycle during his escape, but he is approached by the wizard Merlin and tasked with becoming Britain's newest champion. Merlin offers him either the legendary Sword of Might or the Amulet of Right. Brian chooses the amulet, which allows him to transform into Captain Britain, granting him superhuman strength and speed and the ability to fly, as well as generate energy beams and forcefields.

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Eventually, Brian learns of the existence of the Marvel Multiverse, defended by alternate universe versions of Captain Britain who form an interdimensional peacekeeping organization known as the Captain Britain Corps. Brian eventually founded his own British team on Earth, Excalibur, while serving as its leader with his wife, Meggan. Later, Brian would join a top secret British intelligence agency, the MI-13, led by Pete Wisdom, defending the United Kingdom from threats including Dracula and Skrulls.

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Doctor Strange introduced the supernatural to the MCU, while Avengers: Endgame revealed the existence of an MCU Multiverse as a series of divergent timelines and realities, so the concept of Captain Britain and a Captain Britain Corps. could certainly appear in the MCU. The biggest hurdle to the character's introduction would be his relative obscurity with non-comic book readers, as well as being so closely identified with the United Kingdom, though the MCU has overcome similar obstacles before.

Captain Britain Mark Brooks

Interestingly, the possible Easter egg in Endgame suggests a version of the character is active in 1970, which would make him older than traditional depictions. However, this could be circumvented by the mentioned character being Brian Braddock's father, or making him age significantly slower like Captain Marvel, albeit due to Merlin's magic instead of the cosmic powers of the Tesseract.

As Marvel Studios moves beyond the Infinity Saga and introduces a new generation of superheroes into the MCU, Captain Britain would be a welcome addition to the growing library of properties either on television or in the films. Braddock family may play a pivotal role in Phase Four of the MCU, given the potential reference in Endgame and the acquisition of Psylocke from Fox.

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Endgame stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Don Cheadle as War Machine, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Danai Gurira as Okoye and Bradley Cooper as Rocket, with Gwyneth Paltrow Pepper Potts, Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Benedict Wong as Wong, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Josh Brolin as Thanos.