Captain Marvel 2 Will Struggle To Explain Carol Danvers’ Missing MCU Stories

Captain Marvel’s upcoming sequel, The Marvels, will likely struggle to explain the gaps in Carol Danvers’ MCU history. The film will star Carol Danvers, continuing her MCU story where Avengers: Endgame left off, along with the now-superpowered adult Monica Rambeau, and MCU newcomer Kamala Khan (continuing her story from 2022’s Ms. Marvel). With a plot that may spend most of its time focusing on the three heroes’ futures, The Marvels may have difficulty exploring the missing adventures of Carol Danvers during her MCU time skips.

Little is known of The Marvels’ plot, other than the fact that it will continue the stories of three MCU heroes and unite them. Monica Rambeau was reintroduced to the MCU as an adult in WandaVision, where her repeated exposure to Wanda Maximoff’s “Hex” gave her superpowers. Kamala Khan’s origin will likely be changed to separate her from the Inhumans, and The Marvels will continue to characterize her following her origin in Ms. Marvel.

Carol Danvers has several significant gaps in her MCU history. Captain Marvel depicts her origin story and Endgame explains that she was defending populated worlds that lack heroes like The Avengers. Furthermore, Danvers, like the other surviving Avengers, may have additional untold adventures in the five years between the death of the mainstream timeline’s Thanos and the Time Heist that helped the heroes reacquire the Infinity Stones. Filling in these gaps and completing the history of Captain Marvel will be difficult in The Marvels, given its three protagonists and the plot likely focusing on the trio’s future rather than Danvers’ past.

Carol Danvers’ adventures during Endgame’s five-year time skip are easily hand waved, especially considering that stories of every other surviving Avengers member remain largely untold as well. Danvers traveled to other worlds and helped them deal with the loss of half their population, which she continued to do during the time heist. The real-world reason for her general absence in Endgame is that the film was meant to be the finale for the original Avengers members, so the plot, accordingly, focused on them rather than newcomers.

Carol Danvers will be one of three heroes in The Marvels, so the plot will have to evenly distribute time and attention between them, making the gaps in Danvers’ history difficult to explain. It wouldn’t be impossible, however. The Marvels can use the unexplored portions of Danvers’ superhero career to unite the three heroes. Perhaps Ms. Marvel will end with a new threat that may be too great for the fledgling superhero, whose origins are tied to one of Carol Danvers’ unseen adventures.

There is also a chance that a cosmic entity who became Carol Danvers’ enemy strikes at Earth at the end of Ms. Marvel, bringing Captain Marvel back to her home world. This threat would ultimately unite Danvers, Rambeau, and Khan, similar to Loki’s threat leading to The Avengers banding together in 2012. This would partially explain at least one of Carol Danvers’ missing MCU stories without negatively impacting the flow of The Marvels.