Quantum Of Solitude: Is Captain Marvel Trapped In The Quantam Realm?

Over the weekend, fans were delighted to finally learn some of the secrets of Captain Marvel. We now know that the movie is set in the 1990s, with Brie Larson's hero teaming up with Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in an adventure that will presumably transform the future of the MCU. But here's the thing; if Captain Marvel gained her powers back in the twentieth century, where has she been ever since? Why didn't she get involved back when the Chitauri invaded? The questions became even more pressing when we learned that Captain Marvel won't be appearing in Avengers: Infinity War. It seems even the prospect of Thanos's invasion won't tempt the hero into making an appearance.

So how will Marvel explain away Carol Danvers's mysterious absence? It's possible that the explanation may lie in the Quantum Zone...

Captain Marvel Will Be Tied To The Quantum Zone

You're probably not familiar with Dr. Spiros Michalakis. He's one of #Marvel's advisers, a quantum physicist at the California Institute of Technology, and he's been heavily involved with supporting films such as Ant-Man and Doctor Strange. He's one of the scientists who, behind the scenes, has helped Marvel Studios firm up the rules for their more exotic concepts. He was particularly involved with developing the Quantum Realm, which is set to be crucial to Ant-Man and the Wasp.

In a recent interview with Inverse, Michalakis made a throwaway comment that the Quantum Realm will actually be important to Captain Marvel too. As he noted:

"[The Quantum Realm] is exciting for the future. 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 and all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe."

It makes sense; in the comics, Carol Danvers is actually the second hero to go by the code-name Captain Marvel. The first was a Kree warrior who visited Earth, and who was armed with powerful Quantum Bands. For a time, this Kree hero shared the body of teenager Rick Jones. Only one could control the body at a time, and the waiting consciousness would reside in the Negative Zone until they swapped round. It wouldn't take too much to substitute the Quantum Realm for Negative Zone.

While I'm not really expecting any body-sharing, it seems possible the Quantum Bands will actually appear in Captain marvel. Given we know the Quantum Realm will somehow figure in the film, the link seems too strong to be a coincidence.

Is This Why Captain Marvel Has Gone Missing?

In Ant-Man, we learn that it's possible for someone to get trapped in the Quantum Realm. We can also be pretty confident that those who experience this can survive for a number of years; after all, Michelle Pfeiffer is playing Janet Van Dyne, the original Wasp who became trapped in the Quantum Realm, in Ant-Man and the Wasp. So could Captain Marvel wind up trapped in the Quantum Realm?

If that's the case, then it would neatly explain why Carol Danvers hasn't been saving the world since the '90s. Like Steve Rogers, she's a woman out of time, and it would be down to Marvel to decide how to bring her back in the present day. With several heroes tampering with the Quantum Realm, most notably Ant-Man and Doctor Strange, there are a lot of options.

Having Captain Marvel trapped in the Quantum Realm would essentially mirror a plot that ran in the comics, back in the early 2000s. There, the original Captain Marvel apparently returned, revealing that he'd encountered "a wrinkle in time" that had transported him into the present-day Marvel universe. In the end, though, it actually turned out that this version was a Skrull impostor! It's possible that Marvel Studios intend to adapt that idea, although I think it's unlikely the new franchise lead will become a Skrull. Instead, Carol Danvers could well be lost in the Quantum Realm, and somehow get out. Marvel may even choose to tease her return in an end-credits scene, say one in Ant-Man and the Wasp, and then follow it up with the story of how she became trapped in the first place.

Right now, this is just a theory; but it's a fun one, and it makes sense. Certainly Carol Danvers has to be somewhere between the 1990s and the present day; her absence in Infinity War in particular will be glaring. This fan theory fits pretty well, tying in with comments from Marvel's advisers, and from the studio's clear growing interest in the Quantum Realm. With the #MCU's version of Captain Marvel already tied to the Quantum Realm, it's possible that she winds up lost in time, only to return and become the most powerful hero of them all.

[Source: Inverse]