We are less than two months away from the release of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first female led film, Captain Marvel. Set in 1995, this movie will not only introduce fans to the most powerful hero in the MCU, but also help define the history of the MCU and what actually gets the ball rolling that leads to the Phase 3 Finale of Avengers: Endgame. However, as more information about the film makes its way online, we are starting to find some potential plot holes that could possibly derail the already convoluted timeline of the most successful shared movie universe ever. However, there may be possible solutions for these plot holes that can keep everything intact.
Part of the problem with these plot holes had to do with the early stages of the MCU. While there was an overarching thread that connected each film, directors and writers of each individual film had a lot of freedom to take the story in whatever direction they personally felt like going. This freedom is great for the film itself, allowing these artists to put their own stamp on things, but, in a heavily connected universe such as the MCU, it creates continuity issues aplenty. Case in point: Iron Man 2.
In Iron Man 2, Tony Stark is dying from the arc reactor in his chest that is meant to keep him alive. At a moment when Stark has seemingly accepting his mortal fate, Nick Fury approaches him with a possible solution. One that his father actually started decades prior. In his speech to motivate Stark, Fury talks about knowing Howard Stark better than even Tony does, revealing that his father was a founding member of S.H.I.E.L.D. But, here’s the rub. Howard Stark was killed by the Winter Soldier in 1991.
However, Captain Marvel takes place in 1995, 4 years after his death. And, it’s been said in the plot synopsis that Nick Fury is just a lowly desk jockey, on the verge on giving up at S.H.I.E.L.D. But, how would a low level paper pusher have any kind of interaction with one of the agency’s most predominant figures, much less be able to garner a close relationship? If he’s behind a desk in ‘95, he definitely wouldn’t have been in a place to work with Stark years prior.
There are a few possibilities here. The most likely one is that Fury lied. It is well known throughout the course of the MCU that Fury has zero issues with lying to any and everyone. He lied about Coulson having his vintage Captain America cards on him when Loki killed him. He even went so far as to permanently ruin the cards by putting blood on them, for effect (he even lied about Coulson being alive, keeping that secret as well).
He kept secrets upon secrets, trusting no one. He had Agent 13 pose as Cap’s neighbor. He lied about the Tesseract weapons project. As Stark so eloquently put it in The Avengers, “He’s THE spy. His secrets have secrets!” So, instead of having an actual relationship with Howard Stark, Fury could have simply been through all the files and videos that he eventually gives to Tony and understood the daddy issues he was having, and thus exploited that to get him back on track.
The other option here is that Marvel is lying. For as much as Fury has lied to the heroes of the MCU, Marvel has lied a 1,000 times more to us fans. From false rumors to fake stories to changed scenes in trailers, Marvel is a masterful expert at keeping secrets. So, maybe the “Fury is a lowly desk jockey” rhetoric is nothing more than a diversion of Fury’s true position in S.H.I.E.L.D.
Maybe, he even plays up this ruse to Carol Danvers, to get close to her and what is actually going on. But, we can’t put it past Marvel to be lying in their character description.
Another plot hole comes to us from the first Avengers film. In the tense argument scene before the attack on the Helicarrier, Fury states that S.H.I.E.L.D. began making weapons from the Tesseract because of Thor. Thor, a year prior, had arrived and had a battle with the Destroyer in a small New Mexico town, and it made national news that we were no longer alone in the universe. But, if Fury encounters both Danvers as well as the Skrulls, wouldn’t he have already known of aliens and their vast array of abilities above our own?
And, while not everyone watching the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show, they also address the fact that the agency has had an alien corpse in their possession since WWII, so the agency as a whole has known for at least 70 years that aliens existed. So, what’s the deal here?
Again, this can be explained. While S.H.I.E.L.D. has been aware of aliens for decades, the public hasn’t. While we’re sure to have some public bouts between Captain Marvel and a Skrull (i.e. punching the old lady on the bus), but Skrulls are shapeshifters and most likely stay in an Earthly shape in front of the public. The agency has been working on countermeasures certainly since retrieving the Tesseract from the ocean, but they only ramped up the Project: Pegasus work after Thor exposed aliens to the whole world.
So, this could easily explain the plot hole from that line. While S.H.I.E.L.D. worked in secret on means to deal with a possible alien invasion, now that the world is aware of “Gods from the sky” like Thor, the world’s governments would want some kind of definitive answer, causing their efforts to move into high gear.
The last plot hole is definitely the hardest one to find an answer to explain it. As we discussed earlier, we’re getting a younger, fledgling Nick Fury in S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, not the Director, in 1995 when Captain Marvel takes place. However, if you look at Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Alexander Pierce talks about naming Fury as Director, five years after an event in Bogata. While all of this still works within the context of the MCU continuity thus far, it’s one particular picture that Pierce shares with Captain America of him swearing in Fury as Director.
The key thing to notice is that Fury has both eyes. But, the prevailing theory is that Nick will lose his eye in Captain Marvel. If he loses his eye in 1995, how does he have both eyes years later? This one is pretty unexplainable, or is it?
Well, this one may be on us fans. There has been no actual confirmation that Fury in fact loses his eye in this movie. We all just assumed because of the scratches above his eyes that he’ll lose it in this movie. I’m at fault as well. But what if he doesn’t? What if it comes later? While many people think Goose the cat is the one to do it, we just don’t know. So, this plot hole isn’t actually a plot hole at all. That is, until we see the film and know for sure.
Hopefully, these explanations alleviate the concern with these plot holes. In the end, we don’t even know if these are actually plot holes or not when Captain Marvel hits theaters on March 8th.
What do you think of these potential plot holes? Let us know in the comments below!