Why Captain Marvel Has Been Missing From the MCU Until 'Avengers: Endgame' Revealed

Captain Marvel's first adventure in the MCU is finally in theaters, giving fans the opportunity to learn about the origins of the storied franchise's latest hero. We know that Carol Danvers will next appear in Avengers: Endgame, assisting in the defeat of Thanos, though this movie will take place more than 20 years after Captain Marvel. So where has Carol been all this time, and why wasn't she around to help the Avengers when Thanos attacked the first two times?

Well, part of the answer to that question lies in Captain Marvel itself, while the rest of the puzzle was solved on Thursday when a scene from Endgame was played for Disney shareholders at their annual meeting in St. Louis. The footage, which sadly wasn't released online, showed Captain Marvel interacting with the other Avengers, and revealing what she's been up to for the last two decades.

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame! Keep reading at your own risk...

So, we learn at the end of Captain Marvel that Carol leaves Earth to help the Skrulls find a safe home after theirs was destroyed, but that's only the beginning of her journey. There's no telling how long that took, but it likely wasn't a 20 year mission, so Carol has been undertaking some other projects in the time since.

Captain Marvel's post-credits scene shows her appearing to the rest of the Avengers for the first time after they find Nick Fury's pager. That sets up the footage shown at the Disney shareholders meeting, in which she and the team discuss how to find and defeat Thanos.

Scott Ladewig, who attended the meeting this year, took to Twitter to share a description of the footage that was revealed to the shareholders. Apparently, according to Ladewig's description, James Rhodes asked Captain Marvel the question that we've all been wondering: "Where have you been?"

Rhodey asks where she was because they could have used her before. Cap M says a lot of other planets out there need help and they don't have Avengers like Earth has. Thor gets up from sitting quietly in back, walks up to Cap M, and summons his axe...

— Scott Ladewig (@Ladewig) March 7, 2019

Carol tells the other Avengers that she's been moving through space and helping other planets that needed it, since very few have a group like the Avengers to defend them. So she's aware of the existence of the Avengers, and known that they would be keeping Earth safe in her stead, giving her the opportunity to help elsewhere.

Unfortunately, she stayed away a little too long, as Thanos has already defeated the Avengers and killed half of the universe. Now, it will be up to her to lead the team to victory the second time around.

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