Does 'Captain Marvel' Hint at the Origin of the Avengers Initiative?

Earlier tonight, Marvel Studios released a fresh new look at Captain Marvel. The footage featured our first look at Skrulls making their appearance-changing transformations and included a line from a voice that Agents of SHIELD fans should instantly recognize.

Towards the end of the extended television spot, SHIELD agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) pipes up and asks somebody off-screen if they "think they can find others."

Though it's not entirely clear the exact situation Coulson is talking about, one's mind instantly gravitates towards the Avengers Initiative, a movement that Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) assigned Coulson in the earliest days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It should be noted that Fury says "She's just the beginning" immediately after Coulson's line. The line ends up fitting with Coulson's one-liner very well though it appears to be crafty editing from the Disney marketing squad. As Fury's "Beginning" line begins to wrap up, we see he's talking to the human version of Ben Mendelsohn's Talos.

Coulson got his MCU debut as he appeared alongside Robert Downey Jr., Pepper Potts, and company in Jon Favreau's Iron Man (2008), the film that kicked this all off. Throughout the movie and its follow-up, Coulson can be found scouting out Stark, trying to get him to join a SHIELD project called the Avengers Initiative.

While Fury's role appears much larger than first though, it's likely we'll see he and Coulson during some of their beginning days as SHIELD as they encounter alien life for the first time.

Admittedly, the timing does seem suspect. Captain Marvel reportedly takes place in the mid-1990s. According to the timeline of the MCU, the means Coulson and company end up waiting around a decade after the events of a Skrull invasion to form the Avengers. Of course, nothings stopping Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, and the writer's team that assembled for Captain Marvel from changing things up.

Captain Marvel stars Academy Award® winner Brie Larson (Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou (Korath), Lee Pace (Ronan), Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan (Minn-Erva), Algenis Perez Soto, Rune Temte, McKenna Grace, Kenneth Mitchell (Joseph Danvers), with Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson), and Jude Law.

Do you think Coulson was teasing the Avengers Initiative in the new Captain Marvel spot? If not, what else could he have been talking about? Let us know in the comments below.

Captain Marvel flies into theaters on March 8th, 2019, while Avengers: Endgame hits on May 3rd, 2019, followed by Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th, 2019.