'Captain Marvel' Theory: Carol Danvers Inspired an Important SHIELD Program

Captain Marvel might become the Avengers’ greatest weapon against Thanos in Avengers 4, but a new theory about Carol Danvers’ Captain Marvel adventure set in the ‘90s assumes that she’ll help reshape the entire focus of S.H.I.E.L.D. for the decades that follow.

On Tuesday night, just hours after the first Captain Marvel trailer was unleashed upon the world, redditor CarlWheeser15 posted an intriguing new theory to the /r/FanTheories subreddit that ties Carol Danvers directly to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Phil Coulson. The trailer suggests that Danvers is dealing with memory loss, so this theory implies that the Kree might’ve deliberately tampered with her memory so they could use her as a weapon. And that inspired what’s known as Project T.A.H.I.T.I.

“I’d suggest the Kree used their tech to deliberately wipe her memories,” the fan writes. “When Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. learn of this, they’re probably intrigued, as we already know of them using alien tech with questionable intentions.”

By the first Avengers movie, the organization is already trying to use the Tesseract as a power source for weapons. So it makes sense that they’d spend years tinkering with alien technology. Furthermore, this probably means that “Carol Danvers is where S.H.I.E.L.D. got the idea for the TAHITI program, made to revive a fallen Avenger.”

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. does reveal in Season 1 that Project T.A.H.I.T.I. was a program created in 2009 and overseen by Agent Coulson. S.H.I.E.L.D. used a super-old Kree corpse to synthesize drugs that could induce rapid regeneration — even bring the recently deceased back from death. This is how Nick Fury was able to revive Agent Coulson after he died in Avengers.

But a side effect of the drug created by the T.A.H.I.T.I. program was that the Kree’s genetic memory implanted itself upon the host. So S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists needed a Memory Overwriting Machine to overcome that. They probably got that idea after encountering Danvers in the ‘90s and learning the Kree had technology that could alter memories.

Supposedly, the specific Kree corpse predates the events presented in Captain Marvel and it has more to do with the same ancient experiments by the Kree that created the Inhumans than it does Carol Danvers. So by the time Carol Danvers crash-lands through a Blockbuster Video in the 1990s and attracts the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D., the organization has already had the Kree corpse for quite some time.

All things considered, it looks like Agent Fury and Coulson’s experiences with Carol Danvers in the 1990s will redefine their careers within S.H.I.E.L.D. and refocus the agency on utilizing alien technology to protect Earth. But could Danvers play an even more significant role in defining S.H.I.E.L.D.? We’ll have to wait and see when the film comes out.

Captain Marvel will be released in theaters on March 8, 2019.

Check out the first official trailer once again right here: