Captain Marvel retcon: Captain Marvel movie will SHATTER MCU continuity – here's how

While not many details are known about the upcoming Captain Marvel movie, one thing is for sure – it’s a period piece.

The period in question is the 1990s, which will give a whole host of Marvel fans some serious nostalgia.

But what hasn’t been discussed at length is the impact of setting a Marvel movie in the 90s will have on things established by the past movies.

Here’s how Captain Marvel could seriously damage MCU continuity.

Captain Marvel, by being set in the 1990s, acts essentially as a retcon for the wider cinematic universe, as well as the SHIELD TV show.

A retcon is defined as a piece of new information that imposes a different interpretation on previously described events.

Retconning is typically used to facilitate a dramatic plot shift or account for an inconsistency.

In this case, however, Captain Marvel may be causing – rather than explaining – inconsistency in the MCU.

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Nick Fury’s past

Samuel L Jackson is set to appear in Captain Marvel using age regression CGI, which will have major implications for what is known about his character’s past so far.

Nick Fury’s MCU backstory has not been explicitly described, but teased in the movies.

In the 2009 comic Nick Fury: Spies Like Us, readers learned Fury started his career as a member of the US military and was later invited to join S.H.I.E.L.D.

The comic also shows how he lost his eye – a major point of contradiction, given Fury has two fully functioning eyes in the 1990s Captain Marvel movie.

A casual fan may not know Fury’s backstory, given most of its exposition was in comic form, but those die-hard Marvel fans will certainly take to Reddit to lodge their displeasure.

Nick Coulson and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Far more wide-reaching than a comic, the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has given Agent Coulsen plenty of screen time.

Like Jackson, actor Clark Gregg has also been subjected to age regression CGI for the Captain Marvel movie.

Plenty of his backstory explained in the series (his birth town, his resurrection, his college major) and while the TV and MCU have no direct connection, it would be a stretch to create an entirely different backstory for a character so well known to fans.

Most impactful is the TV series showing Coulson knew nothing of the Kree – given Captain Marvel will focus heavily on the Kree-Skrull war.

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Any major franchise with a decently extended universe will suffer from the eternal debate of what is considered canon.

Star Wars frequently finds itself embroiled in these debates, as well as X-Men, with the former doing well to tie its movies together and strictly ignoring anything else.

Fans may have taken prelude comics to be slightly canon, but with what we know so far about Captain Marvel, it seems they’re not being considered thusly by those at the helm of the movies.

Whatever ripples Captain Marvel will cause in the MCU continuum, fans will undoubtedly forgive – for Captain Marvel is set to be the new face of the MCU Phase four and she’s going to be around for a while.

Captain Marvel is in cinemas March 8, 2019.