Avengers: Endgame - 11 New Heroes It Could Introduce

8. Photon

Marvel

Captain Marvel might have been a prequel, but it also ended up laying much of the ground work for the MCU's future.

Apart from tying up loose ends regarding the chronology of Phase 1, Captain Marvel devoted several minutes of its screen time to plant seeds for Phase 4. The Skrulls leave to inevitably return at some point or another, but it's what the film does with Monica Rambeau that fans should be most interested in.

Monica is portrayed by Akira Akbar in the film, and she idolises Carol Danvers. Danvers is referred to as "Auntie Carol" throughout the film, and when she takes to the sky at the end, Monica remarks that she wants to go with her, prompting Fury to say that she'd have to get "glowy" in order to do so. Why's that so important? Well, in the comics, Monica is a fully fledged superhero herself, and possesses powers not all that dissimilar to Danvers' own. It's also worth pointing out that her mother, Maria Rambeau, goes by the callsign of 'Photon' while in the Air Force in the film, which also happens to be one of the superhero names Monica's used in the comics.

Easter egg or not, this seems like a pretty blatant hint that Monica will take on a superhero identity in the future. She'll be in her thirties at least come Endgame, and with further Captain Marvel films to come, teasing her superhero role in Endgame would work brilliantly.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.