Captain Marvel: Every MCU Movie/Event It Sets Up

7. Monica Rambeau Becoming Photon

Captain Marvel Monica Photon
Marvel

Back when Lashana Lynch was first cast in Captain Marvel, fans instantly assumed that she'd be playing Carol's longtime friend-turned-hero, Monica Rambeau, who goes by the name of Spectrum in the comics. However, it soon turned out that she would be playing Maria Rambeau, mother to Monica, who served alongside Carol in the USAF.

This is where things get interesting. Akira Akbar plays Monica when she's just a child, and with it almost guaranteed that Captain Marvel will play a pivotal role in the future of the MCU, it seems very intentional that Marvel chose to make Monica a child back in the nineties.

When Danvers, Fury, Talos and the other Skrulls are at the Rambeaus' place in Louisiana, the film drops numerous hints that Monica will eventually take to the skies like her Auntie Carol. In fact, Monica pretty much states that she wants to go into space with Captain Marvel, while Fury remarks that she'd have to get "glowy" in order to do so.

That's not the only piece of foreshadowing Captain Marvel includes though. Maria's callsign is actually called "Photon", which was one of the many identities adopted by Monica during her superhero career in the comics. Point being, come Captain Marvel 2, don't rule out Monica getting powers of her own.

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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.