MCU Theory: Could Captain Marvel's Missing Skrull Be A Hidden Avenger?

1. Is It Fury?

The reason why a Skrull would choose to take Nick Fury's place is fairly obvious. He's in an incredibly privileged position, has huge resources available to him and his part in the Avengers Initiative could help shape the way Earth perceives aliens and superheroes. There's no better candidate.

What we need to know now is whether there's evidence of him perhaps not being who he seems and Captain Marvel does establish two key details that could suggest that very thing. Well, three if you consider his general demeanour.

The Nick Fury we meet in Iron Man and then properly in The Avengers is absolutely nothing like the one we see throughout Captain Marvel. The younger version is affectionate, full of humour and is considered an almost imperceptible threat. That doesn't sound like the Fury we know who is the granddaddy of the Avengers, who defied the deadliest assassin in history in The Winter Soldier and who has no issue shooting a child in the neck with a dart gun because he's in the way.

It also doesn't appear to match the idea of Fury as the most ruthless man Alexander Pierce had ever met. That assessment is wildly different from the guy holding up Goose the Flerken in the climax of Captain Marvel. And yes, the passage of time DOES change people, but wasn't this the perfect opportunity to show him changing? If this wasn't what did it, what did?!

More specifically, there's a sequence in Captain Marvel in which "Vers" asks Fury to tell her something only the real Fury would know. He tells her that he cannot eat toast that's been cut diagonally. A throw-away detail if you don't know your MCU details very well, but in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Fury actually eats a sandwich he himself has sliced into triangles.

While that's not toast, would he really have one rule for toast and one for bread? That'd just be silly.

On top of that, there's a pointed moment in Captain Marvel where Fury reveals that nobody calls him anything but Fury. It's how he determines that Talos has stolen the identity of his boss after he unknowingly calls him "Nicholas". That's key to remember, because in the post-credits scene for Avengers: Infinity War, as Fury and Maria Hill drive through New York tracking the "multiple bogeys over Wakanda," Hill shouts his name twice as they're about to crash.

Only she doesn't shout Fury, she shouts "Nick!" twice and he doesn't react. Wouldn't someone who establishes that NOBODY calls him anything but Fury have an issue with someone - and his subordinate to boot - calling him by his first name? His mother calls him Fury, according to him. Could this be the subtlest hint that Fury is not who he seems?

It certainly all seems to fit. Then again, though, it could be anyone...