Captain Marvel had a secret Agents of SHIELD connection. Set in 1995, Captain Marvel was essentially something of a prequel story to the entire MCU. It set up Carol Danvers as the first superhero Nick Fury had ever encountered, as well as the inspiration behind the Avengers Initiative.

Of course, the problem with a prequel like this is that it has the potential to cause continuity problems. There were particular concerns that Captain Marvel would somehow contradict Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, perhaps by presenting a backstory for Phil Coulson that just didn't work. In the end, though, Marvel's production crew chose to make a movie that was remarkably well-connected to the rest of the MCU. Even the Kree architecture seen on Hala corresponded with the ruins discovered in Agents of SHIELD season 2, while Carol Danvers survived exposure to the Tesseract due to an infusion of Kree blood - a similar process to the one that resurrected Coulson in Agents of SHIELD season 1.

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One subtle Agents of SHIELD connection has gone largely unnoticed, however. In a Reddit AMA conducted last June, EVP of Production Victoria Alonso was asked about what could have been just a coincidence of casting. In one scene, Nick Fury and Carol Danvers relax at a bar, with an actor named Patrick Brennan tending the bar. This is the same actor who played a villain named Blackout in the first season of Agents of SHIELD. Alonso seemed delighted at the question, and gave a simple response: "You noticed?"

Agents of SHIELD Blackout

Agents of SHIELD introduced Blackout - whose real name is Marcus Daniels - as a villain in the present day, a powerful being who could manipulate an energy called the Darkforce. According to Phil Coulson, Daniels studied in science between 1990 and 1996, and came out with a degree in physics. Daniels was originally an assistant at a lab that experimented with alternate energy sources, and he was granted super-powers during a freak accident. He became obsessed with a cellist named Audrey Nathan, but was discovered by SHIELD and neutralized by Coulson. Ironically, Coulson and Nathan began a relationship, with the SHIELD agent keeping his true career a secret until he died in The Avengers. Audrey Nathan never learned that her lover had been resurrected.

This subtle Captain Marvel cameo helps to further explain Blackout's backstory. It seems that he worked in California, quite close to Project PEGASUS, the NASA/SHIELD initiative that sought to explore alternate energy sources such as the Tesseract. It's thus reasonable to assume PEGASUS was the facility Daniels worked at when he was experimenting with the Darkforce. What's more, that would neatly explain how he wound up on SHIELD's radar, because they'd naturally be aware of what had happened at Project PEGASUS. It's quite interesting to see how this smart casting decision helps tie the MCU together.

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