With the impending release of Captain Marvel, fans have been looking for any drop of information they can get. Some have even started to wonder about Maria Rambeau. In the movie, she’s one of Captain Marvel’s best friends. She’s also a great pilot, from the looks of things.

Maria Rambeau is played by Lashana Lynch in the movie. There are already dozens of theories about her appearance and her relationship with Carol. There is, however, some confusion about her and another character of the same name, but don’t worry; we’ll explain that connection below.

We’re here to help give you some ideas of what to expect come March 8th when Captain Marvel hits theaters. Here is a list of some of the most important facts about Carol Danvers’ best friend!

She’s Monica Rambeau’s Mother

You may recognize that name. Monica Rambeau is also known as Spectrum, Photon, or at one point even Captain Marvel. In the comics, she’s an incredibly strong and determined character. Just like her mother, in many ways.

There was a point where Maria actively tried to get her daughter to stop being a superhero, or at the very least, opt out on joining the Avengers. She had some legitimate concerns about it, such as the fact that it looked like they were just going for a diversity hire. She did eventually make peace with the role her daughter plays.

Monica went on to be a complete hero in her own right. She’s joined many teams in her time as a hero, from the Avengers to the Ultimates, and has gone up against countless enemies. Most notably, she’s gone up against celestials and other outerverse threats.

The movie shows a character whom we believe will be a young Monica Rambeau. She’s being played by Akira Akbar, which helps confirm our theories about what age range they’re going for. It’s a probability that they included young Monica as a way of subtly telling us how long Carol had been gone from Earth. If she had left at a point when Maria didn’t have a child or even plans of having a child, that would tell us a lot about how much time could have passed.

Also, it’s worth noting that based on the time frame of the Captain Marvel movie, there’s a good chance that little Monica will be all grown up by the time most of the Marvel movies occur. When do you think we’ll be seeing her?

They Blended Her Character With Another

From what we know of Maria Rambeau in the movie versus Maria Rambeau in the comics, they took some backstory from other characters to form hers.

In the comics, Maria Rambeau was a seamstress, and while she sometimes worried about her daughter’s career, she more or less let her do what she wanted. She certainly wasn’t an Air Force pilot, nor did she ever have her own code name or alias.

The movie version of Maria Rambeau is an air force pilot, obviously. It’s great that they’re pulling characters from the Marvel Universe into the movies, even if they are slightly changing them. And honestly, it’ll be nice to see Maria really get a chance to shine.

Photon

Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau

The Marvel website for Maria Rambeau lists her as having a codename: Photon. Photon was one of the names used by Monica Rambeau during her time as a superhero (as mentioned above). The name Photon is one that Monica picked up after her own stint as Captain Marvel. She ceded the title to Genis-Vell, son of Mar-Vell, as it felt only right to allow the title to carry down the family line. Naturally, we all know that the title eventually made its way to Carol Danvers; a title she still carries the today.

Monica didn’t carry the name for long, relatively speaking. Ironically the same person that she had kindly given her previous moniker to had gone ahead and taken her current one as well (rude, we know). She ended up ultimately sticking with Spectrum, after considering a few different names first. Spectrum ended up being the name she is best known for.

Using Photon as her codename in the movie is a nice hat tip to the character her daughter will eventually end up being. It may be nothing more than that, or they could be hinting at Monica’s future in the MCU.

Movie Maria

Maria Rambeau and Carol Danvers

We don’t know a whole lot about the movie version of Maria... yet. But we do know some. Obviously, we already know that she’s a pilot in the United States Air Force (a captain, actually), she’s best friends with Carol Danvers, and she knows Nick Fury. That’s sort of a big deal, but we don’t know how far that goes just yet.

Captain Marvel had originally cast DeWanda Wise for the role of Maria Rambeau, but she ultimately had to turn down the role thanks to scheduling issues. Instead, Marvel made the offer to Lashana Lynch, who happily accepted. We do know that Maria will prove how loyal of a friend she is through the course of the movie. Carol Danvers loses her memory over the course of this one movie, and she’ll undoubtedly need some friends to help her get herself back in order.

Love Theory

We’ve already been informed that there is not going to be any big romance for Captain Marvel in her movie — that is not the focus of her story. But that isn’t quite true, is it? There’s more than one type of love. The strongest love is that of friendship.

NEXT: Captain Marvel: 10 Facts About Brie Larson

The love between Carol and Maria can and will ascend all boundaries. Together they can get through anything. It doesn’t matter if their love is nothing more than friendship — it doesn’t change the fact that there is truly a love story inside the movie. Brie Larson (the actress playing Captain Marvel) herself has hinted that she believes this to be the case. Her comments have been more than enough to gets sites all over speculating about her meaning.

The MCU has yet to portray a devotedly strong and healthy relationship between two women, so this will be a big step forward for the franchise. Here’s hoping that the full movie will confirm all of our theories, hopes, and dreams about these two adorable and loyal friends.