The Marvels Story Recap 10 Things To Know From Previous MCU Movies & Shows

The next major MCU movie, The Marvels, continues the stories of several movies and TV shows, so it's worth revisiting the characters and plot threads likely to play a role. Starring Brie Larson, Iman Vellani, and Teyonah Parris, The Marvels is the MCU's next major crossover movie, pulling characters from multiple recent properties to tell the story of Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel), Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel), and Monica Rambeau, three heroes with light-based superpowers that find themselves inexplicably swapping places whenever they use them. As they struggle to figure out how to untether their powers, they are forced to defend Earth from a vengeful intergalactic threat named Dar-Benn.

The trio is an unlikely team-up as they all have very different backstories and power levels. Captain Marvel is one of the strongest Avengers who battled Thanos and helped save the universe, while Monica only recently acquired her powers after the Blip, and Kamala Khan is a teenage superhero fan who discovered her own powers at sixteen and has not yet gotten the chance to team up with a major hero. But while the three may seem like an unlikely team, they all share close connections to each other, and knowing their individual and shared histories is important to understanding The Marvels.

Related: The Marvels: Release Date, Cast, Story & Everything We Know
 

Captain Marvel Is Brainwashed By The Kree

 

Captain Marvel (2019)

Carol Danvers is first introduced to the MCU in her Captain Marvel movie as Vers, a member of alien species the Kree. She fights in their Starforce army, believing she is defending the Kree in a war against a shapeshifting race of aliens called the Skrulls. Captain Marvel reveals that Vers is actually a human named Carol Danvers who was kidnapped and brainwashed by the Kree after she learned of the Kree's imperialist actions against the Skrulls and worked with a Kree scientist who developed a ship that could help the Skrulls escape the Kree. In the struggle, Carol blows up its engine run on the Tesseract, granting her powerful abilities.
 

Captain Marvel Allies With The Skrulls & Breaks Free From Kree Control

 

Captain Marvel (2019)

Once Carol learns the truth and regains her memory from Skrull leader Talos, she once again aids them in their fight against the Kree. She is captured by the Kree once again and returned to Hala, their capital planet, where she confronts their ruler, the Supreme Intelligence. During the conflict, Carol removes an energy-suppressing implant the Kree gave her and is finally able to unlock her full abilities. She uses them to stop a Kree army led by Ronan the Accuser from traveling to Earth and killing the Skrulls hiding out from there. She then defeats the Starforce leader and declares war on the Kree.
 

Captain Marvel Returns To Earth To Fight Thanos With The Avengers

 

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Captain Marvel spends three decades trying to rehome the refugee Skrulls before she is called back to Earth by former partner Nick Fury after Thanos succeeds in wiping out half of all life in the universe. After the Avengers go on a Time Heist to retrieve the Infinity Stones from different points in time and use them in the present to reverse Thanos' snap, an alternate timeline Thanos becomes privy to their plan and plans to wipe out the entire universe. Captain Marvel is a major player in the battle against Thanos, single-handedly taking down one of his ships and holding him off on her own.
 

Monica Rambeau Has Ties To Captain Marvel And Got Her Powers From Scarlet Witch

 

WandaVision (2021)

  Before Carol became Vers, she was a pilot for the U.S. Air Force, where she befriended Maria Rambeau. While Carol was gone, Maria had a daughter named Monica. As an adult, Monica works for the government agency S.W.O.R.D., which was founded by her mother. Monica is snapped out of existence by Thanos, and when she's brought back, she works with S.W.O.R.D. to address a New Jersey anomaly caused by Wanda Maximoff (the Scarlet Witch). After passing through the wall of energy forming the border of Wanda's anomaly multiple times, Monica's cells are rewritten, giving her superhuman abilities.
 

Carol, Wong, And Bruce Banner Have Stayed In Touch

 

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Captain Marvel first met all the Avengers when she fought with them against Thanos, including Bruce Banner (the Hulk) and Wong (the Sorcerer Supreme). Captain Marvel leaves again after Endgame to pursue missions in space, but an end-credits scene in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings reveals that she has kept in touch with Bruce and Wong. They meet virtually to discuss the origins and mystical properties of Shang-Chi's ten rings, explaining that the rings have sent out a powerful beacon before Captain Marvel leaves the meeting prematurely. This scene could hint at the three forming MCU Earth's powerful superhero group the Illuminati.
 

Kamala Khan Is A Mutant With A Mysterious Bangle

 

Ms. Marvel (2022)

  Kamala Khan is an average high school student from New Jersey who is obsessed with superheroes. She especially loves Captain Marvel, who would later influence her own superhero name, Ms. Marvel. Kamala discovers a mysterious family heirloom in the form of a bangle and puts it on before sneaking out to a superhero convention. There, she twists the bangle only to discover that she has light-based powers and unexpectedly saves someone's life. Becoming a local hero, Kamala trains with her best friend Bruno Carrelli to harness her abilities, and after conducting research, Bruno realizes that Kamala is a mutant, the first one canon to the MCU.
 

Fury Has Been Secretly Working With Skrulls For Decades

 

Secret Invasion (2023)

When Captain Marvel travels to Earth searching for answers, she and the Skrulls attract the attention of Nick Fury. Once Fury learns that the Skrulls are refugees, he aids Carol in her mission to find the Skrulls a new home. In the meantime, he offers protection for a group of Skrulls remaining on Earth in exchange for them working for S.H.I.E.L.D. Years later, this backfires, as Fury's failure to hold up his end of the deal results in some Skrull resentment, with Skrull radical Gravik deciding to wage war on humans. After Gravik is defeated, Fury returns to space with his Skrull wife, Varra.
 

Nick Fury Is Running S.W.O.R.D.

 

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

  S.W.O.R.D. is a government agency founded by Maria Rambeau designed to protect Earth from extraterrestrial threats, similar to S.H.I.E.L.D. After S.H.I.E.L.D. collapses, Fury continues to work with S.W.O.R.D. in the background. During a Spider-Man: Far From Home end-credits scene, when it's revealed that the Fury shown throughout the movie was actually Talos, and Fury has actually been in space on a S.W.O.R.D. mission since the Blip. After Monica helps defend Wanda, a Skrull working for Fury recruits her to come help him.
 

Captain Marvel May Not Be Welcome On Earth If Her Past Gets Out

 

Secret Invasion (2023)

Gravik leads a group of radicalized Skrulls, disillusioned with Fury and ready to claim Earth as their own, to incite a war between the U.S. and Russia, with the hopes of wiping out all of humanity. After many terrorist actions, including an assassination attempt on U.S. President Ritson and a Skrull named Raava almost convincing Ritson to bomb Russia, where a Skrull compound is located, Ritson declares all extraterrestrial beings a threat to the U.S. and threatens to hunt and kill any remaining Skrulls. Though Carol was born human, she lived as a Kree for many years, so her return to Earth may be met with hostility.
 

Kamala And Carol Mysteriously Switch Places

 

Ms. Marvel (2022)

At the tail-end of Ms. Marvel, there is a strange scene in which Kamala uses her powers and is suddenly swapped with Captain Marvel, who stands in Kamala's room looking confused. This was the MCU's first hint for The Marvels, as subsequent trailers and promos for the movie have revealed that this is the central conflict. A Kree named Dar-Benn, who mysteriously has a bangle like Kamala, uses its power to entangle Captain Marvel, Kamala, and Monica's light-based powers, forcing them to swap places whenever they use them. Now all three must come together to defeat the villain and separate their powers.