Samuel L. Jackson once again says Captain Marvel can time travel

Samuel L. Jackson has yet again said that Captain Marvel can time travel. Does this really confirm she has time-traveling abilities?

As the old nerdy proverb goes, “Spoil it once, shame on you. Spoil it twice, shame on me.” (At least, that’s how I’m declaring it goes.) And as far as Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame spoilers go, it seems like Samuel L. Jackson is two for two when it comes to revealing a particular spoiler we hadn’t thought of before.

Last month, Jackson seemed to confirm that Captain Marvel can time travel. He doesn’t say how, when or why, but that’s all he let slip. Now, Jackson has once again let the cat (or the flerken) out of the bag when it comes to the supposed time-traveling spoiler.

According to CBM, Jackson revealed this again in an interview with Total Film magazine. In the print edition of the magazine (as the article is not online), CBM found a particular quote where Jackson mentions a bit more about time travel than in his previous interview:

"I guess we might figure out that she can do things that nobody else can do… She can time travel, so maybe she can get ahead or behind or whatever, and figure out what all that is. The fact I have the pager 20 years later – it gets addressed in an interesting sort of way."

The way Jackson is talking about it in this context makes it seem like the time traveling aspect will be much more important in Endgame than in Captain Marvel — especially how he draws attention to the pager that Nick Fury has at the end of Infinity War. From initial assumptions, the movie made it seem like Nick Fury has always had the pager with since he met Captain Marvel. We even saw a version of the pager in a trailer for Captain Marvel.

But that, in turn, sparked Okoye-like reactions (“Why was she up there all this time?”) about Fury holding off on calling Captain Marvel for battles. The Battle of New York would have been a perfect time to call in Captain Marvel, but he didn’t. So is it possible that he gets the pager even later than that?

In some way, perhaps Captain Marvel could give Fury the pager post-Avengers, but the time that’s passed may not be the same for both of them. If you’re familiar with Doctor Who, think of it the way time travel works on that show. Take, for example, when the Doctor first visited his companion Amy Pond. She was a young girl, and the Doctor promised he would visit her again soon.

Years later, Amy was all grown up, and the Doctor finally got back to her. She was upset at him for taking so long, but he was confused. For him, not much time had passed at all since their last meeting. (The same thing also happens in “The Girl in the Fireplace,” but I digress.)

Thus, perhaps 20 years will have passed for Fury since the last time he saw Captain Marvel — with her potentially giving him the pager in present day. But if Captain Marvel can time travel, it may have only been a short amount of time for her.

(Just imagine Captain Marvel coming back to Earth after the Chitauri attack and saying “Whoops, sorry I was gone for so long. I meant to come back sooner.”)

Then, if all that’s true, why doesn’t Captain Marvel just go back even further in time and correct things before Thanos and his destruction blows over? That’s where things start to get wonky, and it’s why I can’t always stand behind time travel plots. It just opens up more plot holes than when you started, so we can only hope that the Russo brothers handle the time travel aspect in Endgame with as much care as possible.