Captain Marvel’s Goose: That’s not a cat, that’s a space and time traveling Flerken

We have some Flerken awesome Captain Marvel news: Goose probably isn’t an Earth cat, and her endangered-but-lethal species can travel through dimensions, time, and space.

Carol Danvers isn’t the only powerful fighter in Captain Marvel, and her adorable furry companion might not actually be an Earth cat. No, Goose isn’t a shapeshifting Skrull, but based on a recent interview, she might be a Flerken like her comic book counterpart, Chewie.

Now that both a pocket dimension-hoarding Flerken and the Tesseract have been named dropped in the same interview, we’re wondering what would happen if a deadly space cat got her paws on the Tesseract (i.e. the Space Stone).

During an Entertainment Tonight interview with some of the Captain Marvel cast and crew, Samuel L. Jackson noted that he knows what a Flerken is, and he knows that some fans call Goose a Flerken. It seems like Jackson is so familiar with Flerkens because we’ll likely see Goose in all of her extraterrestrial glory. We know: We can already hear Carol Danvers protesting, “For the bizillionth time, [Goose] is cat.”

In one scene, Jackson holds a stuffed stunt Goose, who has a muzzle around her mouth. You might be already familiar with Rocket and Chewie (the original Flerken in Carol Danvers’ life), and their enemies-to-friends narrative (complete with Rocket attempting to sell Chewie on the illegal space market). If you are, then you’re already well-versed in where Flerken’s source for most of their powers are. (Hint: it’s their mouths.)

While they hideaway seemingly endless tentacles that have sharp biting mouthpieces at the ends of each tendril, they can also grab and swallow virtually anything and everything and store it in their equally almost limitless storage space.

Chewie in Captain Marvel (2014) #8. Photo Credit: Marvel Comics.

See, their storage space is a built-in component of a Flerken’s physiology because it’s inside their mouth. The reason their small cat-like bodies can horde a ton of dangerous tentacles that they can use to drag and store thing, creatures, and people for later is because Flerkens also have multiple pocket dimensions inside their mouths.

When they don’t need to use their tendrils to eat entire ships, like in Captain Marvel (2014), and store them in one of their nearly infinite pocket dimensions, Flerkens stores their tentacles in their internal pocket dimensions.

Since they have a plethora of pocket dimensions and alternate realities inside them, they can use their internal teleportation system to travel through space, time, other dimensions, and different realities entirely. Granted, their approach to teleportation isn’t pretty; it’s actually pretty gross, to be honest.

Captain Marvel (2014) #8. Photo Credit: Marvel Comics.

Producer Jonathan Schwartz commented on the movie during the Entertainment Tonight interview saying, “You get a full, complete, satisfying experience that has tendrils reaching into other branches of the cinematic universe if you’re looking for them.”  So maybe he’s hinting that Goose’s tendrils and space-based powers will help bridge this movie into the rest of the MCU, including Infinity War and Endgame.

According to the interview, the Tesseract will be cased in a Happy Days Lunchbox. But what’s more interesting is that they mention Goose comes in contact with the Tesseract. And Nick Fury, who’s holding the muzzled Flerken, drops her when Goose gets near it. So, what’s Goose’s reaction when she sees the Tesseract?

We’re not sure what a Flerken would want with a Tesseract or how it might impact their innate time-traveling and interdimensional-hopping proclivities, seeing as a current orange cat hasn’t tried to steal a Tesseract in the comics. Judging by the context in the scene, the Flerken might be trying to protect the Tesseract from any Skrulls who’ve infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. Plus, we’re not sure how a teleportation device could impact a teleporting cat, but we have it feeling it might get pretty Flerken weird.

Coupled the Tesseract’s ability to warp cosmic energy to allow users to travel through time, space, and dimensions, the glorified carrying case for the Space Stone could amplify Goose’s abilities to travel through pocket dimensions. After all, we don’t really know would happen if an alien with insurmountable pocket dimensions and realities were to swallow the Tesseract.

Jackson’s mentioned that Carol Danvers can time travel, twice in fact. Since we know comic book Flerkens can manipulate their pocket dimensions to travel through time and space, Jackson might be using Carol’s seemingly new power in her film to misdirect us from the actual time traveler: Goose the “cat.”

Regardless of how the Tesseract might impact Goose the Flerken’s alien abilities, we know Goose will be a powerful ally to Captain Marvel. Between her powers to breathe, survive and thrive in the vacuum of space and, well…her killer tendrils, we think Goose will help Carol Danvers fight some Skrulls.