Five potential reasons Captain Marvel has been absent from the MCU

Marvel Studios ANT-MAN AND THE WASP..Quantum Realm..Photo: Film Frame..©Marvel Studios 2018

4. Alternate Universe 

A close friend of time travel, but not quite the same, Carol Danvers might have been missing from the world because, in fact, she was in a different one, trapped in an alternate reality, dimension, or universe.

In Doctor Strange, the audience learns that there are an infinite number of universes in the MCU, some of which are ancient, hungry, and dark, some of which are benevolent and life-giving. Either way, the reality of alternate universes exists and, if they exist, people might vanish into them if they’re at the wrong place at the wrong time… Which Marvel heroes often are.

If for some reason, Carol found herself falling out of her own universe to live in another, it seems likely it could be hard for her to find her way back, whether it’s because she cannot fight her way out, or because it is simply nicer to stay. Potentially though, Thanos’s snap had some impact on universes beyond the ones so far encountered in the MCU. After all, from Earth to Titan, characters blew to dust, so it stands to reason there may have been impact in extra-dimensional impact as well.

Maybe, whatever effects the snap had, which have not yet been fully explored, were enough to blast holes through different dimensions. Maybe, the combined power of the infinity stones created just enough of a chain reaction to shake Carol from one universe to another and back to her rightful place.

Could Thanos’s snap have also been the instrument of his own undoing?