'Captain Marvel' Fan Theory Suggests This 'Civil War' Line Is More Important Than We Thought

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is overflowing with easter eggs and references to its comic book counterparts, but putting aside the obvious cameos and plot links that are baked into the stories, there are more subtle winks as well. Now one fan thinks they may have found a link between Captain America: Civil War and next year's Captain Marvel in a throwaway piece of dialogue.

Inverse spotted this fan theory on Reddit from a user going by "Captaindeadpool172," who noticed something fascinating during a rewatch of 2016's Captain America: Civil War.

During the scene when Tony Stark comes to Peter Parker's apartment for the first time and confronts him about being Spider-Man, Tony shows Peter some videos of the webslinger in action. "That's you, right?" he says. Peter tries to deny it, calling it a fake that was done on the computer. "It's like that video..." Peter says, and Stark cuts him off: "Oh, you mean like those UFOs over Phoenix?" just as he discovers the Spidey suit and Peter's cover is officially blown.

You can watch the scene in question below:

The fan theory says that the "UFOs over Phoenix" line means that The Phoenix Lights happened in the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For those who don't know, the Phoenix Lights is the name given to a series of unidentified flying objects that were seen over the skies of Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona on March 13, 1997. Thousands of people witnessed this event (so it wasn't just the ravings of a single madman), and many claimed to have seen a triangular-shaped UFO with five lights on it.

What does this have to do with Captain Marvel? Well, we know that movie takes place sometime in the 1990s, and this theory suggests that perhaps what bystanders witnessed as the Phoenix Lights was actually part of the Kree-Skrull war happening in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Inverse speculates that the photo above of Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) in her traditional costume could mean that she leaves Earth to team up with Starforce in the early '90s with her green suit, and she may return in her full red, gold, and blue gear in 1997.

Sounds plausible to me, and this would be another cool little seed planted in the MCU that would pay off years later. Those are the kind of nerd-centric details that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige loves, so don't be surprised if Captain Marvel includes a flashy fight in the skies of the American Southwest in the year 1997.