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Warning: WandaVision episode 4 spoilers below – don’t scroll down if you haven’t seen the episode and want to go in fresh this week.
WandaVision has given us plenty of answers this week, including one we definitely weren’t expecting. The surprise fate of a major supporting character in an MCU movie has been revealed – they died off-screen.
Maria Rambeau, Carol Danvers’ old air force buddy played in Captain Marvel by No Time to Die’s Lashana Lynch, passed away from cancer. That’s according to the doctor her daughter, Monica (Teyonah Parris), quite literally bumps in to during WandaVision’s opening moments this week.
That, naturally, comes as quite a shock to Monica – as well as the audience. She’s just re-awoken from Thanos’ snap (officially called The Blip in the MCU) next to her mother’s bedside and has no idea that five years has passed. In the interim, Maria died around 2020, as per the Marvel timeline, and we’re now in the post-Avengers: Endgame world of 2023.
Of course, dead doesn’t always mean dead in the MCU – but given the heavy subject matter, this feels pretty definitive.
Happily, it seems that Maria managed to live a full and rich life after her 1990s Captain Marvel appearance. Since then, she joined SWORD and was even memorialized at SWORD headquarters with a plaque revealing her “Photon” nickname.
Interestingly, that’s the superhero moniker Monica Rambeau would go on to adopt in Marvel’s comics. Given Monica is also set to appear in Captain Marvel 2, there’s every chance she could take on the mantle of Photon as the ultimate tribute to her mother.
Catch up on the entire MCU story so far with our guide on how to watch Marvel movies in order.
