Was Nick Fury’s secret Skrull identity teased in Avengers: Age of Ultron? The shapeshifters have just been introduced to the MCU in Captain Marvel, but one key piece of dialogue puts a rather innocuous moment in the 2015 movie in a different light.

The 1995-set Captain Marvel showed audiences a younger, still two-eyed Fury uncertain where his future lies in S.H.I.E.L.D. In fact, it was his experience with Carol Danvers that inspired him to stick around, become Director and spearheaded “The Avengers Initiative”. However, there may be some doubt over whether the Fury who assembled Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in 2012’s The Avengers is the same person.

Early on in Captain Marvel, paranoid about who may or may not be a Skrull, Vers immediately quizzes Fury to ensure he’s who he says he is. To do this, he had to reveal a private detail only the real Nicholas Joeseph would know; the then-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent revealed that he cannot eat toast that’s been cut diagonally. However, a Reddit user with the handle PowerRangersLOL pointed out that Fury did just that during his convening with the Avengers in Hawkeye’s farmhouse in Avengers: Age of Ultron; while rallying the broken team, he slices a sandwich into triangles before eating it.

Now, a few caveats must be first pointed out. The bread doesn’t look to have been toasted and Fury did tear off a piece before diving into the main sandwich. However, this detail is an incredibly specific one and, considering there’s a fourth Skrull in Captain Marvel who disappears after arriving on Earth, it’s distinctly possible the contemporary Fury - at the very least from after Age of Ultron - is a Skrull imposter.

This isn’t the first indication that Fury may be a Skrull. A page from Captain Marvel: The Art of the Movie reveals a series of concept artworks detailing a Fury-to-Skrull transformation. This ultimately didn’t happen in the movie, and given that the artwork showed a modern-day Fury suggests he may have just been a placeholder to showcase the effect, but it nevertheless indicates this was considered as some point.

Over the past 11 years, Marvel Studios has been very good at seeding clues by masking them as unimportant details, such as teasing Wakanda in 2010’s Iron Man 2, eight years before the high-tech African nation took center stage in Black Panther. They’ve also become increasingly adept at retconning fan theories into canon, such as Peter Parker in Iron Man 2 or Stan Lee as a Watcher informant in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. This toast triangle situation could wind up being a situation of either: an intentional clue or a retcon intended to deepen Fury’s role in the MCU going forward.

However, while it’s certainly got some internal logic, there’s a lot working against the suggestion. This evidence is so minor it could be treated as throwaway, although the real concern is how any twist reveal would come about; having Nick Fury revealed as a shapeshifter may be too much with all the changes on the horizon in Avengers: Endgame (and Fury’s key role in Spider-Man: Far From Home).

Even without Fury, though, the Skrulls will be back in the MCU’s future according to Kevin Feige. That said, Captain Marvel’s twist that they’re actually the good guys would make any Secret Invasion-style infiltration very different.

Next: Captain Marvel’s Biggest MCU Retcons (& Plot Holes)

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