Once Tony Stark announced to the world that he was Iron Man, the Marvel Cinematic Universe's age of heroes began, but as Nick Fury later told Tony, he was by no means the world's first superhero. Captain America: The First Avenger showed us Steve Rogers' World War II adventures, and next March, Captain Marvel will show Carol Danvers using her Kree-based powers in the mid-1990s. In order to avoid continuity errors, the general population won't be aware of what specifically goes down in Captain Marvel, but one MCU fan believes that Captain America: Civil War might have thrown in a reference to the penultimate Phase 3 movie when Tony first met Peter Parker.
After sweet-talking Peter Parker's Aunt May in Captain America: Civil War, Tony Stark privately chatted with the youth and revealed that he knew he was Spider-Man, showing a YouTube video of the Web-Slinger in action. At first Peter denied this, saying that videos like that are faked, and while figuring out where Peter hid his Spidey costume, Tony offhandedly responded, "Oh, you mean like those UFOs over Phoenix?" This is referring to the Phoenix Lights events that happened in 1997, and on Reddit, it's theorized that in the MCU, these phenomenons were actually brought about by the conflict between the Kree and Skrulls in Captain Marvel. This would be a fun bit of retroactively altering history, allowing for these two alien races to be "spotted" without the world actually learning about them. In real life, the U.S. Air Force attributed the second of the Phoenix Lights as flares falling from an aircraft during a training exercise, and while the first Lights haven't been easily explained away, many believe that these also came from military aircraft. Depicting the Lights as actual alien vessels is definitely a lot more fun to think about.
Since it hasn't been revealed yet what specific year Captain Marvel is set in, we'll have to wait and see if the movie even covers 1997, let alone if any of the action will be set in Phoenix, Arizona. Captain Marvel primarily filmed in Los Angeles various areas of California, and later moved to Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana in the final weeks of principal photography. However, since the movie will explore Carol Danvers' time as an Air Force pilot before she embarked on her superhero journey, it's conceivable that some of the action could end up happening near a military base. Perhaps one located near Phoenix?
What we do know about Captain Marvel is that rather than give Carol Danvers a traditional origin story, the movie will instead open up with her already having powers and serving on the Starforce Kree military team. Eventually, though, Carol will be drawn back to Earth, where she'll have to deal with the shapeshifting Skrulls infiltrating her homeworld. Along the way, Carol will cross paths with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Nick Fury and Phil Coulson, whose lives will be forever changed by seeing a woman who can shoot energy blasts and green aliens who can make themselves look like humans, among other things.
Captain Marvel hits theaters on March 8, 2019, and if you're interested in learning what else the MCU has in development, look through our Marvel movies guide.
