The Captain Marvel Reference You Missed In What If...? Episode 5
Contains spoilers for "What If...?" Episode 5
Throughout all of the "What If...?" episodes, there are easter eggs scattered about for MCU fans to eat up. Episode 5 ("What If... Zombies!?") is full of nods to former properties in the universe, and it even features a fun reference to Harry Potter. On the Marvel end of things, Episode 5 includes a famous location visited in two "Captain America" properties. The surviving heroes track down a beacon to Camp Lehigh, where Vision is hiding out with a zombie Wanda and bodiless Scott Lang. Camp Lehigh is the former training base of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), which later became the first home of SHIELD. It was destroyed in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" but appears to be in working condition in "What If...?"
In her brief appearance in Episode 5, Natasha Romanoff is also wearing Yelena Belova's vest from "Black Widow," which was another fun easter egg for fans to discover. A third hidden detail was a reference to "Captain Marvel," and it was easily missed if you aren't on top of your MCU history or if you're not knowledgeable about its aircrafts.
Peter Parker, T'Challa, and Scott Lang ride on a special jet
After the surviving heroes make their way to Camp Lehigh, all hell breaks loose when Wanda is released from captivity. As they escape the facility, Vision tells the group that there is a Quadjet in the hanger and points them in the right direction. This is not the Quinjet MCU fans are most familiar with, which serves as the transportation for the Avengers in several team-up films and some solo flicks.
The Quadjet only appears in "Captain Marvel" and is the predecessor to the Quinjet. The aircraft was conceived by Project PEGASUS — which was created to study the Tesseract. Vers (Brie Larson) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) commandeer a Quadjet while escaping the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility in the Carol Danvers-origin film. The plane can also travel in space, which Vers and Nick do when traveling to Mar-Vell's laboratory. In Episode 5 of "What If...?," Peter Parker, T'Challa, and Scott Lang are the only survivors who make it onto the Quadjet as they take off for Wakanda. It was an exciting aircraft for the writers to choose since MCU fans are most familiar with the Quinjet.