'Captain America: Brave New World': Who Told Earth About Celestials?

WARNING: SPOILERS for Captain America: Brave New World.

Ever since the release of Eternals in 2021, MCU fans have questioned when the matter of the giant head and hand of the Celestial Tiamut now emerging from the ocean would be addressed. After a quick visual gag in She-Hulk: Attorney-At-Law, Tiamut's remains have now been officially revisited in Captain America: Brave New World.

Now dubbed Celestial Island, the location has become a core point of conflict in the film, as the MCU's only source of the new, powerful metal, Adamantium, which long term Marvel fans will know as the metal that coats Wolverine's skeleton and claws. President Ross spends the majority of the film attempting to finalise a treaty arranging shared ownership of Celestial Island, and therefore Adamantium.

Some fans have jumped to declare the naming of Celestial Island as a plot hole, claiming the people of Earth would not know what a Celestial is. However, there are ways, or characters, from whom they could have found out.

S.A.B.E.R

After brief teasers in WandaVision, Spider-Man: Far From Home and Secret Invasion, S.A.B.E.R, a space station captained by Nick Fury and crewed by Skrulls loyal to him, is officially introduced in The Marvels. The station, which also employs Monica Rambeau, seems to exist to monitor threats or anomalies in space.

As part of their monitoring, S.A.B.E.R could have, at some point, discovered what a Celestial is.. or been in contact with someone who does.

Captain Marvel

Following her crash to Earth in Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers became Nick Fury's first sign that aliens do exist, and some could be a potential threat. Following the events of that film, which took place in the mid-90s, Carol spent a little over two decades exploring and fighting crime in space before returning to Earth to answer Fury's distress call in the moments after the decimation.

In her time wandering the cosmos, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that she could have encountered a Celestial or learned what one was, and could have passed that info on to Fury and S.A.B.E.R when the matter arose.

The Guardians of the Galaxy

During the five year time jump in Avengers: Endgame, Natasha Romanoff, still running a skeleton crew operation from the near empty Avengers Compound, is in regular contact with both Rocket Raccoon and Nebula, who monitor events and anomalies in space. Both are aware of the existence of Knowhere, a 'planet' that is the severed head of a dead Celestial.

By the time of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3, the Guardians have purchased and taken up residence in Knowhere. Assuming someone on Earth still has contact, the Guardians could have explained Celestials to them following Tiamut's Emergence.

Peter Quill/Star-Lord

Even if Earth did fall out of regular contact with the Guardians, fear not, we now have a Guardian of our very own! At the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3, Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, decides to give up captaincy of the Guardians and return home. Prior to his return to Earth, Quill had been living in Knowhere with the Guardians. It's probably likely that authorities would have wanted to question him.

As both the son of a Celestial (although, most fans agree, a different kind than Arishem or Tiamut), and having lived inside the giant severed head of one, Quill is perhaps uniquely qualified to recognise Tiamut's remains as a Celestial. Even if he had not been back on Earth yet when Celestial Island emerged, he may have been when the time came to name the discovery.

Back in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, Quill also learned that Knowhere was regularly mined for Celestial tissue and fluids which held Black Market value. With this in mind, it's also somewhat possible that Quill's knowledge could have prompted Earth's discovery of Adamantium.

Dane Whitman

During the final scene of Eternals, Sersi is seen explaining the outcome of the mission to thwart Tiamut's emergence to her human love interest, Dane Whitman. Dane then witnessed Arishem's abduction of the Eternals remaining on Earth.

Dane may very well have been questioned about what he saw. He may also have shared what he knew about Celestials.

Sprite

At the end of Eternals, Sersi uses the last of the Uni-mind's power to grant Sprite's wish to become human. Because of this, she is exempt from Arishem's wrath, left behind with Kingo's assistant Kurun when Arishem takes Sersi, Kingo, and Phastos.

While a former Eternal, Sprite maintains her memories from her time as one, and therefore her knowledge of Celestials. While a seemingly random child and a Bollywood star's assistant are probably less likely to get their intel to the right ears than anyone else on this list, it certainly isn't impossible.

While Captain America: Brave New World does not directly deal with how Earth's powers learned of the existence of Celestials, there are too many valid information sources to dismiss the naming of Celestial Island as a plot hole. However the name came about, the island has just become one of the MCU's most important locations.