Why didn't Nick Fury call Captain Marvel instead of Spider-Man?

Question

In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Peter Parker asks Nick Fury why he approached him of all heroes to help deal with the threat of the Elementals against Earth's very existence:

Peter: Sir, come on, there's gotta be someone else you can use. What about Thor?

Fury: Off-world.

Peter: Doctor Strange?

Maria Hill: Unavailable.

Peter: Captain Marvel?

Fury: Don't invoke her name.

The "don't invoke her name" is probably a reverential nod to the insane, otherworldly, God-like power that Carol Danvers has, but for the extreme existential threat that Mysterio claims the Elementals are to Earth, it makes perfect sense to call in Captain Marvel for this task.

Is there an in-universe reason for him not doing so?

Answer 1

There are likely a few reasons here so lets break them down.

For emergencies only

Carol says herself that Nick should only use the upgraded pager for emergencies, he doesn't appear to use it for the Chitauri invasion in The Avengers or Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Carol Danvers: I upgraded it. Range should be, a couple galaxies, at least.

Nick Fury: What? You think I'm gonna crank call you?

Carol Danvers: For emergencies only. Okay?

_{Captain Marvel}

This is also the reason why he doesn't appear to call her until Avengers: Infinity War, before then these threats were just Avengers level threats, Thanos was a Carol level threat.

Peter: And I know you probably have an answer for this. Why didn’t Nick Fury not use the pager until Infinity War? Because this big hole opened up in the sky and aliens attacked New York City.

Kevin Feige: Well, I’d say two things. One, she does say it’s gotta be a real emergency, right? Yeah.

Peter: Because that was just a city. I guess that’s not the world.

Kevin Feige: The other thing I’d say is how do you know he never hit it? How do we know he never pushed it before? We’ve never seen him push it before. That doesn’t mean he never did.

_{/Film, Why Nick Fury Didn’t Page Captain Marvel Before ‘Infinity War’, According To Kevin Feige}

Which leads into the next point...

He may have called her and she couldn't come

He says she's "unavailable" which means he must know that for some reason. Whether that's because she told him when she left or he called and she told him, who knows? And even if he did call her, she's covering a large area as Earth isn't the only place with problems. Therefore, Earth probably wasn't her priority during that timespan of Spider-Man: Far From Home.

James "Rhodey" Rhodes: Hey, new girl, everyone here is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?

Carol Danvers: There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys.

[...]

Natasha Romanoff: Carol, are we seeing you here next month?

Carol Danvers: Not likely.

Rocket: What, you gonna get another haircut?

Carol Danvers: Listen fur-face, I'm covering a lot of territory. The things that are happening on Earth, are happening everywhere, on thousands of planets.

Rocket: All right, all right, that's a good point. That's a good point.

Carol Danvers: So you might not see me for a long time.

_{Avengers: Endgame}

The twist

It's worth noting that in the film that Fury we see,

isn't actually Fury, but Talos.

As such he might have had specific orders to not call Carol with whatever she was doing. In fact, it seems like he wasn't even supposed to call

Fury

considering his reaction in the scene when he does. As he doesn't even know what to say when people ask where the Avengers are it seems likely he, himself, is on a need to know basis and is just there temporarily. Even more so because his mission appears to be to fill in and give Peter the glasses.

In fact considering the relationship between this Fury and Carol it seems likely he may not have wanted to call her and instead rely on what he had. That's mostly why he says "Don't invoke her name.", not because of the power she has.

The manipulation

It is also worth noting that Beck has been manipulating "Fury" somewhat throughout this time. He's been making himself look very good as well as making the attacks occur near Peter so that he was the one Fury called upon as he was nearest. Whilst Beck can't really manipulate Fury into not calling the other Avengers he could try and make it seem like they were less needed by making himself look a lot better. When we get to London we even see Beck state that "No other Avengers are coming".

Along these lines it's worth noting that according to Jon Watts, the director, the whole thing probably wouldn't have worked if Fury had been there instead of Talos as he is more sceptical by his very nature.

“Nick Fury’s super power is essentially being skeptical,” Watts notes. “Suspicion is what makes Nick Fury, Nick Fury. That just helped make that part of the story make sense to me in a good way. Nick Fury was sort of taking a vacation of his own, which fits into the greater storyline of Peter’s vacation. So it all sort of came together in this one last moment.”

_{Polygon, Why Spider-Man: Far From Home’s director wanted a Sixth Sense-like, post-credit twist}

Answer 2

Ever since Nick became aware of Carol, he's been aware that she doesn't really consider herself an Earthling, and has a bunch of stuff to do all across the galaxy. This is why he started the Avenger Initiative: to find other people capable of defending Earth when she can't, or won't. (For example, when the Chitauri invade, or when Ultron tries to wipe out humanity.)

That's exactly what he's doing (or, as it turns out in the post-credits scene, delegating) in Far From Home. Tony, Cap and Nat are gone, Thor's off being a hippy space pirate, Bruce is probably busy taking selfies, Hawkeye's probably retired again.

Nick might think there's a risk that Peter will give up the whole hero thing after his mentor died. But he definitely knows that there are plenty of threats to Disney cinema grosses Earth, all over the release schedule galaxy, and that any potential heroes on Earth need to step up and show they can compete with Aquaman 2 get in the game.

Answer 3

there are 2 very simple reasons why Nick didn't call Carol.

No1 wanting to get EDITH meant Beck ensured only Peter would be called on. When he attacks London he purposely ensures that no other Avengers are coming to fight the new monster. This scene clears up a very important point, why didn't Fury call the other Avengers, the answer Beck manipulated him in such a way that he didn't think he needed to. Spiderman (armed with EDITH) and Beck where more then enough.

The main purpose of Fury meeting with Peter was to get the glasses to him, it then coincided with the Elementals because of Beck, remember he made sure the Elementals appeared in Venice, and he made sure that Fury believed he could handle them and didnt need any more help, he even suggested to Peter that if he left it would be OK and he would fight on alone, we know then that he would also win. which is also where Peter happened to be and Fury needed to get the glasses to Peter which Beck wanted so Beck manipulated it all.

Also as per the Post Credit scene, which is in itself an important thing

Fury is Talos, Fury is in Space, probably with Danvers, Fury gave Talos a simple task, give Edith to Peter. Beck then involved himself in that and as is clear Talos feels a bit embarrassed that it almost all went very very wrong. It is clear that during the events of Far From Home Talos was not about to call Fury and ask for help and calling Carol is the same thing.

Answer 4

Skrull imposter Nick doesn't want to be outed by Carol Danvers.