In the series premiere of Loki, the God of Mischief was interrogated in the confines of the Time Variance Authority by Mobius. He taunted The Avengers villain about his greatest failures and pointed out that even his murder of S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson led to Earth's Mightiest Heroes assembling to defeat him.
However, Mobius didn't mention that Loki was unsuccessful in killing Coulson (which would have cemented the events of ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as canon).
Now, Loki Head Writer Michael Waldron has shared his thoughts on this sequence, revealing whether he ever considered mentioning Coulson's miraculous resurrection. "No, look, that is one other tendril of the multiverse, perhaps. I think just seeing mention of Coulson again, the very fact that it raises those questions, is exciting."
It really doesn't sound like Marvel Studios is in any rush to confirm that these Marvel Television shows are set in the MCU, something that was evident from the Darkhold's inclusion in WandaVision. Accepting that they're all just part of another timeline honestly might be best at this stage!
Regardless, Waldron was keen to stress that he wanted Loki to stand on its own two feet.
"The charge was always, though, to make the project stand on its own," the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness scribe said. "That’s always the goal with everything we do there and so with Loki you want that to be great individually. It’s not a set up for something else. It should stand on its own and be its own remarkable thing and if it springboards into another movie or another TV show, great."
With that sequel, Loki, and perhaps even Spider-Man: No Way Home all set to explore the concept of the Multiverse, answers are hopefully coming about how all these different projects tie together!
Click on the "Next" button below to check out some of the
biggest Multiverse questions we have after the Loki premiere!
5. Did The Marvel Television Shows Take Place In A Branched Reality?
Well, this would certainly be one way to explain their place in the MCU.
Like it or not, we've really not seen anything to suggest that the likes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Daredevil are considered canon by Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios. In fact, if you look at the Darkhold, for example, the opposite is the case. Even in Loki, there was no mention of Agent Coulson's resurrection (which would have been a great way for Mobius to taunt the God of Mischief).
Using a throwaway Easter Egg to explain that those shows took place in branching timelines or even another part of the Multiverse would mean they did happen - which keeps fans happy - but not in a way that stops Feige from doing what he wants with the likes of Luke Cage, Ghost Rider, and the Inhumans.
So, Daredevil may have battled Wilson Fisk in one reset timeline, but in the actual MCU...he'll be Peter Parker's lawyer in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
4. What Really Happened During The "Multiversal War"?
Miss Minutes explains that there was once a Multiversal War that saw different timelines clash in an effort to become the dominant one. Had they not been controlled, the entire Multiverse would have been destroyed, and that was where the Time-Keepers came in.
As Loki points out, are we really meant to believe that these reptilian aliens somehow had the power to step in and create a "Sacred Timeline" they now dictate after dreaming up the Time Variance Authority? It feels like there's something we're not being told here, and it's likely the TVA are the unwilling puppets of a far more powerful force.
It's possible, for example, that Kang the Conqueror could be calling the shots, while we wouldn't put it past another Loki (Richard E. Grant's perhaps?) to be posing as the Time-Keepers, creating some sort of loop that ensures he lives forever.
Either way, this "Multiversal War" needs to be addressed, especially after that blatant Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness tease!
3. Is There Really Only One Timeline?
So, if the TVA is to be believed, there's one sacred timeline, and as soon as someone steps off their path, it creates a new one that they need to then step in and prune. If they don't, a new timeline will be created, and that runs the risks of there being another Multiversal War.
If they're telling the truth, though, does that mean there are no alternate realities with different versions of familiar faces? If that's the case, something is clearly going to happen in Loki that lays the groundwork for What If?, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel.
It's possible that while there is one sacred timeline that has to be kept on a set path, others do exist; they just exist completely separately and won't interfere with what's happening in the "main" one.
Different timelines may only pose a problem when they branch off the one the Time-Keepers control, but this is getting confusing, so here's hoping Marvel Studios has an explanation.
2. Why Was It Okay For The Avengers To Use Time-Travel?
Judge Renslayer makes it clear that The Avengers haven't been brought in front of the TVA because what they did by travelling back in time was actually supposed to happen.
That explains a lot, and the TVA stepping in to prune the timeline Loki escaped in means that the God of Mischief never escaped, Captain America didn't learn Bucky was still alive too soon, and so on and so forth. Taking that into account, it makes sense why it was okay for Steve Rogers to get his happy ending with Peggy Carter.
If Sam Wilson was always destined to become Captain America, then Steve needed to travel back in time, return to the present day as an old man, and then...well, we still don't know what happened to him even after The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
Is it possible he was also brought up in front of the TVA? If so, that group could have de-aged him and tasked Steve with being an agent for them. That would be one way to bring Chris Evans back, anyway!
1. How Does All This Tie Into The Doctor Strange Sequel?
As we mentioned, there's a tease in the Loki premiere about "madness" ensuing if different timelines in the Multiverse were to erupt into war, and we can't help but think that this was meant to tease this sequel.
If the Scarlet Witch decides to tear through the Multiverse in a bid to find Tommy and Billy, she could create a myriad of alternate realities that not even the TVA can control (especially if they've been destroyed by the God of Mischief).
That could leave Strange caught in the midst of a war he needs to stop, something we're guessing Wanda Maximoff won't be too bothered by if she just wants her twins back. If Shuma-Gorath is indeed the lead villain, then his presence will likely complicate things, and this is a hard one to predict right now.
However, if the idea of multiple realities is cemented in Loki, it would certainly help better explain what we know about this movie and Spider-Man: No Way Home.