Interactive Graphic Explains Time Travel In Avengers: Endgame

When the concept of time travel is introduced to a film or television show, it always runs the [...]

When the concept of time travel is introduced to a film or television show, it always runs the risk of a complicated storytelling experience -- something pretty evident when Avengers: Endgame brought time travel to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While Marvel Studios tried to reduce the number of rules in the MCU's version of time travel, it was complicated by the fact that entire realities were presumably created when people hopped between spaces in the timeline.

Luckily for fans still a bit confused on the entire setup introduced in Endgame, one programmer has made a web application that makes it pretty darn easy to understand everything that happened throughout the latest Avengers film. Oren Bell has crafted a nifty tool that lets you take each of the characters in the film and examine their role in Avengers: Endgame and how their actions impacted the future of the MCU as a whole. The timeline can be played with here and it's a pretty cool sight to see. According to the chart, at least four separate timelines had been created by the end of Endgame, apparently not counting the one where Loki took the Space Stone from the Battle of New York 2012 timeline.

Endgame co-director Joe Russo had previously confirmed that it's not just one big time loop, something where a butterfly effect could come into play if you change something in the past. Instead, as Russo says, alternate realities are introduced each time something is changed, meaning Captain America (Chris Evans) was in a separate reality when he went back

"It's not a time loop," Russo said. "Both Ancient One and Hulk were right. You can't change the future by simply going back to past. But it's possible to create a different alternate future. It's not butterfly effect. Every decision you made in the past could potentially create a new timeline. For example, the old Cap at the end movie, he lived his married life in a different universe from the main one. He had to make another jump back to the main universe at the end to give the shield to Sam."

Were you a fan of the time travel rules introduced in Avengers: Endgame? Why or why not? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Avengers: Endgame is now in theaters and will be followed by Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 2nd.

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