Loki Writer on Agents of SHIELD Continuity: “That Is One Other Tendril of the Multiverse”

The first episode of Loki wasted zero time on taking the titular trickster back through his entire life. Thanks to an impromptu therapy session with Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson), Loki (Tom Hiddleston) was able to see his past, present, and future play out in front of his very eyes. This includes a reference to the moment in The Avengers where the Asgardian kills Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg). Interestingly enough, Mobius and the Time Variance Authority would know that Coulson was revived during the events of Agents of SHIELD, but it’s heavily implied in the series that Coulson remains dead.

That’s probably for good reason, as Loki head writer Michael Waldron suggests the ABC series officially takes place in a universe other than the “sacred timeline” the Marvel Cinematic Universe officially resides on.

“No, look, that is one other tendril of the multiverse, perhaps,” Waldron told Fandom. “I think just seeing mention of Coulson again, the very fact that it raises those questions, is exciting.”

As the Loki premiere explains in-depth, the multiverse is a very real thing in the MCU, and it’s the sole reason the TVA is even in existence. It’s the outfit’s job to prune other errant timelines so that the “sacred” one remains the lone timeline in all of the multiverse.

During WandaVision, there seemed to be another connection to SHIELD, though Jac Schaeffer opted to avoid a question about the nod entirely. “This is where I’m going to talk about something entirely different. What can we talk about? [Laughs] It rained yesterday,” the writer told Entertainment Tonight when pressed about the scenario.

To date, Marvel Studios executives have yet to directly confirm whether SHIELD and Marvel Television’s wide slate of programming — from Daredevil to Inhumans — is in the same continuity as the films and shows the Kevin Feige-led production house is releasing.

The first episode of Loki is now streaming on Disney+. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

What other characters do you think could pop up in the Hiddleston-starring series? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!

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