Five years ago today, the Marvel Cinematic Universe rewrote the rules of its timeline — and it changed everything for the franchise. Until the Avengers’ Time Heist in Avengers: Endgame, the MCU stuck to a fairly straightforward trajectory, even if alternate realities were alluded to. It wasn’t until Endgame gave way to Marvel’s Phase Four that the MCU’s multiverse fully cracked open. And the Avengers traveling back in time led directly to this.
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Yet Avengers: Endgame didn’t have time to show the aftermath of their actions, as it was focused on undoing Thanos’ snap and ending the Infinity Saga villain. A different MCU project tackled the fallout two years later, and it rewrote the MCU’s timeline moving forward. It became one of the most crucial titles in the entire cinematic universe, laying the groundwork for the rest of the Multiverse Saga to unfold.
Loki Premiered Five Years Ago & Introduced the TVA and the Sacred Timeline
Loki Season 1 premiered on Disney+ on June 9, 2021, introducing fans of the MCU to a new Variant of Tom Hiddleston’s character — right before sending him on a wild journey across timelines. The first episode of Loki opened with Endgame‘s Time Heist, revealing what happened after Loki disappeared with the Tesseract. It created exactly the sort of problem the Ancient One warned Bruce Banner about: it caused a branch in the timeline. But while Avengers: Endgame breezed past this development, Loki‘s premiere addressed it more thoroughly.
In its first episode, the Disney+ series found Loki tracked down by the Time Variance Authority, the organization tasked with pruning rogue Variants and branches. It also introduced the concept of the Sacred Timeline, the singular flow of time that the TVA was committed to protecting. These things may have existed prior to Loki‘s introduction, but Marvel fans were largely unaware of them. Loki‘s lore drop was a game-changer in that regard — and its Season 1 and 2 finales further altered the MCU’s setup.
Tom Hiddleston’s Disney+ Series Rewrote the MCU’s Timeline Over Its Two Seasons
With Loki introducing the concepts of the Sacred Timeline and the TVA, the Disney+ series completely rewrote the foundation of the MCU. It also opened the door to all-new multiversal possibilities, which the franchise went on to explore in its subsequent releases. It’s thanks to the chaos caused in Loki that films like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness were possible. Sylvie killing He Who Remains at the end of Loki Season 1 blew open the MCU’s Multiverse, which impacted its other characters.
Loki and his friends sought to undo some of that damage in Season 2, and Hiddleston’s character eventually chose to be a guardian of the Multiverse. However, the finale swapped out the Sacred Timeline for a more complicated tree of alternate realities instead. This enabled the MCU to work films set in different universes into its lineup, including Deadpool & Wolverine and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The latter introduced a new threat to the franchise, too, which could end up rewriting its framework all over again.
Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars May Upend the MCU’s Multiverse Yet Again
Loki may have rewritten the MCU’s timeline, but the Multiverse may soon be upended yet again. Avengers: Doomsday is set to be a massive, franchise-altering event come its December 2026 release. And part of its shake-up potential stems from the introduction of Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom, who will likely seek to gain control of the Multiverse Loki is guarding. With Hiddleston’s character confirmed to appear in the film, it’s possible Doctor Doom will even take him out of the equation. If that happens, we can anticipate more chaos across the MCU’s timelines.
And with Avengers: Secret Wars set to follow Doomsday, it’s probably safe to assume that’s exactly where things are headed. 2015’s Secret Wars sees “incursions” happening, which basically amount to separate timelines crashing together. That’s the sort of destruction you’d expect from a two-part Avengers adventure, and it has the potential to revamp the MCU once more. It could look a lot different on the heels of the 2027 sequel.
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