The success of Marvel’s projected multiverse will depend on the establishment of an internally consistent time-travel logic. AfterAvengers: Endgameplayed heavily with temporal concepts and thenWandaVisionfollowed directly in its footsteps, it looks as though Phase 4 is being set up to be all about multiple timelines. Seeming to continue in that theme is the upcoming Disney+ seriesLoki, as new official merchandise for the show appears to tease another intricate time-travel storyline.
The merch, which was listed for sale on Amazon and Zazzle earlier this week, featured a couple of interesting quotes that sparked much fan speculation. One quote, in particular, hinted at a possible timeline-traversing plot for the upcoming series. A shirt displaying the words “The timeline wants to break free” directly over a picture of Tom Hiddleston’s Loki seems to suggest that the God of Mischief himself will be uttering those words at some point during the show.
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Such is a fitting line for the Asgardian trickster, who is definitely no stranger to time travel. In fact, the last time audiences saw Loki was when he stole the Tesseract from the Avengers during the Time Heist inEndgame, in which he likely created a branch reality when he chose not to return to Asgard. In the main timeline - that is, before Thanos' fateful snap inAvengers: Infinity War -Loki ended up dying on Asgardright at the start of the film. As a result of these conflicting timelines, it was hard to tell which one theLokiseries would actually followwhen the show was first announced.
An early description released by Marvel stated that the show would follow the titular villain as he “pops up throughout human history as an unlikely influencer on historical events.” Such a statement led to the assumption thatLokiwould serve as a prequel more than anything else. However, afterthe first trailerthat was dropped back in December showed theEndgamescene where Loki fled with the Tesseract, we now know that the show will have something to do with the alternate-timeline Loki after he escaped inEndgame.
Loki is shown waking up in a desert, then getting picked up by the Time Variance Authority, the agency that audits the many realities in the multiverse and works to keep temporal interference to a minimum. While it’s unclear whether the TVA will successfully convince Loki to help them with their “time management” missions, we do know for sure that he will be causing some chaos along the way.
Marvel’s time-travel logic can be rather confusing at times. AfterEndgame’s release in 2019, many fans pointed out inconsistencies to the Russo Brothers, particularly the ones that came up in Steve Rogers' timeline. Despite the Russosgiving their own explanationsfor the apparent discrepancies, the issue was left up in the air as contradictory statements from variousEndgamewriters were revealed in later reports.
Even Owen Wilson, who stars as Mobius, requireda crash course on the MCU from Tom Hiddlestonhimself in order to keep tabs on the jumpy plot. As Wilson will be playing the character responsible for monitoring every timeline in the multiverse and correcting their problems, Hiddleston’s “Loki lectures,” as Wilson likes to call them, were indeed timely (and very much needed).
Lokidebuts on Disney + This June 11.
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