The Mind-Blowing Time Travel Twists That Changed Everything in Endgame: Revealing MCU's Game-Changing Secrets

Warning! Spoilers ahead for the first episode of Loki season 2. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has disregarded its original time travel guidelines from Avengers: Endgame, resulting in contradictions and new regulations in subsequent projects. This is evident in Loki season 2, where the God of Mischief returns to the TVA. With the expanding multiverse, the MCU is pushing the boundaries of time travel and its capabilities.

Loki season 2 is not the first instance where the MCU has deviated from Endgame's time travel principles. Since the film's release in 2019, the MCU has broken its own time rules in four significant ways. Let's explore each instance where the established rules set by Hulk and the Ancient One in the Infinity Saga finale were compromised.

4 Ms Marvel Broke Hulk's Time Travel Rules

In Ms. Marvel episode 5, Kamala Khan is unexpectedly transported back to the Partition of India in 1947. This event coincides with the disappearance of Kamala's grandmother, Sana, and her separation from Kamala's great-grandfather. Sana had always mentioned following a "trail of stars" that led her back to her father. It is later revealed that Kamala and her hard-light powers were the stars that saved her grandmother, thus ensuring Kamala's own existence. This occurrence creates a causal time loop, commonly known as a bootstrap paradox.

However, this causal loop contradicts the time travel rules established by Bruce Banner's Hulk in Avengers: Endgame. According to Banner, altering the past does not change the present. Simply going back in time to prevent Thanos' Snap or eliminating Thanos in the distant past would not undo the Snap. As Banner explains, "If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future, and your former present becomes the past, which cannot be changed by your new future."

Essentially, this implies that modifying events in the past would simply result in a diverging timeline moving forward with a new reality. Meanwhile, the original present remains unaffected. This indicates that casual time loops like Kamala bringing about her own existence by saving her grandmother should not have been possible. However, since Ms. Marvel's time travel relied on magic sourced from the Noor Dimension, there may be an explanation there.

3 Loki Season 2's OB Scenes Break The Rules

In the premiere of Loki season 2, the character Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston) is facing a new temporal affliction called "time-slipping". Surprisingly, this is occurring within the TVA where time operates differently, which should not be possible. Nevertheless, Loki finds himself forcefully thrown between different points in time - the past, present, and future. This leads to a situation where the established rules set by Endgame are completely disregarded. For instance, Loki engages in a conversation with Ouroboros (portrayed by Ke Huy Quan) in the distant past while Agent Mobius (played by Owen Wilson) is simultaneously conversing with O.B. in the present.

Loki season 2 breaks the established rules of the MCU, which can be attributed to various factors such as the expanding multiverse, the unique time flow within the TVA, and the underlying cause of Loki's time-slipping. This disruption serves as evidence that the rules are evolving and will likely continue to do so in order to accommodate the narrative requirements and the growing multiverse as the MCU progresses towards Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars.

2 Incursions Are Created When People Stay In The Wrong Timeline

The 2022 film "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" introduced the concept of multiversal incursions in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). These incursions occur when two or more realities collide, resulting in their destruction. It was discovered that tampering with the multiverse itself and staying too long in alternate timelines can cause these incursions. However, the fate of Captain America at the end of "Avengers: Endgame" raises a problem.

After returning all the Stones and correcting branched timelines, Captain America decides to stay in the past and be with Peggy Carter. This should have created a separate timeline where he didn't belong, but no incursion occurred. This suggests that there must be additional factors or unknown mechanisms involved in triggering incursions, beyond what was revealed in "Multiverse of Madness."

Furthermore, there is a disagreement between the Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely regarding whether Steve initially created an alternate reality. As per the writers, Steve remains within the primary MCU timeline as his presence in the past was always destined. Conversely, the Russos believe that Captain America indeed caused a separate timeline, which raises questions about how Steve managed to return to the main timeline as an elderly man to converse with Sam Wilson. However, the existence of Temporal Loom in the second season of Loki appears to have resolved this potential inconsistency.

1 The Infinity Stones Don't Control The Flow Of Time Alone

Contrary to the Ancient One's statement in Avengers: Endgame, recent revelations indicate that the Infinity Stones are not the sole controllers of time. The Loki series demonstrates the existence of branch realities, which still harbor the Stones and stand as evidence that other forces and nexus events can influence the passage of time. Furthermore, Loki season 1 highlights the trivial nature of the Infinity Stones according to the Time Variance Authority (TVA), viewing them merely as insignificant trinkets and paperweights.

Loki’s presence in the Marvel multiverse has highlighted the existence of powerful forces that surpass the influence of the Infinity Stones, indicating a greater complexity to time. Furthermore, the established principles of time travel in Avengers: Endgame are losing their significance, implying that the rules will evolve in the expanding multiverse of the MCU. Don't miss the new episodes of Loki, which air every Thursday at 6pm PT / 9pm ET on Disney+.