The success of Marvel's projected multiverse will depend on the establishment of an internally consistent time-travel logic. After Avengers: Endgame played heavily with temporal concepts and then WandaVision followed 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+ series Loki, 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.
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 in Endgame, 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 in Avengers: Infinity War - Loki ended up dying on Asgard right at the start of the film. As a result of these conflicting timelines, it was hard to tell which one the Loki series would actually follow when 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 that Loki would serve as a prequel more than anything else. However, after the first trailer that was dropped back in December showed the Endgame scene 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 in Endgame.
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. After Endgame'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 Russos giving their own explanations for the apparent discrepancies, the issue was left up in the air as contradictory statements from various Endgame writers were revealed in later reports.
Even Owen Wilson, who stars as Mobius, required a crash course on the MCU from Tom Hiddleston himself 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).
Loki debuts on Disney + This June 11.
Source: Zazzle