Up to this point, we all assumed that the Marvel Cinematic Universe consists of multiple reality branches simultaneously. As such, we all expected WandaVision to kick it off after Wanda created a pocket dimension out of the small rural town of Westview. After countless guesswork, it ended up as a self-contained story, and there were no real signs of the multiverse just yet. Even 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home teased its existence only for it to turn out to be a lie by Mysterio. Yet, we have a What If series heading to Disney+, and Doctor Strange‘s sequel has the subtitle Multiverse of Madness. So, we believed Loki would finally confirm our suspicions only to surprise us even more. It revealed that the TVA serves to prevent new timelines from sprouting into existence. It seems the multiverse we know has already happened and imploded after a war. Now, it made us wonder what exactly was the multiverse before the Time Keepers got involved?
There are no hints at what existed before the Sacred Timeline got created. If they follow the comics, the current iteration of the Avengers and their entire journey serve the Time Keepers as they seek to ensure their life cycle remains intact. Mobius also hints at the fact that the timeline exists in a constant loop. So, the end of time will always lead back to the beginning of creation. As such, our heroes will continue down their path no matter what over and over again. It did sound like the world was very different in the original timeline before it got that TVA reboot at some random point in its existence. We have no idea what may have led to that event, but there might be some curious hints through the rumor mill, especially surrounding Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Everything seems to be pointing to the appearance of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield‘s incarnations of the iconic webhead. Their villains seem almost confirmed at this point. Yet, there is one contradiction their appearance would create. As we saw, branches extend out of the Sacred Timeline when a nexus event happens. Like in What If, any alternative version of the characters will connect to the main timeline. Peggy Carter becoming Captain Britain is only a different event unfolding as some of the same events happened before the nexus that caused the new scenario. So, if we get introduced to two versions of a character with very distinct histories, it would imply that the multiverse was much more unique at one point, as the heroes looked different. Of course, the TVA’s current predicament could contradict this, but it does seem likely that we’re playing with very distinct concepts of the multiverse. Perhaps Garfield and Maguire come from multiversal timelines before the first war, which developed more independently from each other. Miss Minutes used the wording “unique” when discussing their pre-war existence.
Whatever happens in Loki, it may see the resurgence of these original timelines that vanished after the first Multiversal War. Marvel Studios already rebranded older movies as Marvel Legacy projects. So, it may be a way to keep them as distinct franchises but open up the door to allow the potential of multiversal cameos without breaking the universe’s canon. So, it won’t make people think if Hugh Jackman has a brief appearance as Wolverine, he will return to the role moving forward. Speaking of the X-Men franchise, the confirmed third Deadpool entry also gives the theory some weight if you consider that it’s a continuation from the Fox universe that continues into the MCU. As such, he may be part of this original multiverse and ends up in the Sacred Timeline. As an outsider, he starts to unravel the universe even more, especially if you consider his ability to break the fourth wall. We know the first seeds for a Secret Wars adaptation got planted. Just like Thanos, it seems inevitable that the next multiversal war will happen, and we might see some other familiar faces join the fray.
