As you’d expect, spoilers from Loki season 2, episode 4 from here on out.
The discourse swirling around The Marvels has tended to follow the path everybody thought it would from the second it was officially announced that Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers would be returning to headline the sequel to her $1.1 billion origin story, and it’s telling that external factors which have nothing to do with the movie itself have helped convince the skeptics to put their knives down.
Naturally, there was much eye-rolling from longtime supporters of the cosmic hero when mere whispers of a multiverse-shattering cameo from a long-absent member of a team who existed in a different timeline at a different studio was rumored from the post-credits scene, and the latest goings-on in Loki may offer the first hints as to how they hypothetically end up in The Marvels‘ orbit.
The TVA suffered some technical issues this week, by which we mean complete and utter temporal ruination, setting the stage for not just a final two episodes that could shape the future of the entire Multiverse Saga, but segue directly into whatever The Marvels has in store.
Maybe we’re giving Kevin Feige too much credit, but on the other hand, maybe it’s not a coincidence but a deliberately strategic move to have Nia DaCosta’s blockbuster comic book adaptation arrive in theaters just 24 hours after Loki‘s second season draws to a close.
Sure, The Marvels has been delayed more than once so it evidently wasn’t always the plan, but the grand calculus of the multiverse could still be about to reveal itself more transparently than ever before.