Once upon a time the MCU was easy to understand. The story began with Iron Man, the world was very similar to our own, and we only had the occasional alien invasion to worry about. Fifteen years later we’ve got time travel, alternative realities, crossovers with other cinematic universes, and the whole darn multiverse to figure out.
Explaining exactly what’s going on in 2023 leaves you looking like Charlie Day ranting in front of a corkboard covered in red strings. Now, incredibly, it seems things may get even more tangled in Loki season two with the introduction of multiple sacred timelines, each more sacred than the last:
With this rats nest of confusing alternate worlds, timelines, and characters the MCU is, of course, almost exactly copying what tends to happen in comic books. But while DC tends to prune down their multiversal universe with “Crisis” events, Marvel has traditionally just kept on expanding their universe while playing it lightly with retcons.
Feeling fatigued by keeping track of all this is understandable, though we suspect if Loki season two just tells a good story the precise details of MCU cosmology won’t matter. Even so, we hope that when the whole Kang story is wrapped up they take the opportunity to boil back the MCU to its essentials and perform the softest of soft reboots.
If that were to happen, what better time to fully introduce the X-Men and start the ball rolling on movies more similar to Phases One and Two?
Loki season two hits Disney Plus on Oct. 6.