Let’s Talk about Time Travel in the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse

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If you travel back into your own past, that destination becomes your future, and your former present becomes the past, which can’t now be changed by your new future.

Bruce Banner

Terminology	Definition
Multiverse	consists of multiple universes
Universes	consists of many dimensions, as per superstring theory
Timelines	is the chronological progression of a universe
Nexus Events	as introduced in Loki, are events that have the potential to cause branching timelines, and if allowed to progress too far: an alternate universe
Absolute Events	as introduced in What If, are events that happen in every universe, regardless of the circumstances or variations
Sacred Timeline	is a Timeline curated by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) so all Nexus Events behave like Absolute Events

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• 1:00:00 Clint Barton chronoshifts into the past, visiting his family homestead.
  • Nexus Event 1: Clint’s daughter momentarily hears her father’s voice; and Clint takes a baseball glove into his future.
• 1:07:07 The Avengers chronoshifts away from their timeline…
  • Nexus Event 0A: Assuming it’s impossible to chronoshift back into your own timeline… there is now a timeline without the Avengers.
• 1:07:12 Bruce Banner, Scott Lang, Steve Rogers, and Tony Stark, chronoshift back to the events of The Avengers on Earth in 2012.
  • Nexus Event 2A: Steve’s use of the term “Hail Hydra” to trick the undercover Hydra agents into giving him the Sceptre, may cause them (and their organizations) to make different decisions in this timeline.
  • Nexus Event 2B: Scott causes Past Tony’s Arc Reactor to malfunction, allowing Future Stark to pick up the Tesseract… which be promptly loses after being knocked over by the Hulk. Past Loki takes the opportunity to pick it up, leading to the events of Loki (the start of which sees the now protagonist be captured, and his variant timeline pruned.)
  • Nexus Event 2C: Steve encounters Past Steve. The latter discovers the former’s compass with Peggy Carter’s photo, and learns the revelation that Bucky Barnes is still alive.
  • Nexus Event 2D: Bruce encounters the Ancient One, who hands him the Time Stone after some discussion.
• 1:09:20 Thor, and Rocket Racoon, chronoshift back to the events of Thor: The Dark World on Asgard in 2013.
  • Nexus Event 3A: Thor summons Mjolnir, and brings it with him into the future. Past Thor is in a timeline without his weapon.
  • Nexus Event 3B: Rocket managed to extract the Aether from Jane Foster; Malekith would not be able to use it during the Convergence.
• 1:12:00 Clint, Natasha Romanoff, James Rhodes, and Nebula, chronoshift back to the events of the Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 1 on the planet Morag in 2014. Clint, and Natasha, then travel to the planet Vormir.
  • Nexus Event 4A: James, and Nebula, knock out Peter Quill; and take the Power Stone. The Guardians of the Galaxy do not form due to the loss of the McGuffin, and the disappearance of Gamora and Nebula…
  • Nexus Event 4B: Future Nebula’s presence at this point in the timeline causes Past Nebula to malfunction, allowing Past Thanos to become aware of their time-heist; eventually leading to the climax of the film…
• 1:39:00 Tony’s failure to attain the Tesseract in 2012, is why he chronoshifts to 1970 with Steve, in an attempt to obtain it and additional Pym particles.
  • Nexus Event 5A: Tony obtains the Tesseract from his father, Past Howard Stark, from a fascility that he works in with Arnim Zola. The obvious signs of theft will change the security threat levels at the fascility, and the working relationships of all who were present there.
  • Nexus Event 5B: Steve obtains a few vials of Pym particles from Hank Pym’s lab, deepening the mistrust between him and his colleagues.
• 1:55:11 Nexus Event 0B: Aberrant timeline averted once the Avengers return to a future point in time from whence they chronoshifted.
• 2:00:08 Nexus Event 4C: Thanos from this timeline chronoshifts into the Sacred Timeline, therefore leaving behind a universe without the Mad Titan.
• 2:44:33 Nexus Event 0C: Steve chronoshifts into the past, leaving behind a timeline without him.
• 2:45:10 Nexus Event 0D: Steve returns to his timeline, and brings with him a new vibranium shield… leaving behind a timeline with one less shield.

During each of these events, whenever a member of the Time Heist chronoshifts back to the Sacred Timeline, the events they’ve left behind will cause the timeline to diverge, and eventually become another universe…

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The Infinity stones create what you experience as the flow of time. Remove one stone and that flow splits. Now, this may benefit your reality but my new one, not so much. In this new branched reality, without our chief weapon against the forces of darkness, our world will be over run.

The Ancient One

While the Ancient One seems to imply that the presence of the infinity stones in a given universe is what gives it stability; Steve need only chronoshift into the timeline, moments after they initially left it (shouldn’t matter where he physically appears.)

However, due to their meddling, Nexus Events would have caused these timelines to diverge from the Sacred Timeline anyway…

Universe	Speculation
Earth-199999+1	May not diverge too far from the Sacred Timeline, unless the Butterfly Effect takes place…
Earth-199999+2	Has been pruned by the TVA, as seen in the first episode of the Loki series. Steve may have attempted to chronoshift back to the events of The Avengers on Earth in 2012, and only to find a duplicate Mind Stone, and Time Stone (we’ve seen in an episode of What If that this is possible.)
Earth-199999+3	May have resulted in a different ending for Thor: The Dark World…
Earth-199999+4	Timeline without the Guardians of the Galaxy, nor the Mad Titan. Ego might have suceeded in destroying the world.
Earth-199999+5	Future events surrounding Hank, Howard, and Arnim, may have resulted in a different timeline altogether…

Due to the events of Avengers: Endgame, Steve’s vibranium shield broke, but gives a new one to Sam Wilson… which means, depending on the order in which he returned the Infinity Stones, Steve might have taken one from that reality…

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Let’s Talk about Traversing the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse