Lokipremiered recently marking the third live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe series to arrive on Disney+. While bothWandaVisionandThe Falcon and the Winter Soldierbrought forth their own mysteries in their early episodes,Lokihas presented fans with a seemingly simple question; when does the show take place in the MCU timeline? To put it lightly, it’s complicated. But we may have just been handed a huge clue, which is hiding in plain sight.
As noted by Reddit user Wallbreaker-g on the MarvelStudiosPlus subreddit, “Marvel Studios’Lokiisn’t featured in Disney Plus ‘Timeline Order’ to detail the fact that the series is in a completely different timeline.” The Marvel section of Disney+ breaks down theMCUin various ways. Fans can watch by Phase, or they can do so in chronological order. Yet the MCU Timeline Order section on Disney+, as noted by Wallbreaker-g, omits Loki entirely. But, it does includeWandaVisionandThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier. So, what does this mean exactly?
Warning:spoilersahead forLoki. Proceed with caution. The first episode of the series sees Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief taken into the custody of the Time Variance Authority, aka theTVA. Chronologically, this takes place just after the events of 2012’sThe Avengers. As fans will likely recall, Loki made away with the Tesseract during the Time Heist, setting the stage for the events of this show. Yet, at the same time, he was killed by Thanos at the beginning ofAvengers: Infinity War.
Owen Wilson’sMobiustakes Loki through some of what is going to happen to him in the events followingThe Avengers, implying they haven’t happened yet in the show’s timeline. But Mobius also notes that the timeline works differently at the TVA. So, while it seems likeLokitakes place afterThe Avengers, the lack of Disney+ listing seems to imply that it exists in its own corner of the overall MCU timeline. Or perhaps an entirely different timeline altogether.
We know for sure that movies such asSpider-Man: No Way HomeandDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessare going to open up theMarvel multiversevery soon. Michael Waldron, as it just so happens, is the head writer ofLokiand also wrote the upcomingDoctor Strangesequel. This to say, it would not be surprising to find out that the show effectively takes place in another branch timeline elsewhere in the larger multiverse. And something like that wouldn’t necessarily fit nicely anywhere in the chronological timeline established in the MCU.
Undoubtedly, we are going to learn much more in the coming weeks as the show continues to unfold. As more is revealed, Marvel may well include the show in its proper place on Disney+. Or they may have to create an entirely new subcategory. Whatever the case, it appears the MCU timeline is about to get a major shakeup.Lokireturns with new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+. This news comes to us viaReddit.
