Avengers: Endgame — Here are all the new alternate timelines
The Quantum Realm served as a highway to the past in Avengers: Endgame, creating alternate timelines in the process. Heavy spoilers below.
The original six Avengers returned for one final mission in Avengers: Endgame. But before that main mission took its course, the heroes coalesced very early in the movie to pay Thanos a visit at “The Garden.” They were looking for the Infinity Stones but, to their unpleasant surprise, Thanos had used them to destroy them. Having now truly lost, all hopes were risen when Ant-Man introduced the Quantum Realm to the Avengers. And indeed, so too was the concept of time travel.
As it happens in time travel movies, if you mess with time, time tends to fight back. So when the Avengers traveled to the past to acquire the Infinity Stones, a few obstacles here and there unwittingly created some alternate timelines.
Now, unlike Back to the Future or the Bill & Ted movies, in the MCU changing the past doesn’t alter the future. Traveling back in time and making some changes only creates new timelines, much like how time travel works in Dragon Ball Z or the concept of the multiverse in Marvel Comics. With that out of the way, let’s talk some timelines!
The New 2012 Loki Timeline
Tony Stark and Ant-Man were responsible for recovering the Tesseract, which houses the Space Stone. Things didn’t go as planned, though, and the Infinity Stone was instead stolen by that time’s Loki, who then escaped with it to an unknown destination. In essence, there exists a timeline where Loki was never imprisoned and sent back to Asgard after the Battle of New York in 2012. And presumably, this is the Loki whom we’ll follow in the new Loki-centric Disney Plus show.
The New 2014 Thanos-less Timeline
When Nebula and War Machine traveled to 2014 to acquire the Power Stone, Nebula was ambushed by her past self. When Past-Nebula returned with War Machine to the present, she brought with her Thanos and his entire armada. Eventually, these versions of Thanos and his army were defeated in the third act of Endgame. This then means that there exists a timeline where Thanos disappeared in 2014 and never collected all of the Infinity Stones.
In this alternate timeline, the original Guardians as we know them (Gamora, Star-Lord, Rocket, Groot and Drax) never form as a team, and the events of Guardians of the Galaxy never happen, or transpire in a totally different way. This new timeline is one of the most drastically different from the others, which makes it all the more interesting to explore.
The Possible New 1970s Timeline?
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When Tony and Ant-Man failed to get the Space Stone in 2012, Cap and Tony used the last of their Pym Particles to go even further back in time. They landed in the 1970s version of Camp Lehigh, the birthplace of Captain America and a secret SHIELD base. While they were successful in stealing the Tesseract there, Tony had a small but meaningful encounter with his father.
In terms of new timeline creations, not much was altered to possibly create a new one. Nevertheless, since Howard Stark was never supposed to meet a guy named “Howard Potts,” and Hank Pym was never supposed to lose some of his Pym Particles, then perhaps those small occurrences were enough to affect a change down the line.
The Old Man Cap Timeline
At the end of Endgame, Captain America is sent back in time to return the Infinity Stones. Instead of returning to the present after placing the Stones in their respective times, Cap stays in the past. Hence he creates a new timeline where he lived a happy life with Peggy Carter. He then returns to the present as an old man and passes the mantle of Captain America to Sam Wilson. Of course, all of this opens a huge can of questions.
What happened to the Steve Rogers that went down in the ice in that timeline? Does that mean there’s two Steve Rogers’ in that new timeline? Did Cap ever disclose that SHIELD is secretly Hydra? Did he go on new adventures? If so, were the Avengers ever created by Nick Fury in that timeline? Oh, so many questions! What’s intriguing is that there’s a whole life to explore in Old Man Cap’s timeline, so perhaps that’s a movie or Disney Plus show waiting to be announced.
Next. Avengers: Endgame: 5 most shocking moments from the film. dark
Where there any more new timelines created in Avengers: Endgame that we didn’t cover? Which new timeline would you like to see in a Disney Plus show? Let us know in the comments below.