Warning: This article contains spoilers for Loki season 2, episode 4.
As if to flip the bird at anyone who’s said the Multiverse Saga hasn’t come close to matching the impact of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, Loki season 2’s fourth episode deploys the MCU’s most shocking cliffhanger since Thanos dusted half the population of the universe.
The full ramifications of this are currently unclear to us, but by the looks of things, the entire Marvel multiverse has just gone kablooey. Once Victor Timely, the TVA’s only hope at salvation, is destroyed by time radiation when trying to fix the Temporal Loom, the Loom explodes, thereby detonating all of reality. As the episode ends on a chillingly silent fade to black, the jaws of Marvel fans everywhere hit the floor as it looked like the TVA was no more.
The wait to find out how things bounce back from here is surely going to be a long one… Or not, as it happens. Thanks to Marvel’s other latest release, we actually already know the outcome of Loki‘s big cliffhanger. Spoilers: the multiverse gets better.
Much to our surprise, Marvel Studios: The Marvel Cinematic Universe: The Official Timeline — a new Marvel book that officially lays out the MCU timeline — clarifies that Loki season 1 is actually the first entry in the Multiverse Saga, chronologically taking place before WandaVision. Seeing that season 2 picks up immediately where season 1 left off, this multiversal explosion clearly occurs prior to WV as well. Therefore, we know for certain that the reality of the MCU continues.
On a smaller note, so does the TVA, as Miss Minutes is the narrator of the Official Timeline book and is reviewing events that take place after those of Loki. What’s more, this multiversal reboot apparently doesn’t seem to cause too much damage, going by everything we’ve already witnessed across Phases Four and Five. Unless this is the event that allows Kang the Conqueror to make his impact on the timeline, finally providing some context to Quantumania?
The specifics are yet to be seen, but dry those tears and dab the sweat from your foreheads, folks, as the MCU multiverse isn’t going anywhere. You know, just in case you thought the rest of the Marvel slate was just some cruel prank and Kevin Feige was actually about to retire to Tahiti.