Time travel is always a concept that opens itself up to intense scrutiny, with fans picking apart even the most minute details in an attempt to find holes in the logic. There have been very few movies in history that established watertight rules, but in the grand scheme of things, Avengers: Endgame fared pretty well. Although as a mega budget comic book blockbuster, suspension of disbelief was never going to be an issue.
Things looked to have been tied up in a neat little bow as the Infinity Saga drew to a close, reshuffling the board for Phase Four and retiring several marquee characters. However, the 2012 version of Loki escaping with the Tesseract and headlining his own Disney Plus series where he’ll wreak havoc throughout the decades would indicate that the time heist wasn’t without repercussions, and a new theory now claims that Endgame messing with the established order of things could have resulted in the creation of Kang the Conqueror.
The intergalactic villain is heavily rumored to debut in Ant-Man 3 as played by Jonathan Majors, and there’s already plenty of speculation about how he’ll be involved. The latest theory is operating under the impression that time travel always has consequences even when it results in a happy ending, and Avengers: Endgame will be no different.
Now that time travel exists as part of MCU canon, someone is inevitably going to try and use it with evil intentions. Kang’s comic book origins place him as being born in the 30th Century, and if Marvel keep it that way, then the franchise’s timeline has presented the ideal means for him to show up in the modern day. The Ancient One already warned Bruce Banner of the perils, after all, and the butterfly effect could spread throughout the upcoming slate of movies.
As ScreenRant explains:
Born in the 30th Century, Kang is a descendant for Reed Richards in Marvel Comics, and a genius who is able to conquer his own world and, moving through time, several others across history. Indeed, Kang’s time travelling even has similar consequences to that of Endgame’s; much like the time travel of the Avengers created a branched reality each time they meddled with the past, so too does Kang’s time travel end up effectively creating a new version of himself – several of whom have been fleshed out into their own distinct personas. So not only does Endgame introduce time travel, but it’s already introduced concepts similar to that of Kang the Conqueror himself.
Tony Stark also had the unfortunate habit of creating many of the MCU’s villains either directly or indirectly through his technology, and Phase Four might continue that thread given that he was the one who cracked the formula for time travel. As such, Tony’s sins could haunt the rest of the heroes as an all-powerful villain like Kang uses his scientific breakthrough to appear in the present, and Iron Man won’t even be there to face the threat.