After watching Avengers 4, the only question on your mind is, what was that? The Russo brothers didn’t get it right and pulled off perhaps the most convoluted plot in the cinematic universe. Explaining the ending and all the details of the movie could take a lifetime. But we will try in the next few paragraphs to explain the mechanism of time travel, the possible return of Tony Stark, and the final broken timeline of the cinematic universe. This is going to be very interesting.
We hope everyone remembers the events of the ending, but just in case, let’s go over it again. Tony Stark sacrifices himself, Thanos from the past who came to the future is defeated, and Thor, along with the Guardians of the Galaxy, flies far, far away. All of this is made possible by time travel and the second Infinity Glove. This is the juiciest detail.
In classic movies, we’ve always seen several variations of time travel. The first is linear – everything that happened in the past is constant. No matter what you do, the timeline will fold to remain the same in the future. This doesn’t work in Avengers. Loki escaped with the Tesseract after the battle for New York and definitely didn’t get captured in Asgard to oust Odin in the future.
The second scheme is presented in the butterfly effect – changing the past is possible, but it will have disastrous consequences for the future. This is also not what the Rousseau brothers showed. The future remained unchanged no matter what the characters did.
The Avengers
Many believe that the movie universe has taken the Harry Potter mechanism as its image. There you can change the future, but very carefully and not forgetting about the paradox of the grandfather, which forbids meetings with himself. But as Bruce Benner said, there are no such problems at Marvel. Going back in time keeps us moving forward and the past becomes our present. The Thanos flick couldn’t be undone by killing him as an infant. That would have simply created a separate timeline.
The end of the game can officially be considered a fait accompli. It has come, and the Avengers didn’t need any help, they did everything themselves.
Many reputable portals and critics blame Marvel for the murky time travel scheme and make crazy theories. If they are to be believed, it was not Thanos, but The Collector, who made the flick in the future. And the events of the past part of the movies also turned out to be rewritten because of the past entertainment of Tony and his friends. This is a misconception, because in “Avengers 4” we didn’t see time travel, but universe travel. And this is an important point.
Ancient clearly explained to Bruce Benner that each journey created its own timeline, the actions of which would unfold independently. In other words, all the universes to which the Avengers traveled became separate. Tony Stark didn’t see his father, but a version of him from an alternate reality. The same can be said of the other characters. This is clearly confirmed by the example of Nebula. By killing a version of herself from the past, the girl from the present did not disappear. And she should have, if you take the classic scheme from any other movie as an example. And after Thanos died from the past, there was no cancellation of the flick, either.
So the theories are superfluous here. Time travel in the movie universe works the same way it does in the comics. Any change does not affect the future, but creates a pocket universe that continues to evolve. This in turn is a fat hint at the Loki series. Remember when one of the rumors promised that it would tell the story of the time-traveling god of deception? Now it’s more than possible. Loki from the future is dead, but the protagonist of the series will be the version that escaped with the Tesseract from 2012. He saw the Avengers from the future and definitely figured out what’s what. Unfortunately, this travel mechanism makes Tony Stark’s death real and irreversible. Like Black Widow, in this reality he is finally dead. But the door remains open, because no one has cancelled the possibility of replacing Stark with a version from another timeline. It is more than possible, if you wish.
And without big cinematic blunders, of course, we can’t do without them. First of all, in the comics, the Infinity Stones only worked in the reality in which they were created. The movie has nullified this rule. But it’s impossible to nail down the other one. After all, the stones can and do resurrect people. This ability is practically a hundred percent. Otherwise, there is no sense in the artifacts. According to the official description, the stones control all aspects of the universe. And death is definitely one aspect. Sure, Hulk mentioned that he tried to resurrect Natasha when he snapped his fingers, but that excuse is weak. If you can bring back half the inhabitants of the universe with a full gauntlet and can’t resurrect one, it looks illogical. But that’s something the writers can forgive.
Let’s talk better about the Cap situation, which set a lot of people’s asses on fire. At first glance it ruins everything we talked about earlier. Steve somehow went back in time to his own timeline and lived a happy life. But it’s easy to explain. First, neither the Agent Carter series nor the movie universe focused on the girl’s husband. It was only mentioned that she sort of had children. And there’s no problem that these are the children of Cap, who, when he went back, lived a second life in secret. At one point there were two Steve Rogers, but since they didn’t affect anything and didn’t cross paths with anyone but Peggy, no pocket universe was formed. The cutest final scene where Steve dances with his lover is his future, not his past.
Most critics of Avengers 4 get distracted by such minutiae and forget the main thing – there really is a problem, and it’s that the movie universe is now in the year 2023. This is clearly known, as Thanos of the 2014 version said that Nebula came from the 9-year future. No one has cancelled the 5-year jump after the flick, and that’s the biggest of the woes. Why? First, because the half-destroyed world, to which all the survivors have returned at once, is in for hell because of the starvation and destruction. And second, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has always tried to move with the real world. Now it’s run away from it a bunch of years ahead.
But there is some good news. The long-suffering Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is expected to be released this year. Remember how the Avengers ended. Thor joined the team of star dudes. Obviously, this was James Gunn’s outline. In the original schedule, the project would come out next year, and in 365 days we would know the future of Thor, Star-Lord and his friends. Thanks to tolerance from Disney, Gunn is making Suicide Squad 2, and the next Thor movie will come out in about four years.
But there are other options. Valkyrie is the new ruler of Asgard. In the Comics, Thor’s mantle wasn’t just worn by a blond boy. Jane Foster wore Mjolnir for a long time. Tessa Thompson, thanks to Marvel and “Creed,” has grown to full-fledged star status. And who knows, maybe Feigy will give her her own solo movie, completely rebooting the Thor franchise. Everyone remembers what year it is. And a girl, especially one with black skin, is the first choice for the lead role in any movie universe. Well, or at least a series about Asgardian survivors would certainly pull it off.
To sum it all up, it’s really not that complicated. Don’t listen to Marvel’s trash-talking critics. Time travel is built logically. And the problems, albeit present, are manageable. The only pity is that we have to wait 2 years for the next full movie, which will not be a prequel. After the frantic pace of Marvel, that’s a tough break. But let’s hope the TV series can do something to fill it.