The multiverse in the MCU has been cracked open and is moving forward, so audiences will be treated to an unlimited amount of possibilities. Some of these will be explored in Marvel Studios' first animated project, What If..?.
This show was presented early on as a look into past MCU events with one or two major details changed. This will be a journey into alternate realities within the Marvel Cinematic Universe story fans know and love.
Everyone knows that in the MCU, everything matters, and the finale of Loki has taken the concept of What If..? and made it much too real for MCU fans.
Now, a new promo for the upcoming Disney+ series ties itself with Loki like never before.
THE MULTIVERSE IN MADNESS IN THE MCU
A new promotional video for Marvel Studios' What If...?, featuring the voice of The Watcher, Jeffrey Wright, shows branching timelines mirroring those featured in Loki, connecting the animated story to the multiverse in the MCU.
This highlights to fans the connection between what was explained in Loki by He Who Remains and how these else-world stories in What If..? could play their way into the main canon of the MCU.
While the galactic style of these timeline branches is a direct reference to the finale, Loki taught viewers about the timeline concept throughout its first season through the TVA and their understanding of the flow of time.
The full promo can be seen below:
What if… we told you we have an exclusive look at @disneyplus' @whatifofficial? https://t.co/VWwrCMv4dX pic.twitter.com/03ZjgdgQQ6
THE SACRED TIMELINE MADNESS COMING TO FRUITION
When What If..? was introduced to fans in April 2019, many believed this was a fun, inconsequential, animated retelling of the MCU. While it is still likely to be just that, the events of the Season 1 finale of Loki have introduced the possibility of What If..? impacting the rest of the MCU.
When the TVA introduced the concept of the Sacred Timeline, it gave a new perspective to the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe by suggesting that various realities are coexisting all at once. At the beginning of the season, the TVA's job was to prune those branch realities before they reached a point of no return, causing a multiverse.
In the finale of Loki, it was revealed that He Who Remains set these rules in place to avoid Variants of his past and future self from putting the multiverse into madness. Once He Who Remains unveiled his plans to Loki and Sylvie, the latter Loki Variant killed him and sent the Sacred Timeline into countless branches with countless realities running wild.
This visual storytelling told audiences everywhere that it finally happened. The multiverse has been put into madness, and there are limitless possibilities for what is happening in those alternate realities. That is where What If..? comes in.
This new footage shows the branches of the Sacred Timeline leading to various episodes of What If..? No one fully understands the rules of the multiverse presented in Loki, but it is not out of the realm of possibility that these episodes will not be else world stories. They could, in fact, be happening alongside the canonical MCU fans saw in the Infinity Saga.
That is not a sure thing and could easily confuse audiences into what is actually happening and what is a fun animated re-telling. But if the Star Wars universe has taught audiences anything, animated and live-action installments of a cinematic universe can successfully tie into one another.
This footage opens that door for What If..?, releasing on Disney+ on Wednesday, August 11, 2021.
