The first official trailer for the new film is out, and Marvel fans are excited! However, the trailer didn’t actually reveal any major surprises – those who have been following news about the movie already knew most of what was shown. While we see Steve Rogers returning and hints of a huge event affecting the X-Men, the overall story remains largely unknown.
The biggest question fans have is why Robert Downey Jr. seems perfectly suited to play Doctor Doom. Another major point of discussion is whether Chris Evans will return as Captain America. Many believe these two things are connected. However, a quick glimpse in the trailer and a scene from Endgame strongly suggest that Loki will be the central hero in Doomsday.
The Ancient One Explained What Broke the Multiverse In Avengers: Endgame
The idea of a multiverse first appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe during the first Doctor Strange movie, so it’s fitting that the Ancient One understands it well. When Hulk went to get the Time Stone, she had a philosophical discussion with Bruce Banner’s spirit form. Banner argued that time travel shouldn’t alter the present, but the Ancient One explained how taking an Infinity Stone could actually break reality. She explained that removing a stone from its proper place in time creates a dangerous alternate timeline.
Banner assured everyone their timeline was safe because the Avengers planned to put the stones back exactly where they found them, preventing any disruptions. However, fans began to suspect he was the one who actually damaged the multiverse. In Endgame, he was tasked with returning all the Infinity Stones, but instead of going back to his own time, he chose to stay in the past with Peggy Carter. This led to speculation that either he didn’t properly return the stones, or his time with Peggy somehow caused the problems they were now facing.
Steve Rogers didn’t actually return the Tesseract to where it belonged in the past; he probably hid it back in the 1970s. However, no one ever put the Tesseract back in its case after Loki took it in 2012. This scene mainly served as a setup for the Loki series, where the Tesseract ended up just sitting around at the TVA along with many others. So if the TVA already has plenty of Infinity Stones, why is this one so important? It’s all about Loki.
The first episode reveals that Hunter B-15 eliminated the timeline branch Loki escaped to after stealing the Tesseract in Endgame. However, Mobius saved this version of Loki from being completely erased. The show suggests that when the TVA eliminates someone—or when they’re consumed by Alioth in the Void—they are entirely removed from existence. If Loki had been pruned, he would have effectively been reset to the main timeline before he ever disappeared with the Tesseract. This would have meant Loki and the Space Stone were back where they belonged. But because he wasn’t pruned, Loki—and the missing Space Stone—created a dangerous new timeline, just like the Ancient One warned Hulk about.
How Loki Broke the Sacred Timeline and the Multiverse Is a Tough Concept to Explain
It’s really interesting how Smart Hulk and the Ancient One’s ideas about time travel actually fit together! It all comes down to perspective, I think. What Bruce Banner said makes total sense – going back in time for those Infinity Stones wouldn’t have altered his original timeline. Even though Loki didn’t come back with the Tesseract in 2012 like he should have, Thanos still managed to get all the stones and wipe out half of everything in Infinity War. That’s because when the Avengers first fought the Chitauri, their future selves weren’t there to interfere. So Banner’s past, his original reality, remained untouched.
The Ancient One explained to Bruce that if an Infinity Stone isn’t returned, it creates a new timeline – one potentially worse than the original. She pointed out that if the TVA had eliminated Loki as they did with other threats, no one would remember him ever taking the Tesseract. However, because Loki and the Tesseract ended up with the TVA, when the Avengers traveled to the past, they inadvertently created an entirely new, branching reality.
The situation gets really complicated because He Who Remains died outside of normal time. For those at the TVA, his death instantly brought about the full MCU Multiverse. But for everyone in alternate realities within the MCU, it was as if the multiverse never existed before suddenly always having been there. Regardless of who ruled at the end of time – Loki or He Who Remains – the main timeline continued unchanged. Whether that timeline was alone or part of many others, it depended on the Tesseract being put back in 2012. Because it wasn’t, the reality created by its absence is completely one-of-a-kind.
In Avengers: Doomsday, Loki May Be Cleaning Up His First and Final Mess
Viewers only see Loki briefly, and he looks very different than usual. He’s wearing a plain TVA uniform instead of his signature outfit, and we even see him handling a TVA ID card. The card has Yggdrasil on it, suggesting he experienced the events of the series finale. However, because of time travel, this Loki could be from earlier in his life, perhaps even from one of his many journeys through time before facing He Who Remains.
The latest developments also hint that the entire multiverse is facing collapse. Unless Ouroboros masters the Temporal Loom, he must remain in his position at the end of time, preventing everything from unraveling. The being known as the God of Stories doesn’t take time off, so something significant is clearly at stake. While some fans predicted Doctor Doom would defeat Loki to gain control of the multiverse, the trailer suggests the current problems – the ‘incursions’ everyone fears – have a different cause. Loki’s escape with the Tesseract in a previous film and the resulting loss of an entire reality seem to be the events that started this crisis.
There’s a theory connecting Loki’s current situation to the missing Infinity Stone, and his location might be a clue. While the view is unclear, it appears he could be at the home of Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter – though it could also be Sylvie or Mobius’ place. Considering both Loki and Steve were heavily involved with moving Infinity Stones through time, it makes sense their paths might cross again. Some fans believe Thor’s line about something being impossible isn’t about Steve, but actually a reaction to seeing Loki. If Thor is traveling with the Fantastic Four and finds Steve on their ship, maybe Loki is responsible for bringing him along.
It’s still unknown whether the Doctor Doom we’re seeing is actually a version of Tony Stark, or simply someone who looks like him – similar to Chris Evans playing Johnny Storm in the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine movie. If he is a variant of Tony, then events like Tony’s heart attack, losing Loki, and losing the Tesseract might have caused even bigger problems than those he faced in Iron Man 3 and Age of Ultron. It’s possible an incursion event made the vision of his friends’ deaths – the one caused by Wanda Maximoff – actually happen. However, he could just be another Victor Von Doom from the vast multiverse, where there are only so many faces. Regardless, he probably isn’t the one responsible for the issues in Doomsday. If anyone from the MCU is going to be to blame for everything going wrong, it’s more likely to be Loki, who seems to have created the multiverse much earlier than anyone realized.
You can now buy Loki, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame on DVD, Blu-ray, or digitally, and you can watch them on Disney+. Plus, Avengers: Doomsday is coming to theaters on December 18, 2026.
2026-07-26 01:46