How The MCU Is Already Setting Up A Reboot In Avengers 6

Warning! This article contains spoilers for Loki season 2.

Marvel Studios is already laying the foundations for an MCU soft reboot, which may begin in the Multiverse Saga’s final movie, Avengers: Secret Wars. As the Marvel Cinematic Universe expands across movies, shows, and different timelines, the need for a fresh start gradually becomes more apparent. In order to fully grasp Marvel’s vast multiverse, it’s no longer enough to be acquainted with the MCU’s chronological flow of events, but also with that of Fox’s X-Men universe and Sony’s previous two Spider-Man franchises. The rapidly increasing number of new characters and intertwining storylines might also become too much for general audiences to keep up with.

Besides, the MCU’s rumored soft reboot allows Marvel Studios to bring many characters together that couldn’t meet each other otherwise. Through multiversal means, teams like the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers can share the screen without the need for complicated explanations for why many of their members hadn’t appeared onscreen before. While an MCU reboot could break Marvel Studios’ record-breaking continuity and cause more confusion in casual viewers, the risk might be worth it. In fact, not only does Avengers: Secret Wars seem to be the project that will soft reboot the MCU, but various Multiverse Saga entries also seem to be building up to it already.

Loki Season 2 Revealed Kang Already Reset The Universe

The first hints at an MCU reboot came as early as Phase 3 with the Avengers’ use of time travel in Avengers: Endgame, which accidentally caused a Loki variant to exit his universe. Phase 4 titles like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man: No Way Home showcased the infinite possibilities that the MCU multiverse brings to the table, but it was Loki season 1 that truly broke the multiverse open. Loki introduced key MCU concepts like the Sacred Timeline, the TVA’s pruning, and the Multiversal War — the latter of which is said to be the end and beginning of the multiverse.

As if the Sacred Timeline’s dissolution during the Loki season 1 finale wasn’t enough of an omen for the MCU’s multiverse, Loki season 2 episode 1 apparently reveals that He Who Remains’ Multiversal War happened in the future. Since He Who Remains built the TVA and the Sacred Timeline after winning the war, this revelation suggests that the MCU is stuck in a time loop, and that the next reset is coming soon. With Loki and his allies struggling to control all the timelines and the multiverse clearly in disarray in other multiversal movies and shows, it’s safe to say that a timeline reset is both necessary and unavoidable.

Sylvie Set A New Timeline Reset Into Motion In Loki Season 1

The character who has come the closest to stopping multiversal chaos is Sylvie Laufeydottir. In the Loki season 1 finale, Loki and Sylvie travel to the Citadel at the End of Time to confront He Who Remains, who knows they were destined to arrive. But as the Sacred Timeline collapses, He Who Remains reveals that he doesn’t know whether Sylvie will actually kill him and seal the fate of the multiverse. He Who Remains’ doubt suggests that at least for a brief moment, Sylvie has free will. However, Sylvie lets her emotions guide her and kills He Who Remains, leaving Loki and the TVA to find a solution by themselves.

Loki season 2 follows Loki as he looks for ways to keep the existing timelines from multiplying exponentially, breaking off, and causing massive destruction. General Dox orders the TVA to prune multiple timelines, which kills billions of lives and completely erases entire universes from existence, but Loki stops her in time. Whatever comes next, the Sacred Timeline cannot be what it was before He Who Remains’ death. Whether Loki, Sylvie, the TVA, Ravonna Renslayer, Miss Minutes, or another Kang variant takes the reins and shapes the multiverse according to their ideals, it’s likely that the past, present, and future of the MCU are bound to change sooner rather than later.

Deadpool 3 Set Photos Suggest Marvel Will Unify All Universes

Reality already started to change inside the MCU’s time-space continuum. Scarlet Witch was able to unleash chaos in Earth-838 in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man almost causes an incursion between multiple universes in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Strange Supreme destroyed his home reality in What If…?. Now, Deadpool 3 set photos tease a multiversal catastrophe with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool fighting Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in front of a destroyed 20th Century Fox logo. Considering what Loki has established and the Fox characters appearing in Deadpool 3, it’s possible that Deadpool will end up killing Fox’s X-Men universe, as well as other realities from the same company.

But removing other known Marvel universes from existence without saving some of their inhabitants would do previous franchises a disservice. Deadpool may find a way to bring Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine with him, and other characters like Jennifer Garner’s Elektra and Ioan McGruffud’s Reed Richards can also make the jump. After all, Avengers: Secret Wars promises to be the multiversal equivalent of Avengers: Endgame, and having at least one character from every non-MCU Marvel movie would fit the premise. With multiversal characters running around in the MCU’s main timeline, a franchise-wide soft reboot would be the perfect way to streamline the Marvel Cinematic Universe and begin the next saga with little baggage.

Fusions between universes and multiversal reboots may be unprecedented on the big screen, but they’re a tried-and-true method of simplifying complicated continuities in the source material. Both Marvel and DC comics have already undergone similar reboots before, keeping the best and most popular parts of their established timelines and merging them with a brand-new reality in order to introduce a definitive version of their continuity. Inspired this process, Marvel Studios can take advantage of a huge all-encompassing multiversal event like Avengers: Secret Wars to shake up the MCU multiverse and deliver one definitive continuity where every Marvel character coexists with each other.