What Agents of SHIELD’s Ending Means For The Rest Of The MCU

The events that took place in the series finale of Agents of SHIELD may provide clues as to what to expect from future MCU movies. The last episode of Agents of SHIELD season 7, which focused on the conclusion of the battle with the Chronicoms, connected with important, pre-established MCU concepts.

Agents of SHIELD delivered a massive time travel story for its final, 13-episode season. To stop the Chronicoms from manipulating history and taking control of Earth’s future, the SHIELD team had to follow them through several points in the timeline to thwart their schemes. During their struggle, the Chronicoms made alliances with a group of power-stealing villains led by Thomas E. Sullivan’s Nathaniel Malick, while SHIELD added a time-displaced Daniel Sousa (Enver Gjokaj) from Agent Carter to the team. Throughout the season, SHIELD’s mission depended solely on one character: Leopold Fitz (Iain de Caestecker). Fitz had been missing all season, with both sides in the conflict believing that he held the key to who would win.

Everything came to a head in the series finale when Fitz finally returned and explained his master plan to save the Earth and beat the Choronicoms. Through the use of time and interdimensional travel, the team worked together to outwit Sybil (Tamara Taylor) and her Chronicom army. Once it was all over, the team found themselves back in their original timeline. But as Enoch (Joel Stoffer) had warned them prior to his death, their battle in season 7 was their last mission together. SHIELD was revitalized, but the team’s days of traveling together were over. After seven seasons, Agents of SHIELD came to a conclusion, and how it ended shed some light on what comes next for the MCU.

Agents of SHIELD Is Part of Marvel’s Multiverse

Agents of SHIELD continued to build on ideas established in Doctor Strange, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. The MCU depicted in the Infinity Saga was just one of multiple worlds. When the Avengers traveled back in time through Ant-Man’s Quantum Realm and retrieved the Infinity Stones, they inadvertently created a new timeline. In other words, they didn’t change history when they killed the 2014 Thanos (Josh Brolin) and caused Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to go down a different path. Instead, they formed a separate timeline that no longer had any connection to the old one. Apparently, that’s what happens when one changes the past, and is essentially what happened in Agents of SHIELD season 7. Based on what Kora (Dianne Doan) said in the penultimate episode, Agents of SHIELD broke away from the MCU. This was confirmed by Fitz in the finale when he explained to them how the multiverse works. What he said about traveling through time and other dimensions is in step with Avengers: Endgame’s rules.

Agents of SHIELD further strengthened the connection to Marvel’s biggest movie ever by using the same method of time travel as Endgame. By going into the Quantum Realm, they were able to leave behind the new timeline they created and get back to where they came from in season 6. But to do that, they unfortunately had to part ways with Deke (Jeff Ward), who is now the leader of SHIELD in the season 7 timeline.

Agents of SHIELD Proves The Importance of The Multiverse

By using Avengers: Endgame’s ideas, Agents of SHIELD’s series finale proved the importance of the multiverse in the MCU. Agents of SHIELD made it clear that Marvel isn’t done with the Quantum Realm, which characters can use to go from one dimension to another. This method is no longer exclusive to Endgame. In this movie, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) was able to figure out how to travel through time thanks to Scott Lang’s experiences in the Quantum Realm and Hank Pym’s technology, but he’s not the only character who has the capability to come to this conclusion anymore. Fitz too was capable of replicating this process and traveling between timelines.

What this means is that the Quantum Realm may be used for this purpose again in the MCU. The Quantum Realm was also showcased in a sequence that’s been nicknamed “The Magical Mystery Tour” in Doctor Strange. When the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) separated Strange’s consciousness from his body, he went through an untold number of dimensions, one of which being the Quantum Realm. This adds the Masters of the Mystic Arts to the list of characters who can visit the Quantum Realm.

Also, Agents of SHIELD is the latest installment in the MCU to emphasize the existence of numerous alternate timelines coexisting in a multiverse. Marvel is going to keep pushing this in Phase 4, as indicated by two of its upcoming projects. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will expand on it even more by making it central to the plot. Marvel’s Loki TV series on Disney+ is expected to explore other timelines as well, since it follows a version of Loki (Tom Hiddleston) who escaped from SHIELD custody during the events that occurred at the end of The Avengers. Loki has been described as a time travel story, so it’s sure to expand on what the MCU has already created with Endgame and now Agents of SHIELD season 7.

How The MCU’s Multiverse Can Shape Phase 4 & 5

How much Marvel is playing up the multiverse is an indication of how integral it is to the MCU’s future. Where Marvel decides to go with it in Loki and Doctor Strange 2 could shape Phase 5. Theories are abound about what Marvel can bring to the MCU in Doctor Strange 2, with one idea being that by visiting other timelines, Marvel can make use of characters who under other circumstances would be unavailable. For instance, characters who are dead in the main timeline like Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Thanos could be alive and well elsewhere in the MCU.

It’s also possible that with time travel and alternate realities being so prevalent right now, that all of this is leading to the MCU’s next big villain, which could be the Avengers’ time-traveling adversary Kang the Conqueror. Marvel can also use the various timelines to pull in characters who may not fit into the timeline that’s already been established. There’s been no mention of mutants in the MCU, so having them originate from another dimension could be one solution to getting the X-Men into the MCU. Once Doctor Strange 2 introduces different timelines and worlds, they can be used as settings in later MCU movies in Phase 5. What a multiverse ultimately means for the MCU is that there are endless possibilities, and that’s really what makes it such a fascinating and exciting idea.