#When Does Loki Take Place in the MCU Timeline? It’s Complicated

Loki premiered recently marking the third live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe series to arrive on Disney+. While both WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier brought forth their own mysteries in their early episodes, Loki has presented fans with a seemingly simple question; when does the show take place in the MCU timeline? To put it lightly, it’s complicated. But we may have just been handed a huge clue, which is hiding in plain sight.

As noted by Reddit user Wallbreaker-g on the MarvelStudiosPlus subreddit, “Marvel Studios’ Loki isn’t featured in Disney Plus ‘Timeline Order’ to detail the fact that the series is in a completely different timeline.” The Marvel section of Disney+ breaks down the MCU in various ways. Fans can watch by Phase, or they can do so in chronological order. Yet the MCU Timeline Order section on Disney+, as noted by Wallbreaker-g, omits Loki entirely. But, it does include WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. So, what does this mean exactly?
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Warning: spoilers ahead for Loki. Proceed with caution. The first episode of the series sees Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief taken into the custody of the Time Variance Authority, aka the TVA. Chronologically, this takes place just after the events of 2012’s The Avengers. As fans will likely recall, Loki made away with the Tesseract during the Time Heist, setting the stage for the events of this show. Yet, at the same time, he was killed by Thanos at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War.

Owen Wilson’s Mobius takes Loki through some of what is going to happen to him in the events following The Avengers, implying they haven’t happened yet in the show’s timeline. But Mobius also notes that the timeline works differently at the TVA. So, while it seems like Loki takes place after The Avengers, the lack of Disney+ listing seems to imply that it exists in its own corner of the overall MCU timeline. Or perhaps an entirely different timeline altogether.

We know for sure that movies such as Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are going to open up the Marvel multiverse very soon. Michael Waldron, as it just so happens, is the head writer of Loki and also wrote the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel. This to say, it would not be surprising to find out that the show effectively takes place in another branch timeline elsewhere in the larger multiverse. And something like that wouldn’t necessarily fit nicely anywhere in the chronological timeline established in the MCU.

Undoubtedly, we are going to learn much more in the coming weeks as the show continues to unfold. As more is revealed, Marvel may well include the show in its proper place on Disney+. Or they may have to create an entirely new subcategory. Whatever the case, it appears the MCU timeline is about to get a major shakeup.Loki returns with new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+. This news comes to us via Reddit.

Topics: Loki