[MUSIC PLAYING]
This universe is only one of an infinite number.
[EXPLOSION]
Worlds without end.
The multiverse is the MCU's biggest project to date.
There was no way I'm knowing that when Iron Man dropped
in 2008, the 2020s would see Kevin Feige and Co. attempting
the most conceptually complex plot the on-screen superhero
franchise has ever seen.
Yet here we are.
Across tens of movies and TV shows,
the MCU's next few phases will be exploring the multiverse
like never before.
But in the process of making cinematic history,
the MCU is also accidentally breaking its own movies.
If you're watching this video you're
probably caught up on the MCU, but in this off chance
that you're not, this is your spoiler warning.
When the multiverse was first explained
to fans in 2016's Doctor Strange,
the concept was simple enough.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe we'd
become familiar with through over decades of movies
and TV shows is one of many possible universes, one
we could later learn is called Earth-616.
Oh.
You guys sure must know a lot about the multiverse
if you've got someone going around naming realities.
But things have gotten a lot more complicated since 2016.
For years we were only peripherally
aware of the multiverse and what it might entail for the MCU.
Thankfully later in 2021, the concept of the multiverse
was greatly expanded on in the Loki TV
series where we learned about variants, the TVA,
and the Sacred Timeline.
In the MCU, the Time Variance Authority, or TVA,
have been operating across all of space and time,
ensuring that no variant of a person
deviates from their predetermined
role in the Sacred Timeline.
Of course, the Sacred Timeline ends up splintering anyway.
This creates an endless amount of new timelines
and leaves room for the all-powerful time traveling
Kang the Conqueror and his many variants
to wreak havoc across the multiverse
and possibly start another multiversal war.
But we'll learn more about his role
in the MCU in 2023's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
It doesn't even end there, though.
The MCU is just getting started with their multiversal plot
lines.
[GLEEFUL LAUGHTER] How exciting.
We saw some tangible effects of the multiverse
leaking into the main MCU timeline in Spider-Man:
No Way Home.
Doctor Strange cast a spell to make the world forget
Peter's identity, but the spell accidentally
summoned several villains and Spider-Man variants
to their timeline.
Hijinks ensue, the very existence of the multiverse
is threatened, and the damage is eventually
repaired when everyone gets back to their home
in their individual universes.
But a post-credits scene reveals that even though the multiverse
is relatively stable, there are still
ripple effects like Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock
leaving part of the Venom symbiote
in the main MCU timeline.
And then there's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
We spend quite a bit of time on the alternate Earth-838
and learn that in their timeline a strange variant
caused an incursion, an event where two timelines collide
with catastrophic results.
Once again, we see the existence of the multiverse being
threatened and it ultimately being repaired
by the end of the movie.
But then a post-credits scene teases some more
ripple effects.
This time comic character Clea, played by Charlize Theron,
tells Strange that his messing about in the timelines
has caused another incursion.
And we're going to fix it.
Now we know that all of this breaking, unbreaking,
and talk of incursions is leading into the MCU's version
of Secret Wars in Phase 6.
But in the meantime, this multiverse plot point
has turned into the MCU's new version of the sky
beam in the worst way possible.
[SIGH] It's that bad.
Yeah.
Remember when essentially every movie featured a sky beam?
Sometimes it was the third act savior
and other times it was a world-destroying threat,
but it was always there.
It was in Iron Man, Captain America:
The First Avenger, Thor: Dark World, the Avengers,
and just a ton of other movies.
It became a meme because of the sheer ridiculous repetition
of it all.
And the more it got repeated, the lower the stakes
became for every subsequent movie that used it.
Suddenly, what was once a thrilling and visually
interesting part of the action became an overused quick fix
that could be applied to any given situation
the plot demanded.
At the moment, the multiverse is taking
on a similar role in Phase 4.
Manipulating the multiverse has become visual shorthand
for a given character's level of power,
and it's being used as a sort of interdimensional
fast traveling system.
It works when it needs to, breaks
when it doesn't, and serves every possible plot
convenience it can.
Think about it.
If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future,
and your former present becomes the past, which can't now
be changed by your new future.
But most damningly, including the multiverse in the MCU
sometimes comes at the detriment of character and plot
development.
In an effort to introduce the multiverse in No Way Home,
the filmmakers disparaged the character of Doctor Strange
so badly that the internet was theorizing
that he was actually Mephisto.
Be careful what you wish for.
And then in an attempt to use the multiverse as an action set
piece in Multiverse of Madness, the movie
ended up being pretty disappointing.
Multiverse of Madness should have been an easy win,
but it fails on a lot of levels.
Not every level, but a lot of them.
As the title suggests, it's all about the multiverse,
the concept of which deserves a lot more time and dedication
than it's gotten in the movies so far.
However, Multiverse of Madness is pretty unhelpful
when it comes to explaining the multiverse, how it works,
and why traveling between worlds might end up
being bad for everyone.
Plus, they waste a lot of the potential
of what a multiversal movie could have been.
When tasked with the job of coming up
with otherworldly ideas, the best the MCU could come up with
was green stoplights and pizza balls.
And while we do spend a lot of time in another universe,
it's extremely similar to Earth-616.
The more interesting universes are
shown in what essentially amounts to a drive-by viewing
in a single scene.
Of course, Multiverse of Madness did see extensive rewrites.
It was, after all, supposed to come out
before One Division and No Way Home,
but that's kind of its own problem.
Paradoxically, while the multiverse often
hurts the characters and plot, it also is the plot.
It's a key story element of most, if not all, of Phase 4.
But given how it was treated in Multiverse of Madness,
it isn't clear whether this key story element is really
being prioritized.
That's a pretty major problem because Phases 4 through 6
are literally being dubbed The Multiverse Saga.
But the traits the MCU's multiverse shares with the sky
beam mean that it can never be allowed to actually collapse
in on itself, at least until the culmination of this plot thread
in Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars.
It exists until the plot requires it to stop existing.
This makes the stakes for current and upcoming MCU
projects pretty much non-existent,
at least as far as the general well-being of the timeline
is concerned.
And when the general well-being of the timeline
is the main issue facing our heroes,
well, that means our main plot is pretty dull.
Maybe.
I don't know.
Honestly, I hope not.
Much like the infamous sky beam, the MCU's multiverse
is only as thrilling and interesting
as its last appearance.
And the more it's being used, the less it becomes of both.
Luckily, the MCU is also full to the brim
with wonderful, awful, lovable characters
that we as fans have grown to care about.
And the multiverse is only creating more opportunity
to bring back beloved characters,
adapt favorites from comics, and create entirely new ones.
Kang is obviously going to bring a lot of freshness
to the franchise.
His limited appearance in Loki as He
Who Remains was excellent.
And if we're going to see any of his other variants
from the comics, then fans are in for a wild ride.
Rama-Tut the time traveling historian
turned ancient Egyptian conqueror and Immortus,
the self-proclaimed master of time,
are both Kang variants with the potential
to be just as interesting and threatening as Thanos.
You expect too much from him.
With Kang and the multiverse being such a focus
of the next few MCU phases, we'll
likely be seeing a lot of inspiration or entire story
beats pulled from Avengers Forever.
The 12-issue series sees a variant version of the Avengers
team up with Kang to fight against his multiversal
counterparts and the time keepers
under the constant threat of-- you
guessed it-- corrupting the multiverse.
Alternatively, we could see elements
pulled from Kurt Busiek's other beloved Kang
story titled Kang Dynasty.
The possibility of seeing it all put to screen
is exciting to say the least.
Not only that, but we've already seen
a number of dimensions and worlds
on the periphery of Earth-616.
All of these dimensions have significance,
be that in a future role they play
in the franchise or just as iconic and emotionally
impactful places to fans.
We've seen what Disney and Marvel are capable
of without the creative leeway the multiverse provides.
Now the possibilities are truly limitless.
[RIP]
That's all we have for you today.
Thanks so much for watching.
Now we want to know, which movie or TV show from Phase 4
has been your favorite addition to the franchise?
Let us know in the comments and be sure to like this video
and subscribe to Nerdstalgic for more content like this.
[MUSIC PLAYING]