The Confusing Rules Of The MCU's Multiverse Explained
The multiverse lies at the heart of the MCU's Phase 4 slate, but unfortunately, it's been handled in a confusing and inconsistent manner. Avengers: Endgame unlocked time travel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and swiftly ushered in the multiverse itself. In truth, the multiverse has been part of the MCU for quite some time—ever since Erik Selvig jotted multiversal notes on a chalkboard in Thor: The Dark World. Now, though, it's become clear the multiverse is central to Marvel's ongoing plans — with Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige revealing phases 4-6 are collectively called "The Multiverse Saga."
It's easy to see the multiversal setup that runs through the MCU's Phase 4 — particularly in Loki, Marvel's What If...?, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Unfortunately, as important as the multiverse may be, Marvel's best efforts to define it have seemed confused and contradictory. In part that's because Marvel Studios only decided the rules of the MCU's multiverse shortly after production had wrapped on many of these projects, explaining the inconsistencies.
Related: Why Doctor Strange Still Remembers Spider-Man In Multiverse Of Madness
It doesn't help that the MCU has tended to use the same words to describe different things. "Dimension," for example, has been used to refer to everything from alternate timelines to different planes of existence. In order to fully understand the rules of the multiverse, viewers will need to be a lot more careful and precise than Marvel Studios.
Appropriately enough, the best way to understand the MCU's multiverse is to refer to the comics themselves. Doctor Strange director Scott Derickson pointed viewers to Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #21, an
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