The true nature of theMCU ’s multiverse may have been tease all along , and it ’s all based on perception . The multiverse has long seemed to be the heart of the enfranchisement post - Avengers : Endgame , and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirm this to be the typesetter’s case at the 2022 San Diego Comic - Con . Feige expose MCU Phases 4 - 6 are officially call " The Multiverse Saga , " with all the picture show and shows building to a climax in 2025’sAvengers : The Kang DynastyandAvengers : Secret Wars .

Unfortunately , MCU Phase 4 ’s approach to the multiverse has not been consistent . This is partially because Marvel did n’t hold a top deciding the rules of the multiverse until partway through Phase 4 ’s yield . This has lead to some enthralling contradictions , withMarvel ’s What If … ?head author A.C. Bradley lay claim her show ’s " absolute point " were identical toLoki ’s " link " moments when in fact they were more like opposition . As thing tolerate , the rules of the MCU ’s multiverse seem confused , and that ’s a big trouble impart that so much of the enfranchisement is specify to be built upon the concept .

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Ben Affleck as Christian drumming his hand on the table while talking to Cynthia Addai-Robinson’s Marybeth in The Accountant 2

Even acknowledge these problems , however , it is really potential to come up with a basic theory for how the multiverse works . Theconfusing screw thread of the MCU ’s multiversecan be drawn into an intriguing blueprint , one based upon perceptual experience . It ’s undecipherable whether this was intentional on Marvel ’s part , but hopefully , more will be bring out before long .

The Perception Theory Of The Multiverse Explained

The most significant clue about the MCU ’s multiverse rules can be find inSpider - Man : No agency Homewhen Doctor Strange attempt to use " the Runes of Kof - Kol " to wipe out the world ’s remembering that Peter Parker is Spider - Man . According to Wong , this spell " travel the dark borders between known and unknown reality , " and its endangerment are divulge when the spell backfires and comes close to fracture the multiverse . It ’s curious that a memory spell would affect the social structure of reality , raising the possibility that the period of time is a genial construct . This matches many models of time that hint retiring , present , and future exist only in our mind , a product of our human relationship with time .

Viewed from this perspective , the multiverse of MCU Phase 4and beyond would be a mathematical product of perception . Not every decision deport the same weight , and not every bit is of the same grandness ; rather , new forficate timeline are make from decisions that touch on people ’s perceptual experience of their life . This correspond with theLokiseries ' multiversal image , which shows the main timeline as a key body in world , with others branch off after so - shout out " nexus points . " Not every link creates a branch that vary from the main timeline — or He Who Remains ' " Sacred Timeline " — to the same point . On confining interrogation , some branch even reconnect .

In a presentation inLokiepisode 1 , Miss Minutes reveals thatbranched timelines in Marvel ’s multiversecan be created by the most innocuous consequence , like being late for employment . give that ’s the typesetter’s case , it ’s awful there was even a visible main timeline in the first topographic point because every moment would be fill with potential nexus points — driver decide to give up at traffic lights , pupil remembering the response to an exam question , shoppers making unlike decisions about what to buy . This raises the question of why some events are link point and others are not , and perception could well be the samara .

Keanu Reeves looking over one shoulder as John Wick in Ballerina

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Take the example of someone being late for piece of work . If it is n’t remark by the boss , or it leave in a reprimand that ’s swiftly blank out , then nothing has actually changed ; the strand remains tight to the main timeline and reconnects as the divergency is forgotten . But if the boss is angered and give the axe the doer from a occupation they would otherwise have had for year , abranched MCU timelineis created . This divergence would be minimum , however , and it ’s even possible the branch would reconnect if , say , the worker but got a young job a span of eld earlier than would otherwise have been the case . Meanwhile , other case occurring at the same prison term — a shopper choosing their repast , a student ticking A instead of B in a multiple option — may not have had any perceived change on world at all . Thus , no other branches were created at that precise consequence .

Why Dreams Are A Way To Traveling The Multiverse

The perception theory of the MCU ’s multiverse is in staring agreement withDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , most notably with the revelation that dreams are window into the multiverse . It ’s a arresting concept , sum noteworthy depth to the MCU ’s earlierdream sequences involving Tony Stark / Iron Man , and the idea is even slackly supported by some scientific theories . According to America Chavez , dreams are not just the result of information being processed in our subconsciousness , as is usually check to be the case , but are , in reality , glimpses of another branched timeline .

Again , it ’s singular to note how easy this fits with the percept theory . Presumably , the sleeping mind is unmoored from perceptual reality , and therefore it navigates the multiverse . The judgment is commonly drawn to branch that are snug to it , explicate why dreams often revisit second of the solar day . Meanwhile , phenomena such as deja vu could be explained by the sleeping mind having visited timeline where certain events happened in a different successiveness .

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A collage image of Luke Skywalker in A New Hope

The Perception Theory May Explain One Doctor Strange 2 Anomaly

This perception theory may be helpful in explaining one oddment inDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness . InSpider - Man : No Way place , Doctor Strange erase everyone ’s memories of Peter Parker , as this is the only way to settle the multiversal issues caused after his initial spell backfired . give the whole crisis was precipitated by Peter ’s secret identity being revealed to the world , viewers assumed Doctor Strange would even forget why he was at the Statue of Liberty in the first place . Yet that distinctly was n’t the showcase , because Strange referred to a Spider - adult male multiverse adventure when speak to America Chavez in the next MCU film . If the multiverse is anchored in percept , then it ’s possible the caster of the Runes of Kof - Kol needs to retain some memory board of the result that led to them being used , simply to maintain the stableness of the timeline .

The Perception Theory Of The Multiverse Has Major Implications For The MCU

If the perception theory is correct , then it has major implication for the MCU ’s multiverse . It means psychics likethe X - Men ’s Professor Xare more powerful than anybody realized because they can alter the perception of others and expand their own perceptions by entering a dreaming mind . This explain why the Scarlet Witch ’s magnate set could expand from being psychic in nature — telepathic and telekinetic inAvengers : Age of Ultron — to cover reality handling . Other psychic may be able to accomplish alike feat , realise telepaths cardinal figure in theMCU ’s multiverse . It will be fascinating to see how this is developed , and whether Marvel does indeed introduce telepaths as multiversal agents .

Spider-Man and America Chavez Against Multiverse Background

Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) casting a spell in Spider-Man No Way Home

Doctor Strange 2 America Chavez Elizabeth Olsen Wanda Maximoff

Doctor Strange Spider-Man

Patrick Stewart as Professor X

Loki