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During the events of Loki (2021) 1x6, the sacred timeline splits. This happens at the end of time (or something like that), meaning it doesn't take place at a specific time. So in the MCU timeline, when does the timeline split? was the sacred timeline just always split, because the splitting happened at the end of time? Or does it split in 2012, when Loki escapes the Avengers and creates a branched timeline? Or maybe in 2023 when the Avengers go on the Time Heist and cause Loki to escape? Or am I just missing something?

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    "After" Loki, the Multiverse has now always existed. See, for example, What If...?
    – OrangeDog
    Sep 16, 2021 at 17:45
  • I agree with the answer that the events of Loki will manifest after Wandavision because I support the theory that the endings are synced. youtu.be/ADacNDSFRio And this is quite publicly the next phase of the MCU. It's going to be harder to discuss splits and branches because I don't think it's clear what the rules are. Personally I think it's best to think 2012 in universe B the time travel branch is lateral from 2023 in Universe A the main MCU - which means when is not a simple number. Sep 16, 2021 at 18:12
  • “This happens at the end of time (or something like that), meaning it doesn't take place at a specific time.” How is the end of time not a specific time? Seems pretty specific to me! Sep 16, 2021 at 22:49
  • @PaulD.Waite- I mean that It's a place that whatever happens in it doesn't happen in a specific time in the main MCU timeline. I didn't take the term "end of time" literally and think that the sacred timeline started splitting only at the last second of the universe's existence.
    – MBEllis
    Sep 17, 2021 at 7:52
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    In the next Phase 4 Avengers movie, I need someone to say “One, two, three, four. I declare a time war.” Hopefully just before Hulk smashes. Dec 21, 2021 at 20:24

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They have always existed. 'He Who Remains' merged the timelines into one after fighting with his variants, but he created the TVA to stop any splits from happening. Think pruning a branch. So all time lines were basically the same. At the end of Loki when they start splitting is when they become very different universes.

There is a scene in WandaVision at the very end when she's reading the Dark Hold book, she hears her son calling. The theory is she is hearing her son from another universe because the timestamp of it happening and the timelines splitting in Loki are exactly the same.

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  • So when do the branches start splitting in the MCU timeline?
    – MBEllis
    Sep 16, 2021 at 17:49
  • It's happening now, the What If... series is kinda the idea of these different Universes go off the rails. And with Wanda hearing her son and with the new Doctor Strange movie and persumably the new Spider-man movie, will all show what is happening because the multiverses has split and the universes are now different.
    – Villan
    Sep 16, 2021 at 18:46
  • @MBEllis: That's actually an interesting question. Outside of time travel itself, I suspect that all splits would happen from the time in which He Who Remains died, and is ongoing as new breaches happen. I don't think prior timelines are suddenly restored.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Sep 16, 2021 at 18:47
  • And acknowledged that the "What If" series, and the new films may indicate otherwise, that either all of those pruned timelines spontaneously came back into being (maybe they weren't so much destroyed, but denied access to the Sacred Timeline?) or splits can happen in the past.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Sep 16, 2021 at 18:48
  • I don't think that's what's happening. The "sacred timeline" is all the timelines merging and not venturing from the main story of what should happen in the universe. I think time has split but when they're viewing the monitor the other timelines are moving fast so they all just catch up to this point in time, but they've all been allowed to grow differently.
    – Villan
    Sep 16, 2021 at 18:52
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Before the events of WandaVision, which took place in the fall of 2023

Marvel Studios’ The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline gives us the official order of events in the MCU. The book shows that He Who Remains met his end at Sylvie’s hands in the Loki Season 1 finale before the events of WandaVision (Fall 2023).

The book tells us that the events of Loki Season 1 happened before WandaVision, Spider-Man: Far From Home, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Ms. Marvel. This makes a lot of sense and explains why those shows have so much multiversal shenanigans going on — because He Who Remains was offed by Sylvie.

image of the pages from Marvel Studios’ The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline illustrating the above

According to the official timeline, He Who Remains' death allowed Wanda to peer into other universes.

Relevant section of the official timeline (text quoted below)

Fall 2023 | Darkhold Corruption

In a remote cabin, Wanda Maximoff studies the pages of the Darkhold that she took from Agatha Harkness. Its pages contain forbidden methods of traversing universes, and with He Who Remains now gone, and the TVA no longer maintaining the Sacred Timeline, the doorways are open. Wanda uses the Darkhold to pinpoint alternate realities where her sons Tommy and Billy still exist. Reaching them is still beyond her abilities, however, so she will need to find another with the power to puncture the barrier between realities.

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