Eight Years Ago, One MCU TV Show Launched a Time Travel Story Better Than Anything in the Multiverse Saga

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Time travel became a major part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the 2019 film Avengers: Endgame. Tony Stark, known for building his first Iron Man suit from limited resources, figured out how to travel through time and set some basic guidelines. Since then, the Multiverse Saga has kept exploring time travel, using it to create different timelines and alternate realities. All of this is leading to a big showdown in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, which will conclude the Multiverse Saga.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe often uses time travel as a simple way to move the plot forward, without much consistent logic. Different movies and shows have presented completely different rules for how time travel works, sometimes claiming unrelated events were actually connected. While some stories have been enjoyable – with Loki being a standout example – it hasn’t been entirely fulfilling. Surprisingly, despite all the MCU’s efforts, a time travel story from Marvel Television, created before Endgame, remains the most compelling.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5 Dove Deep Into Time Travel

Eight years ago today, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. began what many still consider the best time travel storyline in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It started as a connection to the events of Avengers: Infinity War, with Agent Coulson and his team finding themselves stuck in a bleak future. Earth had been destroyed, and the last of humanity was living in a protected environment within an asteroid field, all under the control of the alien Kree. It’s a perfect example of how compelling time travel stories can be.

Season 5 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is exceptionally well-done. It expertly combines time travel with compelling character arcs, as the team discovers that Quake (played by Chloe Bennet) inadvertently caused the world’s destruction. They find themselves stuck in a time loop where the past and present influence each other, and they race to find a way to break the cycle and save everyone. However, the easy solution – eliminating Quake to prevent the future – isn’t an option.

What made this story particularly interesting was its exploration of complex time-related ideas. For instance, Fitz firmly believed time was unchangeable and that traveling through it – or breaking a time loop – was impossible. Simmons, however, remained hopeful. Many characters wrestled with these concepts, swinging between believing they could alter their fate and feeling strangely protected by the fact that their future seemed predetermined.

You know, it’s tempting to point out the inconsistencies in the show, but honestly, I found them really invigorating. What I loved was how Fitz and Simmons, being scientists, tried to make sense of all the wild stuff happening using logic and reason. But the rest of the team? They were totally lost at sea. It wasn’t like they could just pull out a quantum physics textbook – they were living it, and it was clearly over their heads. And that’s brilliant storytelling, because it really ratchets up the tension and makes everything feel so much more urgent.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Foreshadowed the Multiverse Saga

Though it seemed like the stakes were incredibly high, the fifth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t actually end with the world’s destruction. The show resolved a time loop and prevented a bleak future, and in doing so, surprisingly foreshadowed the entire Multiverse Saga we’ve seen from Marvel Studios. The season revealed that pivotal moments in history can create branching timelines, where choices determine the future – a concept Marvel Studios would later explore with Loki, but Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. introduced it three years earlier.

Marvel Studios has struggled to create consistent rules around time travel. Plus, their shorter TV shows and movies haven’t allowed for deeply developed character stories. Some characters have adjusted to the multiverse too easily, while others have seen it used simply as a way to create alternate realities. Considering Season 5 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., it seems Marvel hasn’t fully explored the possibilities of time travel.

The good news is that the current Marvel story arc isn’t finished yet. The Multiverse Saga is heading towards a huge finale with the stories Doomsday and Secret Wars, which are connected to each other. This is Marvel’s opportunity to fix the issues with its time travel rules in a compelling story that needs to be truly grand in scope. Whether the Russo brothers, who are returning to Marvel, can deliver on this remains to be seen, and whether they can create something as successful as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is still an open question.

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2025-12-01 19:43