Loki Hints At How Doctor Strange Can Get The Time Stone Back

WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Loki episode 1.

After Thanos accomplished his goal of balancing the universe by decimating half of life in the universe in Avengers: Infinity War, he essentially destroyed the Infinity Stones so that no one else could wield its power. However, the time heist in Endgame allowed the heroes to use the crystals to undo the snap, and briefly, the elemental crystals were once again in the primary MCU reality. In order to preserve the Sacred Timeline, however, they had to return each of them to their original locations, hence Captain Rogers’ final mission before officially retiring. So officially, the Infinity Stones no longer exists in the main timeline which leaves Strange in such a precarious position as he continues his responsibility as the leader of the Masters of the Mystic Arts. 

It’s already been hinted at that somehow, the future Sorcerer Supreme will get his hands on the Time Stone again, as seen in the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness wrap gift that cast and crew were given. While that’s essentially confirmed, it’s curious how can this happen. At this point, there’s a string of theories floating around about the specifics for this, but the Loki premiere titled “Glorious Purpose”, arguably offers the most plausible explanation regarding the matter. In the episode, the God of Mischief attempted to escape the Time Variance Authority by searching for the Tesseract that the organization confiscated. He eventually found it through Casey, but as he was handed the cosmic cube, he noticed several iterations of the elemental crystals in his drawer. The trickster grabbed the Time Stone, and throughout the whole outing, even as the Space Stone was taken back, the Asgardian Prince surrenders the green gem. Since Loki is confirmed to connect to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that the trickster will ultimately be the person to hand Strange the Eye of Agamotto for his future endeavors. 

Further backing up this claim that the God of Mischief will be instrumental in Strange’s re-acquisition of the Time Stone is the fact that Loki‘s creator, Michael Waldron, is also the head writer of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Thor’s adopted brother has never had any encounter with the Time Stone in the MCU — be it the variant who broke the proper flow of time or the one who was ultimately killed in Infinity War. Given this, it’s interesting why he gravitated towards the green gem, other than it’s his signature color. But that seems like too shallow of a reason for it. It’s also worth pointing out that earlier in the episode, TVA’s Miss Minutes mentioned how diverging from a predetermined path would create “a Nexus event which left unchecked could branch off into madness leading to another multiversal war” which sounds like a reference to the upcoming Sam Raimi MCU film. 

As it is, the ongoing Marvel Studios series that is exclusively available on Disney+ is already tackling the idea of the multiverse. Loki has laid the grounds for the concept with the mention of the multiverse war as part of the TVA’s history during Miss Minutes’ briefing. Initially, WandaVision was expected to do this but ultimately didn’t; instead, it maintained its core arc as a contained project with a character-driven narrative that focused on tackling Wanda’s suppressed trauma. In hindsight, the Tom Hiddleston-led series is much better positioned for this function as the show can dissect the idea in a more palatable way before it became a central notion in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. 

Loki releases new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.

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