This article contains spoilers for Eyes of Wakanda.
Eyes of Wakandanot only made history as the first animated title to take place within theMarvel Cinematic Universe’ssacred timeline, but it also rewrote how time travel has worked in titles likeAvengers: EndgameandLoki. What initially appears to be a series of loosely connected stories across time about Wakanda’s history eventually reveals a larger tapestry at play. The final episode shows that a masked Wakandan warrior has traveled back in time 500 years from the future.
The time traveler, the future Queen of Wakanda, reveals that in her timeline, Wakanda never opens its borders, and an alien race known as the Horde (from Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr.‘sEternalsrun) will invade the Earth. Wakanda’s isolationist nature not only dooms the world, but also itself, as it lacks sufficient people and resources to fend off the invasion. The entire timeline rests on the Wakandans not bringing a Vibranium axe back to their home, as it is later the same item that Killmonger will steal from the London Museum inBlack Pantherand set off a chain of events leading to Wakanda opening up its borders. She says that if the axe is found, her timeline will sync up with the changed timeline…which is drastically different from what the Marvel Cinematic Universe established and is more similar to that found in another Marvel Multiverse title.
Time Travel in the MCU
Avengers: Endgameestablished the rules of time travel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.Unlike more popular time-travel stories likeThe TerminatorandBack to the Future, which get name-dropped in the film, going to the past does not change the future. Instead, it creates a branching timeline, a new alternate reality. The idea is that the person time traveling when they arrive is technically in their own present, which can’t be changed because all the actions from their arrival now mark a “future,” indicated by a branching timeline. It is slightly confusing, but the movie underlines multiple times that they can’t simply go back and undo Thanos’ snap, because that won’t change the world they return to as they arrive back in their original timeline from the point they left.
10 Easter Eggs in ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ That Only Diehard Fans Will Notice
‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ features plenty of callbacks and references to past Fantastic Four comics, cartoons, and films.
‘Eyes of Wakanda’ Takes a Page from ‘Days of Future Past’
X-Men: Days of Future Pastused time travel as a device to connect the original cast from theX-Mentrilogy with the new younger versions inX-Men: First Class.Days of Future Pastbuilds off past time travel stories, but puts a new spin on them. InDays of Future Past, two timelines exist simultaneously when some characters travel in time. The future and the past, with the past being observed by one individual (in the film, Wolverine) whose consciousness is projected back into their younger body.Wolverine can interact with and alter the past, but these changes do not take effect until he wakes up in the future, at which point he is the only one aware of the changes that have occurred.
That is why, at the end ofDays of Future Past,he wakes up in a happier reality where it appears the events ofX-Men: The Last Standnever happened and Jean Grey and Cyclops are still alive. This made a new timeline for the past-setX-Menfilms likeX-Men: ApocalypseandDark Phoenixto forge new stories and didn’t need to worry about syncing up with the 2000 film, since it was a new timeline and everything moving forward from the likes ofDeadpool,New Mutants, and the unreleased Gambit film were created in this new timeline.Deadpool 2even codified this time travel rule as Cable looked to change the future by killing Russell / Firefist, and Deadpool himself rewriting his own movie and timeline.
Denzel Washington’s Role in ‘Black Panther 3’ Could Give the MCU Its ‘Godfather: Part II’
There are five potential roles that Denzel Washington could play in ‘Black Panther 3’, ones that tie into ‘Ironheart’ and ‘The X-Men.’
This created an issue withDeadpool & Wolverine, as Deadpool used Cable’s time travel device to travel to the MCU. That implies that even Cable’s time travel technology isn’t a straight shot back, but instead takes the user to a timeline that matches the one spinning out from their changes; therefore, it is an alternate reality. The movie doesn’t bother explaining how two separate Wolverines seemingly exist in the Earth 10005 timeline: the one from the film and the one from the original timeline, who is set to die in the events ofLoganin five years.
Eyes of Wakandaseems to merge the two time-travel elements of bothAvengers: EndgameandX-Men: Days of Future Past.LikeEndgame,the person physically travels back in time through a Quantum gate, but likeDays of Future Past, changing the past then impacts the future, and the two timelines sync back up. This idea has already been planted in the MCU withLokiSeason 2, as time slippagehas characters creating a time paradox where the future impacts the past. The MCU has been playing fast and loose with its time travel rules for some time.
‘Eyes of Wakanda’ Is Both Part of the MCU and an Alternate Reality
One of the big selling points ofEyes of Wakandais that it is set in the MCU’s sacred timeline. However, it doesn’t feature any larger MCU connections, apart from the third episode featuring the Jorani version of Iron Fist. Yet the final episode all hinges on its connection to the firstBlack Panthermovie. The MCU has acknowledged that many parallel realities in the multiverse are similar to the sacred timeline, with key points diverging from the main MCU timeline.Eyes of Wakandaserves as both an MCU series that reveals the history of the MCU but also an alternate timeline tale, butwith its final episode, it marks the point where the timeline diverges in the multiverse of the franchise.LikeYour Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, it is essentially a giant stealth episode ofWhat If…?, with the question being what if Kilmonger never made his way to Wakanda?
Eyes of Wakandaisn’t so much a story about the mechanics of time travel, but exploring/incorporating the power fantasy of Wakanda. How the isolationist nation has its wonders, but also downsides, and its inability to open up to the rest of the world leaves the various war dogs changed after their experience (resulting in the conditions that would create Kilmonger), but also how Wakanda is denying itself and its future by not opening up its borders.The use of time travel is less a piece of lore and more a thematic extension of the theme, how these events ripple across time and how one small action can change the course of a nation’s future. It might not set upAvengers: Doomsday, but it doesn’t need to, because it tells a compelling story.
Eyes of Wakanda
