Loki director Kate Herron has talked about whether she thinks Steve Rogers' timeline-hopping in Avengers: Endgame caused a Nexus event.
In the final moments of the film, it's revealed that Cap went back in time to live a life with Peggy Carter, growing old and eventually returning to the present. By Endgame's time travel rules, that means he must have created a branch timeline – and in Loki, we learn that something like this is called a Nexus event, which the TVA prevents from becoming a whole new reality by jumping in and "pruning" (AKA destroying) the branch.
"So! I've been thinking about this [laughs]," Herron told The Direct. "I'm just like [so excited]... People are going to be annoyed because it's not a definitive answer, but also I can only really answer as a fan, right? My theory is this: it comes down to if you're an optimist or a pessimist. If you're an optimist, maybe it was okay [for] them living that way, and the branch wasn't so severe that it didn't need to be pruned, and that meant that they could stay together. Maybe the romantics can say somehow that managed to exist. And then the pessimists [think], 'They probably got pruned.'"
It doesn't seem that Steve could actually be pruned, considering he returned as an old man, meaning he did live out an entire life in the other timeline. For that reason, it's unlikely Peggy got pruned, either.
"It depends on how people fall on that side of things, because in my head I guess it would be... generally branches have to be pruned and then maintained, right? But it depends," Herron added. "Like if it's alternate, it would imply that it's running alongside our main timeline, so yeah. I don't want to definitively say that they were pruned, but by our logic in the TVA, probably. But maybe where there's a will there's a way, and they weren't too disruptive and managed to live happily ever after."
So, it's entirely possible that Steve and Peggy were under the radar enough that the TVA didn't bother with them, but considering how dedicated the TVA is to its cause, that seems a surprise. Its agents are about to be a whole lot busier, though, considering the Loki finale blew the multiverse wide open – and brought Kang the Conqueror to the MCU.
Loki is streaming on Disney Plus now, and the next installment in the MCU, What If…?, is landing on August 11. Until then, check out our guide to Marvel Phase 4 to see what else is on the horizon, and find the best Disney Plus prices and deals.
