Avengers: Endgame’s Time Heist Fallout: How Many Timelines Did It Actually Create?

Endgame did not play nice with time travel. It went all-in on branching realities instead of the usual back-to-the-future stuff, and the result was a tangle of timelines that somehow still holds together. If you have ever tried to track every branch, here is the clean version: across the movie, the Avengers create 8 distinct timelines. Steve fixes 6 of them on his return trip, but they still count as branches because, for a while, they existed.

The 8 Endgame timelines, what changed, and which ones stuck

1. The Prime MCU timeline (aka the Sacred Timeline)
   This is home base. Thanos snaps in Infinity War, half the universe disappears, the Avengers grieve for five years, and then they build a time heist to steal the Infinity Stones from the past. In this timeline, the Thanos who did the snap is already dead at the start of Endgame, and the Avengers bring everyone back in 2023. Their heist is what spins off the branches below.

2. Thanos 2014 branch
   War Machine and Nebula jump to 2014 to intercept the Power Stone right as Star-Lord is about to grab the Orb. Rhodey cold-cocks Quill and swipes the stone. Meanwhile, 2014 Nebula syncs with present-day Nebula, and Thanos sees the whole playbook: his future victory, the Avengers time-hopping, and his own death. He hijacks the plan, jumps forward to 2023, and attacks the Avengers compound. That yanks Thanos out of 2014 entirely, which means no Snap ever happens in that branch. Steve cannot put this genie back in the bottle because that 2014 Thanos dies in the Endgame battle. This one sticks.

3. Loki 2012 branch
   During the post–Battle of New York cleanup, the Tesseract skitters to Loki and he bolts with it. That was not how it went the first time around. This escape routes him straight into the TVA, who confiscate the Space Stone and tag it as evidence, which launches the 2021 'Loki' series. Steve cannot return the Space Stone to that exact moment because Loki is gone with it and the TVA has it. This branch also sticks.

4. The Ancient One 2012 branch
   Bruce Banner visits 2012 New York and meets the Ancient One (years before Stephen Strange ever walks into Kamar-Taj). She gives the whole branching-timeline seminar and reluctantly hands over the Time Stone. That creates a world where Strange does not receive the Time Stone as he originally should. Later, Steve returns it to the Ancient One in 2012, restoring the flow so Strange can eventually inherit it. Temporary branch, then repaired.

5. Cap vs. Cap 2012 branch (the Mind Stone detour)
   The Scepter (and the Mind Stone inside it) is in SHIELD custody after New York, except, surprise, that SHIELD team is HYDRA. Future Cap smooths it over with the quietest password in comic-book history:

   'Hail HYDRA'

   He still ends up brawling with his 2012 self, which definitely did not happen in the original run. After Thanos is defeated, Steve returns the Scepter/Mind Stone, closing this branch.

6. Asgard/Aether branch (Thor and Rocket)
   Jane Foster has the Aether in her system during the Thor: The Dark World era. Endgame sends Thor and Rocket back to extract it and, while they are there, Thor also yoinks Mjolnir to bring into 2023. That move forks the Asgard timeline. Steve later returns the Reality Stone (and Mjolnir goes back too), stitching this branch up. Note: the movie targets the Dark World period, which is 2013 in MCU continuity, even if people sometimes round it to 2014. Either way, the point stands: they borrow the Aether and put it back.

7. Vormir 2014 branch (Natasha and Clint)
   Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton travel to 2014 Vormir for the Soul Stone. The price is a life, so Natasha sacrifices herself and Clint comes home with the Stone. That death happens in 2014, not along the original path, so it creates a branch. Steve later returns the Soul Stone... somehow. The mechanics of 'returning' a stone that demands a sacrifice are murky at best, but the intent is that he repairs the branch.

8. 1970 SHIELD branch (Tony and the Tesseract)
   After Loki escapes in 2012, Tony and Steve go deeper to 1970, when SHIELD is holding the Tesseract. Tony steals it and runs into Howard Stark for a surprisingly heartfelt chat. That theft is a fork. Steve eventually brings the Space Stone back to its 1970 slot, closing it.

The scorecard: 8 branches total. Steve Rogers fixes 6 of them by returning the Stones and tidying up. The two that do not get reset are the 2014 Thanos branch (because that Thanos never returns to 2014) and the 2012 Loki branch (because Loki noped out with the Tesseract and the TVA locked it away).

So where does Cap end up?

Once the Stones are back where and when they belong, Steve decides he is done bouncing through history and stays in the past to marry Peggy Carter. He later reappears in the present as an old man, hands the shield to Sam Wilson, and calls it a life. Whether that retirement plays out inside the main timeline or on its own branch is still debated, but onscreen he does come back to pass the torch.

Quick facts if you are catching up

Avengers: Endgame is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and stars Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., and Scarlett Johansson. It opened April 26, 2019, pulled a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.4/10 on IMDb, and made about $2.7 billion worldwide. It is a Marvel Studios film and streams on Disney+.

Alright, your turn: which of these branches is your favorite flavor of chaos?