Why Didn't No Way Home Create Multiple Earth-616 Branches?

Last night I was creating a timeline making sense of all the time travel of the MCU and Fox Universes and came across the one thing I'm not stuck on.

To clarify, I'm not referring to the Raimi and Webb universes that the characters were sent back to, but specifically the 616 timeline.

From my understanding, MCU logic dictates that when you travel to a point you don't belong and change something, it creates an alternate future in a new branch of time of that universe.

Wouldn't this mean that in No Way Home, when several Spider-Man characters from other universes crossed over into Earth-616, coming from past points in time, and definitely changed a lot in Tom Holland Peter's universe, that Peter would be living in a branched reality?

I've tried looking for explanations on this but I haven't come across anyone else talking about it, maybe I'm missing something and have been thinking about all this time travel stuff for too long that it's fried my brain... especially after trying to make sense of the Fox Universe, but as of now that's where my thought process is currently at.

TLDR: For each time a character from an alternate universe from different points in time crossed over into Tom Holland Peter's universe in Earth-616, it seems like that should have caused a branched reality.

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Commentaires

FX1142026-01-10 00:48

That's specific to quantum realm time traveling, not crossing between universes.

Normal-Low-72982026-01-10 00:48

Who's to say it didn't? Miguel mentions the events of the film in ATSV, for example.

ChildofObama2026-01-10 08:01

I wonder if the Avengers duology will lean into the idea ATSV set up, that Strange and MCU Peter are infamous, possibly the black sheep of the multiverse for NWH’s events.

Jess_UY252026-01-10 00:49

I don’t see why it would create branched timelines,, there wasn’t any time traveling involved.

FoxInDaBox2026-01-10 07:15

All the villains were pulled from the past into the present, and get sent back to the past at the end with their issues resolved. With the ending implying that they would now survive rather than die like they did in the original films.

Jess_UY252026-01-10 07:19

They were pulled from a different universe, not from the past or present. It’s not the same thing so there’s no reason why the same rules should apply.

FoxInDaBox2026-01-10 18:13

True, I was thinking of branches on the original films’ timelines.

bangarang902102026-01-10 01:00

From the POV of a person in the timeline, it is just their reality. Theoretically there is a timeline where the spell didn’t backfire and bring everyone to that universe, but from the viewers POV, we just watched the story of earth 616 unfold.

DoubleStrength2026-01-10 01:00

> MCU logic dictates that when you travel to a point you don't belong and change something, it creates an alternate future in a new branch or time in that universe.

I've seen this pop up a lot recently and I don't know where it's coming from. It feels like people have taken one or two lines out of context from Endgame and decided to declare it canon.

The MCU famously does not follow its own rules on what constitutes time travel and what affects branching timelines.

Time travel does not automatically create a new "alternate" branch by default. Sometimes time travel is "supposed" to happen (as mentioned in *Loki season 1*).

*Any* time travel creates a branched timeline? So does 2015 Thanos' time travel to the present in Endgame mean our main universe is now forever a branched timeline and no longer the "main" one? What about Scott "time travelling" between AM&tW and Endgame? In that case, what constitutes which universe is the "main" timeline? What happened (or didn't happen) in that one?

bakedpatata2026-01-10 01:30

I believe it only creates a new timeline when you go back in time to a point earlier on the same timeline so there is a conflict of events. I don't see why moving between parallel realities would require a new timeline.

Supermite2026-01-10 01:45

Loki season one also opens with the TVA pruning the 2012 timeline the Avengers went to, even though that time travel was supposed to or allowed to happen.

DoubleStrength2026-01-10 01:48

> The MCU famously does not follow its own rules on what constitutes time travel and what affects branching timelines.

Captain501st-662026-01-10 02:07

That is true as well though lol, it does seem not 100% consistent and difficult to make sense of, though possible.

GarySoneji2026-01-10 01:51

They were allowed to collect the stones. Loki wasn’t supposed to escape with one.

Captain501st-662026-01-10 01:56

Thanos timetraveling didn't create a branched line for us but it created a branched line from back then since now there's a universe where Thanos left and never returned. It didn't for the main timeline though because he followed the Avengers to the anchored point to bring them back to that exact branch in time. Just like how when the heroes stole the Infinity Stones they created different branches there that they later had to close, but they still returned to their original timeline in 2023 due to their anchoring.

From my understanding, Scott's time dialation before Endgame doesn't cause a branch because just being in the quantum realm doesnt change anything that's happened in the universe, though for things that happened before Loki S2 a lot of time travel stuff \*can\* just be explained away by "He Who Remains" just deciding that it's part of his core timeline and therefore not a branch... that's how some choose to reconcile the Endgame writers claiming Cap was in a closed loop while the Russo bros say it was a branch. Remember how in Loki (I think S1) though, Loki asked something along the lines of "what about when the Avengers did time travel" and the TVA said "that was supposed to happen."

I could be misremembering some parts, but from what I can recall that's accurate at least.

neoblackdragon2026-01-10 18:24

Your mistake here is thinking that they exists a timeline where the events of NWH didn't happen.

A branch isn't created just because someone from another jumps off there's and goes into a new one. 616 pulled someone into their branch and in doing so created new branches for those timelines.

unreasonable-frog2026-01-10 01:05

It’s not that kind of movie.

Captain501st-662026-01-10 01:44

Lol 😂

FerrusManlyManus2026-01-10 01:34

“ Last night I was creating a timeline making sense of all the time travel of the MCU and Fox Universes”

Dude, no.

The Fox folks never tried to make sense with their films. That series is a continuity mess. They didn’t care to make sense of it so you definitely shouldn’t,

Captain501st-662026-01-10 01:44

Lol... yeah it's definitely a headache. With them joining the MCU though I think it's more important now to try seeing how it can be made sense of, if at all, and I'd say it can... mostly.

Following what some others have already come up with mostly makes sense timeline wise though so that helped.

WadsofTissue2026-01-10 03:16

I think they are creating a new xmen continuity. They have to. Days of future past had the best canon ending to start at, but Logan ended that. Deadpool and Wolverine continuity would be great but their is no X-men in that universe.

Safe-Finding-43762026-01-10 03:04

Why do you assume it didnt?

neoblackdragon2026-01-10 18:18

Why would the 616 timeline change?

The natural flow of time has not changed for 616 just because outsiders have come in. Hollands timeline is perfectly fine. Same as how GOG Thanos showing up didn't create a new branch for the Avengers. Or bring the stone from other timelines to undo the snap didn't create a new branch the Avengers are on.

It's the branches created that now there are timelines where these villains were cured before their deaths. The timelines of the other Peters remain the same.