The first episode of the highly anticipated new MCU show What If…? premiered this Wednesday. This is an animated anthology series that explores the idea of the title i.e. the idea of how tiny details were changed leading to parallel universes. These parallel universes look like major changes in the MCU and in the end introduce us to all these possibilities. This is a highly creative idea and gives us a look at the endless possibilities of the MCU. The first episode explores the idea of what if Peggy Carter went through the supers soldier program instead of Steve Rogers. This was the Nexus Event that the Watcher talked about. But we’ve got evidence that the Nexus Event of What If Episode 1 wasn’t actually created by Peggy.
What is a Nexus event?
Nexus events were introduced to us in the series Loki. Loki follows Loki’s run-ins with the TVA, the Time Variance Authority. We can define Nexus events as certain events that occur in the sacred timeline when a branched reality is created by a certain character. This branched reality is a path that is taken by this character to deviate from the original timeline. The character that exists in this branched reality is called the Variant. TVA is an authority that makes sure that these variants are removed so as to make sure that they cause drastic changes. Though we later discover in Loki, that TVA is not all that simple and is actually a very twisted authority.
Throughout Loki, we come across various such Nexus events. Primarily, the one that is caused by Loki himself. While trying to escape captivity after the events of Avengers, Loki gets a hold of the Tesseract and uses it to manage an escape. This is his Nexus event as this entire scene occurs in Avengers Endgame due to the efforts of the Avengers trying to acquire the Tesseract themselves. Loki ends up landing in a desert land confused and the TVA arrives and captures him.
Multiple Loki’s from multiple such Nexus events are seen in the series. There was another such Loki who is called the Classic Loki. His Nexus event was caused when he managed to escape the wrath of Thanos during the events of Avengers: Infinity War. He managed to do this by creating a very good projection of him and then later hiding as “inanimate debris”. This helped him escape until he realized that this had led to him feel pain wherever he went. After hiding for a long period, he feels an urge to meet his brother, and just when comes out he is caught by the TVA.
Nexus Event of What If Episode 1
The narrator i.e. The Watcher tells us that the decision by Peggy Carter to stay in the room when the super-soldier serum is being injected onto Stever Rogers is the moment that an alternate reality is created. Hence, it is very clear that the person who took that decision is responsible for creating that Nexus event. It was not done something out of malicious intent but it was the very decision that led to a branched reality which until then had belonged to the sacred timeline. So, one may clearly assume that Peggy Carter is the variant in this case.
What if (pun intended) Peggy Carter isn’t the Variant?
There is a chance Peggy isn’t responsible for creating the Nexus event according to the events that take place in the episode. In MCU’s sacred timeline, Johann Schmidt gets hold of the Tesseract in 1942. But according to the way the events unfold in the What If…? episode, we see that Johann Schmidt gets hold of the Tesseract in 1943. So, in a way, we can say that the idea of him not being able to get the space stone in 1942 might have created the Nexus event and that led to the various changes in the universe. One of these being the fact that Peggy Carter ends up being Captain Carter. So, we can assume that Red Skull is responsible for causing the Nexus event. Or, whoever led to events of acquiring the Tesseract being delayed could be held responsible for the Nexus event. The MCU timeline is filled with numerous such Nexus events.
Now do you think that the Nexus Event of What If Episode 1 was actually Peggy taking the Super Serum? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
What If…? will be coming out with the second episode on 18 August. We’ve also got several other upcoming MCU shows for Disney Plus which include Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Secret Invasion, Ironheart, I am Groot, Armor Wars, Echo, Wakanda, and Okoye.
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