Steve Rogers fixed all the branched timelines that the time heist created in Avengers: Endgame—except one. It took Earth's Mightiest Heroes five years to find a way to undo Thanos' snap at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, and even when they figured things out, it came with a lot of uncertainties. The remaining heroes had to travel back in time to collect the Infinity Stones to reverse the decimation. But their mission didn't end with just Smart Hulk successfully bringing back half of life in the universe.

Aside from battling 2014 Thanos and his minions, the Avengers also had to return all six elemental crystals to their original locations. That way, no branched timeline would be created, as explained by the Ancient One in her discussion with Smart Hulk. Steve was chosen for the outing to return the Infinity Stones, which he graciously accepted. While Marvel Studios didn't reveal what went down in Captain Rogers' final adventure before retiring and living with Peggy Carter in the '40s, the general idea was that he successfully accomplished his task. But despite this, the team forgot one created timeline to rectify.

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Before the time heist, the heroes needed to test whether or not the idea was even plausible using their new suits and Quantum Portal. Ant-Man was supposed to be the one to make the initial trip, considering Scott Lang's experience with the Quantum Realm. But after a couple of mishaps, Hawkeye was instead sent to do it. Clint Barton successfully jumped back to his farmhouse before Thanos' snap, and to prove that the mechanism was working, he grabbed a baseball glove from his home and brought it back to the present time. Now, based on the time-traveling rules established in Endgame, this should effectively create a branched timeline. This was the exact same reason why Steve also had to return Mjölnir that Thor grabbed from the 2014 timeline on top of the Reality Stone. But, the film never showed any of the heroes bringing back the glove to clip the alternate reality that Hawkeye's action made.

To be fair to the heroes, this was done before they even fully understood how the Endgame time heist could have implications on the bigger universe. At this point, they were merely focused on finding out whether or not the idea to travel back in time was even doable. Once Clint's trip to his farmhouse confirmed that it was indeed possible, they moved on to their next course of action to develop a game plan. By the time they accomplished the time heist, they had to deal with the death of Black Widow, the creation of a new gauntlet for the reverse snap, and the all-out battle with Thanos. Once everything was done, Smart Hulk or anybody else may not have remembered the glove that Hawkeye swiped from the past. The question now is whether or not that created timeline thrived or if TVA intervened to reset it in Loki.

At this point, the potential branched reality hasn't been brought up in the MCU, even as the timeline moves on from the Infinity Saga and into Phase 4. It's even unclear if anyone from the surviving heroes remembers this incident before the time heist.  But since the multiverse will be an important factor in the franchise's future, it's curious if this unaddressed Avengers: Endgame alternate timeline will ever factor in upcoming storytellings.

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