Loki Confirms Phil Coulson Stayed Dead After Avengers In The Real MCU Timeline

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Loki episode 1, "Glorious Purpose."

In Marvel's new Loki series, it's been confirmed that Phil Coulson stayed dead in the primary MCU timeline following the Battle of New York seen in the first Avengers film. While ABC's Agents of SHIELD was initially a canonical show in the MCU seeing Coulson's subsequent resurrection after being killed by Loki, its status as part of the main timeline shifted over time as the series' connectivity continued to drift further away, so much so that the events of the show can't be reconciled with those seen in the films. Furthermore, Phil Coulson himself is referenced in the season premiere of Loki, but only his death, carrying the strong implication that his resurrection and the entire ABC series that followed Avengers occurred within a separate reality of the multiverse.

In Loki's premiere episode entitled "Glorious Purpose", the God of Mischief's creation of a divergent and unapproved timeline gets him arrested by the Time Variance Authority after he used the Space Stone to escape the Avengers in 2012. While he was found guilty of committing a crime against the Time-Keepers sacred timeline, Agent Mobius M. Mobius saves him from his sentencing, conducting an interview to see if Loki could be of value to the TVA in his latest investigation. It's here during this interview that SHIELD's Agent Phil Coulson is brought up as the pair take a look through Loki's past and future.

In his attempts to figure out what makes Loki tick, Agent Mobius plays recordings of Loki's life, starting with his recent defeat against the Avengers and the Battle of New York. While Loki claims that he was born to rule, Mobius counters that he certainly seems to lose a lot and that it might even be in his nature. While Loki reminds Mobius that he killed Phil Coulson for having that same sentiment, Mobius replies that it was Coulson's death that rallied the Avengers together against Loki to avenge him. However, he didn't share anything about Coulson coming back to life, as was seen in ABC's Agent of SHIELD.

This further confirms that Coulson apparently stayed dead in the primary MCU timeline, and that his resurrection and the events of Agents of SHIELD are an alternate timeline and reality in the multiverse. Had Coulson lived past the first Avengers, Mobius' point about Loki's consistent losses could have been made even stronger. He could have shared that the man Loki killed that motivated the Avengers assembling didn't even stay dead, compounding Loki's failure even more. However, he simply moved on to Loki's future with Thor: The Dark World, while Loki himself would witness the events of Thor: Ragnarok and his own death in Avengers: Infinity War on his own.

While many Phil Coulson and Agents of SHIELD are probably disappointed by this development, having his resurrection and the series as a whole on another timeline seems like the only way to truly reconcile the primary MCU timeline. While the first two seasons of Agents of SHIELD were incredibly connected to the events of the films, behind-the-scenes shake-ups in leadership resulted in future seasons becoming less and less connected, and the films have never once referenced the series regardless. In any case, it seems as though Loki has provided the final nail in the coffin to any hopes that Phil Coulson living past the first Avengers and his ABC series were still a part of the main MCU canon. Instead, those events appear to exist in the vast multiverse the Disney+ series has begun to unveil.

Loki releases new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.

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