Warning: Contains spoilers for Marvel’s What If…? episode 8.

Marvel has toyed with its precise timeline of events before, but Ultron fighting the Guardians of the Galaxy in What If…? retcons the MCU timeline again. While What If…? takes place in alternate universes, they are based on singular changes to the timeline. The larger main MCU timeline would be expected to remain the same outside of those events, so the change in this universe affects how the MCU is presenting its main timeline.

What If…? episode 8, titled “What If… Ultron Won?,” opens with Ultron nuking the Earth and claiming the Infinity Stones from Thanos. This grants him the realization that there are other worlds full of life that he must destroy in order to establish his perversion of the phrase “peace in our time.” He is then seen traversing the cosmos and destroying key landmarks from throughout the MCU, including Asgard, Xandar, and Ego, the living planet.

Related: How Ultron Travels The Multiverse - New Powers Explained

A problem occurs for the original MCU timeline when What If…? shows Ultron destroying Sovereign. During the destruction, the Guardians of the Galaxy are shown to be engaged in a battle that happened at the beginning of the Phase 3 movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2. This would suggest that the events of that movie took place after those of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ultron’s creation which happened in the summer of 2015. However, James Gunn has expressly stated that the second movie takes place only a few months after the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, which was part of Phase 2 and takes place in the summer of 2014. As both of these events cannot be true, it means that the MCU has shifted the timeline in What If…? with a small but noteworthy retcon.

What If Ultron Guardians of the Galaxy Sovereign

What If…? has previously used its ability to return to past events to clarify confusing timeline moments. In episode 3, “What If… The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?,” the show opened by showing the order of inciting events for multiple MCU movies, including Iron Man 2, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk. While the events of these films were all known to have taken place within a couple of weeks of each other, the exact order was unclear, and What If…? created a new definitive order to watch those movies in. However, Marvel has now done the exact opposite by muddying the waters with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2.

While this might seem like a small detail for the MCU to have altered, it is symptomatic of a larger problem with What If…?. The MCU’s timeline has become so complicated that it is easy to present events out of order or in a way that could not possibly have happened. This notably happens with the start of What If…? episode 8 when Thanos appears with all the Infinity Stones. At this point in the timeline, there is no way that he could possibly have all of them, particularly the Soul Stone, and having them hand-delivered to Ultron in the way that they are feels contrived to enable the plot to move forward in a short episode.

More: Where Were Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver During Ultron’s Multiverse Attack?

Marvel’s What If…? releases new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.

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