Marvel Studios appears to be retconning the Tesseract - again. The Tesseract was introduced in Captain America: The First Avenger and, at the time, Marvel viewed it as the MCU equivalent of the Cosmic Cube. It was envisioned as a source of unlimited power, with the Red Skull using the Tesseract to create advanced weapons and vehicles for Hydra.

In the aftermath of The Avengers, Marvel recognized the potential for an important retcon. The post-credits scene in The Avengers introduced Thanos, the Mad Titan, and that clearly set up the potential for an adaptation of Jim Starlin’s Infinity Gauntlet comics. Marvel realized they had a number of MacGuffins in play that could be retconned as Infinity Stones. As a result, the Tesseract became the Space Stone.

It increasingly looks as though Marvel about to retcon the Tesseract yet again, granting it new powers. Avengers: Endgame included a scene in which the Avengers unwittingly changed the timeline, allowing Loki to escape with the Tesseract in 2012. Disney+‘s Loki TV series will pick up with that incarnation of the Trickster God, and there are reports he’ll actually use the Tesseract to travel through time, ultimately using it to jump into the mainstream MCU timeline ahead of Thor 4.

The Tesseract contains the Space Stone, which, as the name suggests, has traditionally been portrayed as allowing the bearer to open portals through space. Time travel, in any form, is usually the province of the Time Stone. If these reports are accurate, then Marvel is switching up the Space Stone’s powerset, meaning it manipulates spacetime rather than just space. There is a pseudo-scientific explanation for this; according to Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, space and time are closely bound together. The Space Stone can open wormholes through space, which in theory can affect time as well. Still, at this stage, it’s hard not to conclude that the Tesseract can basically do whatever the plot demands it to - including grant Captain Marvel her superpowers.

If the Loki series does indeed end with the Trickster God traveling to the main MCU timeline, then it presumably means he’ll be bringing the Tesseract with him. The Infinity Stones were destroyed in Avengers: Endgame, but it looks as though at least one of them is about to make a return. The Tesseract is the Infinity Stone humanity know the best, and its return may cause a lot of problems if the wrong people get their hands on it. That’s especially the case if it has an expanded powerset.

More: Why The Tesseract In Captain Marvel DOESN’T Break The MCU Timeline

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