WATCH: What's the difference between a multiverse and a parallel universe?

Thanks to Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home, the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is ... the past? Or is it sideways? Welcome to the sometimes confusing world of multiverses and parallel universes. They aren’t necessarily the same thing, and this can be somewhat difficult to explain.

To walk us through this tricky topic, SYFY WIRE has convened the first-ever Council of Jackies, with our host, Jackie Jennings, as well as two of her alternate-universe counterparts: Jacked Jackie and Evil Jackie! (Although someone should tell Evil Jackie that goatees are definitely the way to go for evil facial hair; mustaches are a bit ‘30s.)

The funny thing is that even the people behind Endgame don’t agree about all of the rules behind time travel. The Russo brothers believe that the past can’t be changed. Instead, the heroes’ time heist created branching timelines. For example, Loki’s escape with the Tesseract screwed up the ending of The Avengers. That means there may be a timeline where Thor: The Dark World didn’t happen as we remember it. Also, can we live in that reality?

As presented, the branching timelines are still a part of the same universe, as opposed to another world in the multiverse. But both the universe and its branching timelines exist within a larger multiverse of alternate worlds. If you want to go one step further, the various multiverses also exist within a larger omniverse that can touch upon any reality you can conceive.

There’s more to unfold in the full video, so check it out and let us know about your own theories in the comment section below!