Yeeeah, that starts getting into chicken/egg kind of stuff, because if he never got his TVA book, he never could have been involved in trying to save the TVA, which lead to Loki's 'ascension' (or whatever you want to call it). But he was there, he did participate, without him the doors Loki had to walk through to get out into the Loom never open. So he DID exist, as Victor... but now doesn't because he never got the book, which means he never could have existed to open the door.
And Timely was standing there in the Loom control room with the others, watching Loki walk out on the platform. So does he just suddenly wink out of existence and everyone forgets about him?
During the confrontation between Loki and HWR, HWR seemed pretty dismissive--indeed, borderline contemptuous--of Timely, deriding him for misunderstanding the Loom's true function and purpose and even mocking his stutter. So despite the physical resemblance between the two, it's far from clear that HWR is in fact a future version of Timely, even if Renslayer and Miss Minutes believed it. Even if they had the same temporal aura, perhaps ANY variant of Kang would've sufficed for unlocking the Loom. Whatever the case, Miss Minutes' prophecy was fulfilled--Timely now cannot be HWR.
There isn't going to be a third season, is there? It would be nice to have some of the mysteries and loose ends tied up, but Loki's fate at the end seemed pretty decisive and final.
It's an interesting move- this does give them an out in case they decide not to use Majors any more moving forward (or if the decision is made for them) due to his ongoing legal issues. Whether or not that was the intention is debatable, but it's at least something they can use if they need- either to recast HWR Rhodes/Banner style, or just axe the character entirely and go with a different baddie moving forward as the plan (Doom?). Or, if they prefer to continue with Majors, they can still use this as 'only THIS version of HWR ceased to exist and all the other ones are still out there'.
If it's clear they can't continue with Majors, I say just recast--after all, they did it for Banner/Hulk, and Mark Ruffalo successfully made the role his own. The most obvious alternate would be Chukwudi Iwuji, who played the High Evolutionary in Guardians vol. 3--couldn't they find some way of making it so that the HE was another Kang variant?
I kind of like the idea of Denzel Washington taking over as Kang...but he's a bit too old now.
cheers,
Gabe
