Loki are the first three Marvel shows confirmed to be directly tied to and impact the MCU movies.
Prior to the launch of Disney+, though, there were multiple live-action Marvel shows on ABC, Netflix, Freeform, and Hulu. Marvel TV promoted shows like each show's place in the MCU canon have different levels of validity, but James Gunn considers everything before WandaVision to not be part of the MCU.
The Guardians of the Galaxy director recently began sharing a running list on Twitter of actors who have appeared in the MCU and DCEU. He made a point to clarify that he was only considering official MCU and DCEU projects and not actors from other Marvel or DC universes. So, when someone mentioned John Glover should be added for his roles in the DCEU movie Shazam! and Marvel TV show Agent Carter, Gunn said that he's "not including pre-Wandavision shows in MCU." When a fan then began to argue that Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter are part of the MCU, Gunn said that this isn't the case.
Click here to see James Gunn's tweet.
The debate over whether pre-WandaVision Marvel shows are canon is one that never dies within Marvel fandom. Agents of SHIELD started off with connections to The Avengers as "the incident" but never really connected to the MCU movie events.
Considering James Gunn's position with Marvel Studios, it is likely that everyone else at the studio, including Kevin Feige, has a similar view about the MCU canon. This won't stop fans of Agents of SHIELD and other shows from holding out hope that they can be made canon in some fashion. After all, the multiverse means there are unlimited possibilities, and Spider-Man: No Way Home is rumored to use Daredevil star Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock. The shows themselves might not exist in the Sacred Timeline of the MCU but, hopefully, Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios continue to cherry-pick the best casting decisions - like Krysten Ritter's Jessica Jones, Jon Bernthal's Punisher, Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin, and Chloe Bennett's Quake - and bring them to future MCU shows or movies.
Source: James Gunn
