After 6 exciting weeks, Marvel’s Loki series came to the conclusion of its first season recently. The show received mostly rave reviews from fans and critics, with some strong performances, sharp writing, and a fun and twisty plot (multiverse!). You can read our weekly episode recaps starting with episode 1, here.
Now that the first season has run its course (and yes, a second season is confirmed!), let’s look at some of the most interesting aspects of the show and its potential impact on the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) going forward.
The Evolution of Loki
Prior to the series, Loki was dead, as far as we knew, having sacrificed himself protecting Thor at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War. At the time, it represented the end of a redemption story for Loki, who eventually evolved from opponent to ally for Thor. Going into the series, fans wondered exactly how they would bring Loki ‘back from the dead.’ The writers ended up having fun with that Time Heist the Avengers pulled off in Avengers: Endgame, with a past version of Loki escaping and creating an alternate timeline.
So, the Loki we met in the first episode of the series was the one who was still very much on the villain side, after the battle of New York in the first Avengers film. The series worked to begin letting this version of Loki grow and evolve, partly by giving him a view into his fate and how he changed over the course of the rest of his life.
However, Loki really began to evolve once he met his Variant - Sylvie. In one of the stranger relationships and love stories you’ll find, Loki and Sylvie bonded and eventually shared a few romantic-ish moments before culminating in a final kiss. The kiss may or may not simply have been a ruse for Sylvie to confuse Loki long enough to send him through a TempAd portal, but viewers can really make their own decisions about her motives. Using the kiss to fool Loki and getting rid of Loki because she couldn’t trust him or the kiss was real and she pushed him through the portal to where she may have thought was safe.
Either way, the Loki at the end of episode 6 has been cast aside by Sylvie and we see him struggle with that knowledge. Loki will always be a trickster. It’s his nature. But, the Loki we have at the end of episode 6 seems to have evolved quite a bit from who he was in episode 1. We will no doubt continue to see this evolution in season 2, and it is rumored that we may also see this version of Loki (we assume) in at least one MCU movie in the coming years.
The Multiverse is Here and What it Might Mean
This brings us to the repercussions of Sylvie’s choice to kill He Who Remains and therefore break open the multiverse. We watched the timeline begin branching off in a spiderweb of thousands of alternate realities at the end of episode 6. So, what exactly does this mean for not just Loki season 2, but the rest of the MCU?
The multiverse has played a role in a number of key comic book storylines, so there is a wealth of material to draw from. Just looking at all of the Marvel content that has ever been put on film (from The Incredible Hulk of the 1980s to the Netflix shows like Daredevil or even Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) the existence of the multiverse effectively means that the MCU could adopt any of that existing content as part of the official canon. The original Spider-Man movies from Sam Raimi with Toby Maguire and the ones with Andrew Garfield? Why not? They can just be versions of Spider-Man from alternate universes. We already have Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to show us the way. So, those rumors about the past Spider-Men appearing in Spider-Man: No Way Home later this year? Well, they certainly seem possible after Loki episode 6. There are also rumors that Matt Murdock (aka Daredevil) from Netflix will make an appearance in Spider-Man.
We already know that the next Doctor Strange film (Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness) is going to deal with something multiverse-related, so it’s safe to assume that Loki has helped set that up - along with WandaVision. Speaking of WandaVision, maybe when Wande heard the voices of her assumed to be erased children calling to her, they were calling from another universe that was just created (which might place episode 6 of Loki concurrently with the last scene from WandaVision).
What other MCU content will leverage the idea of the multiverse? We know that Jane Foster will somehow become a version of Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder. What if that isn’t the Jane Foster we know from previous MCU films and instead is from another timeline where she wields the hammer?
On the Disney Plus series front, the animated Marvel What If? Suddenly takes on more meaning. Instead of just a fun look at what might have been if different characters became different heroes, perhaps it is a look at actual alternate timelines where these things occurred?
This is really just the start. Marvel can use the development of the multiverse to do just about anything they want.
Phase 4 Villain Introduced
Not content to simply infinitely expand the potential for the MCU with the multiverse, Loki also introduced (sort of) the big villain from Phase 4. While we only officially know him as He Who Remains, the character was played by Jonathan Majors who has already been announced as playing Kang the Conquerer in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, due for release in 2023. Between now and then, we can likely expect to see Variants of Kang show up in other MCU shows and series.
It was a bold move to use a Disney Plus series to introduce such a major character for the MCU film franchise, but maybe we shouldn’t be surprised, since they used WandaVision to introduce a grown-up version of Monica Rambeau as Photon, who will later appear in the next Captain Marvel film. It does make it clear that if you’re an MCU fan who watches the films, you had better get on Disney Plus and start watching the series as well.
What’s Next?
So, what comes next? Short answer - who knows? We have a suddenly wide-open MCU where virtually any story or character could become part of the official storyline. We know that characters like the Fantastic Four are coming to the MCU in the future. We will also see Blade (and thank you to Loki for also mentioning that vampires exist) in a future movie and maybe even sooner in a series like Moon Knight.
We’re also seeing the MCU really branch into two main storyline styles.
The ground-level stories like Black Widow and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. The cosmic stories, like Loki, Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor, Captain Marvel, etc.
It will be fun to watch how they weave these two types of stories together or keep them separate in the years ahead.
