The Multiverse War is upon us.
This week's season finale of Loki was one for the books. Not only did it bring us to the answer of who was actually running the "TVA", it also left us with the biggest shakeup for the future of the MCU since the introduction of Thanos way back in The Avengers (2012). Fortunately, the post-credits stinger confirmed that the show will return for a second season, but is that the next time we will see Loki?
When Loki and Sylvie finally make it past Aniloth into the Citadel, they are confronted by He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), who while not specifically named is most certainly Kang the Conqueror (or one of his variants to be precise). The man reveals that he can see past, present and future and has been watching over the multiverse for quite some time. He warns Loki and Sylvie that he can no longer predict the future and that if they kill him, his variants will start a multiverse war, or he can take over running the TVA for him and manage the single timeline. While Loki tries to reason with Sylvie, she ultimately kills He Who Remains and the timeline begins to branch off, sparking the multiverse war they were warned about. Back at the TVA, Loki finds Mobius (Owen Wilson) and is crushed to find out that he doesn't remember him, while seeing a statue of the Timekeepers replaced by a statue of He Who Remains in its place. So what does this all mean for next season?
Season two will have a big character arc for Sylvie now that she completed her mission: getting revenge against the head of the TVA for what happened to her as a child. Sure it was a bit of a rash decision for Sylvie to kill He Who Remains rather than accept his offer of running the TVA with Loki instead of starting a multiverse war, something akin to Star-Lord's questionable decision to ruin the plan of stopping Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), but Sylvie had been through a lot at the hands of the TVA so really there was nothing Loki could do to stop her. I wonder if this means Sylvie will be an antagonist of sorts in season two, or if she will be working with a new Kang variant that is now running the TVA. Loki will be doing the best he can to find allies at the TVA along with Mobius to set the timeline back in place. At the end of the episode when Mobius doesn't recognize Loki, I feel that this signals that this kind of thing has happened before and the TVA works to get the sacred timeline back, so essentially their memories are wiped every single time. This is an obstacle Loki will have to get passed in season 2 since he's the only one that remembers everything. Hopefully the wait for season 2 isn't longer than a year because I need answers! What does the finale mean for the future of the MCU?
Well for starters, it appears that He Who Remains is the new "big bad" of the MCU going forward. Prior to his debut in Loki, Majors was already confirmed to be playing villain Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man: Quantumania, due out in 2023. As he warned Loki and Sylvie that his variants can be even worse than him, the heroes of the MCU are going to have their work cut out for them in the future. And this is not the only MCU film that the finale had ramifications for, it even sets the stage for two more. With the establishment of the multiverse in full swing now, I would say its likely that the rumors about Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) of Peter Parker teaming up with the other two live action Spider-Men (Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield) are coming to fruition. Alfred Molina (Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2) and Jamie Foxx (Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2) have already been confirmed so after Loki, it makes sense on a broad level how these characters are able to come back and into the MCU. Also that Doctor Strange is appearing in the film helps bridge the multiverse concept to his own film right after. Hopefully we get the first trailer for the film in the near future, as it releases in five months and Marvel has not shown anything apart from a few stills of the movie. Loki also has ramifications on the upcoming Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (2022) because...well its right there in the title! I originally thought that this movie would introduce the concept of the multiverse, but Marvel appeared to throw a curveball. After the Loki finale aired it was reported, although not confirmed yet, that Loki will return in the Doctor Strange sequel. I think this will help the film since fans will already be familiar with the concept so the film doesn't have to spend too much time explaining it. By the time Doctor Strange goes on his own adventure with Scarlet Witch, Strange should be aware of how the impending multiverse is unraveling and possibly an idea of who Kang is and what kind of damage he can do. Its an exciting time to be a fan of the MCU that's for sure!
Even though it has only been two years since Avengers: Endgame (2019), I've always wondered how Marvel was going to top that movie, a culmination of eleven years of storytelling crammed into one epic movie. Well now the answer is clear to me: the multiverse. Now it is way too soon to say that whenever The Avengers (or whatever they'll call themselves) team up to defeat Kang the Conqueror in the Multiverse War, it should make for another epic movie(s). But the possibilities are endless. Will multiple versions of heroes be joining the fight? Will Tobey Maguire and/or Andrew Garfield participate? Will variants of Iron Man or Captain America join in? Will Hugh Jackman's Wolverine (or any X-Men from the Fox movies) return for any of this? It is just too soon to tell, but I think Marvel is on the road to something great. We are still in the early days of Phase Four of the MCU, so it may be years before the Multiverse War comes to fruition but I am extremely excited about the direction Marvel is taking!
What are your thoughts on the Multiverse War coming to the MCU? Did you enjoy the first season of Loki? Let me know in the comments below!
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