Disney+’s Loki series did something that none of the rest of the Marvel series on the service have done when it promised us at the end of Season 1 that there would be a Season 2. Of course, while we know the second series is coming, that’s about all we know at this point. However, we’ve now gained at least one more piece of information that gives us a hint of what Season 2 will explore, as Gugu Mbatha-Raw has confirmed she will be back for Season 2.
Appearing on GMA Gugu Mbatha-Raw isn’t able, or at least wasn't, willing to say much of anything about Loki Season 2 beyond confirming that it will exist, and that when it does she will be in it. This at least tells us that the character of Renslayer will return, and that means we’ll get an answer to one of Season 1’s big questions. Where was Renslayer going and what is her plan?
Renslayer was a woman who had very much given her life to the TVA, and thus was perhaps more hurt than anybody when she learned that the organization was a lie. In the character’s final scene she overpowers Owen Wilson’s Mobius and tells him that she’s going to go search for free will, before disappearing through one of the TVA’s doors for parts unknown.
What exactly looking for free will means is far from clear. We don’t know if she really has a plan, any real destination, or if she’s just running off and hoping to find something that begins to help her make sense of everything.
With the fact that most of the other Marvel series are not getting second seasons, or at least not getting them yet, it seems that there’s already a plan for what Season 2 of Loki will be. And we know that the multiverse is going to be a significant focus for the entire MCU for the foreseeable future. It seemed certain we would see Renslayer again. It was likely that this character and her new journey would be dealt with. At the same time, that didn’t necessarily need to happen as part of Loki Season 2 we could have seen her pop up basically anywhere.
The end of Loki Season 1 introduced the concept of the multiverse to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the death of He Who Remains, who we know isn’t really dead, the “sacred timeline” was gone and the multiverse now exists. And Loki is basically stuck in it, as we last see him speaking with a version of Mobius who does not know him.
Of course, even though we now have a hint as to something that will happen in Loki Season 2, we still have no idea when we’ll see it. Marvel has four other series set to arrive this year and so it seems likely that 2023 would be the earliest it might arrive, but with plenty of undated series announced that might all hit before we come back to Loki it could be much longer.
