There are two main versions of Tom Hiddleston’s Loki to keep track of in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first was the original, whom we followed along with in five Marvel movies and was killed by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. The second is the variant who escaped with the Tesseract post-Battle of New York in one of Avengers: Endgame’s alternate timelines and is now leading his own series. While the original Loki died a hero, this other Loki got a head start on being a good person, and we’ll see how he continues to evolve for the better when Loki Season 2 premieres to Disney+ subscribers in 2023.
For now, it looks like the current Loki will be sticking to the small screen corner of the MCU, and that’s perfectly fine, as he’s in good company with characters like Moon Knight and She-Hulk. However, following the news that Michael Waldron is penning Avengers: Secret Wars, the final installment of both the Phase 6 slate and the Multiverse Saga, I can’t help but think that things are being put into motion for Loki to not only appear in this upcoming Marvel movie, but be one of its most important characters rather than just be a supporting player.
Loki Season 2 May Set The Stage For Secret Wars
Just like it makes sense for Jeff Loveness to be writing Avengers: The Kang Dynasty since he handled introducing Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it’s fitting for Michael Waldron to be tapped for Avengers: Secret Wars since he previously wrote wrote Loki Season 1 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This is a man who knows his way around telling MCU stories that involve other realities. In fact, the only multiversal story he hasn’t handled so far in this franchise is Spider-Man: No Way Home.
To be sure, Loki Season 1 did help set the stage for Spider-Man: No Way Home by having Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie kill Jonathan Majors’ He Who Remains, the Kang the Conqueror variant who created the Time Variance Authority to isolate his timeline and prevent a multiversal war. With his death, the barriers between these other timelines broke down, allowing for characters like Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin and Electro to make their way into the main MCU reality. But there was absolutely no mention of what went down in Loki Season 1 during No Way Home, unless you count Doctor Strange exclaiming that people from other realities coming into his reality shouldn’t have been possible as an indirect reference to how Sylvie changed the status quo.
Now it’s important to note that Michael Waldron is not working on Loki Season 2, with Eric Martin, who took over as Season 1’s lead writer on set after Waldron pivoted to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, instead penning all of the sophomore outing’s episodes. That being said, even though the the public have only just learned about Waldron writing Avengers: Secret Wars, him actually being hired could have privately happened months ago, around the time that Loki Season 2 started shooting? Even if that’s not the case, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and his MCU leadership team are master planners, and while it’ll be up to Waldron to hash out the specifics of Secret Wars, it’s a good bet that the general beats on how we get to what unfolds in the sixth Avengers movie has already been mapped out.
As such, between the Loki show’s importance to the multiverse and Michael Waldron having spearheaded the beginning of the Loki variant’s story, I’m now envisioning that Loki Season 2 will be more consequential to both Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars than Season 1 was for Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. As mentioned earlier, Kang the Conqueror is causing trouble in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Loki Season 2 follows a few months later. While Secret Wars still needs to be positioned in a way that it can be easily followable for people who only follows the Marvel movies in order, whatever goes down in Season 2 with the TVA can do some major legwork to get us to this conflict that will see countless realities colliding.
More importantly on the subject of Loki the character, because Michael Waldron now holds the proverbial keys to the biggest chapter of the Multiverse Saga, why not throw in the character whose journey he helped kick off? The people who only pay attention to the Marvel movies simply know this Loki from his brief appearance in Avengers: Endgame, but there’s now an opportunity to bring him back to the big screen to utilize his experiences from the first two seasons of his show and give him the same kind of platform for him to shine that his main counterpart had.
Loki Could Be A Foil For Kang The Conqueror
Thanos served as the overarching antagonist of the Infinity Saga, first being teased in The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers; Age of Ultron, and then stepping into the spotlight for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. There’s no question that Thanos’ actions impacted literally everyone in the MCU, but he never had someone serve as his arch-nemesis. Sure, the main Thanos fought Thor more than once and was ultimately killed by the God of Thunder, and the alternate timeline Thanos ended up being dusted by the dying Tony Stark, but the Mad Titan basically served as a collective threat, with none of these heroes truly being prioritized over the rest, excluding the dysfunctional relationship with his “daughters” Gamora and Nebula.
Obviously Kang the Conqueror’s machinations will affect everyone in the MCU too, and it could be argued he’ll be even more dangerous than Thanos was if whatever he has planned affects multiple realities. It’ll be great to see heroes like Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel and the Fantastic Four fight Kang, but a big way Marvel can help make the Conqueror stand out is by giving him a foil, i.e. a protagonist or rival he can have a more personal conflict with. Oftentimes in the comics Doctor Doom has filled that role, but since it’s unclear when we’ll meet him in the MCU, this is where Tom Hiddleston’s Loki variant can come into play.
Loki’s time in the TVA has given him a solid understanding of how this timeline craziness works, and that knowledge will only grow in the second season of his Disney+ show. The surviving heroes who participated in Avengers: Endgame’s Time Heist have some experience with time travel, but not to this degree, and even fewer of them have been looped in on the multiverse. The Loki variant can be a key guiding forces with uniting the heroes and making sure they’re able to properly combat Kang.
Plus, remember that in the Loki Season 1 finale, it was revealed that Kang runs this version of the TVA. So it’s entirely possible that in Season 2, Jonathan Majors will appear as Kang, meaning that Loki will already have dealt with this temporal tyrant. Should a one-on-one conflict between Loki and Kang happen in Avengers: Secret Wars, assuming the former is armed with the right kind of TVA technology, if you combine that with his natural abilities and Asgardian magic, I give him pretty good odds against the latter.
We Could Get One Final Thor And Loki Reunion
At the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War, Thor watched Thanos snuff the life out of the main Loki after obtaining the Space Stone. It was a heartbreaking scene and necessary for Infinity War’s story, but if you’re like me, you might feel that we should have gotten a more substantial farewell between the two brothers. Why not give them one legitimate final reunion in Avengers: Secret Wars before we say goodbye to them for good in the MCU? Because let’s be honest, just like with Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans, there will come a time when Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston permanently exit this franchise.
Picture Thor, who became a father at the end of Thor: Love and Thunder, crossing paths with an alternate version of his brother, whose time as a villain was cut short and is now dedicated to being a force for good. This would make for a unique and paradoxical dynamic, as these two technically know each other quite well, but at the same time they’re complete strangers because of how their lives have veered off into wildly different directions. Sadly, I wouldn’t expect these two to stay together for long, but at least Thor would get to spend one last proper moment with his brother. This wouldn’t diminish the impact of the original Loki’s sacrifice, and it could put a bow on one of the most popular relationships in the MCU.
We’re only just wrapping up the MCU’s Phase 4 with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hitting theaters in November, and then The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special premiering on Disney+ in December. So obviously it’ll be a long time before specific details about Avengers: Secret Wars trickle in. However, don’t be surprised if Tom Hiddleston has a significant role in the Phase 6 finale, regardless of whether or not we get a third season of Loki. Ponder the possibility of this happening while you keep visiting CinemaBlend for updates about this superhero franchise.
