Major spoilers below for Loki's series premiere, so be warned!
After many months of heightened fan anticipation, Disney+ finally brought Tom Hiddleston's Loki out to play with his self-titled streaming show, and the series premiere provided a smorgasbord of memorable moments for Marvel fans to dig their ornamental horns into. To be expected, Loki also left viewers with many questions concerning both this particular God of Mischief's future, as well as what's on the way for the entirety of the MCU.
So do your best to evade Wunmi Mosaku's TVA Hunter and join me in going through some of the biggest unanswered questions left by Loki's series premiere, starting with one of the episode's many flashback elements.
Did Loki Retcon Coulson's Resurrection On Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.?
Two of the biggest respective shocks across any Marvel movies and TV shows came when Clark Gregg's Phil Coulson was killed in The Avengers, and then when he was subsequently brought back to life in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Yet when Owen Wilson's Mobius was calling out Loki's villainous acts, with Coulson's stabbing on full display, the TVA agent keenly left Coulson's resurrection out of the conversation. Considering the way Marvel ticked many fans off by failing to live up to its interconnectivity promise with S.H.I.E.L.D., one has to wonder whether this scene was the MCU's way of retconning the TV series' storylines into another timeline, or if there was another purpose behind the omission. Did Mobius intentionally keep the info hidden, or was the reference meant to foreshadow Coulson's return at some point?
Did Miss Minutes' Video Lay The Groundwork For Marvel's Secret Wars?
One of the Loki premiere's most genius storytelling moves was laying out its complicated TVA exposition via the wonderfully animated instructional video led by the spokes-clock Miss Minutes, as voiced by animation icon Tara Strong. In describing the madness of the multiversal catastrophe, Miss Minutes' casual info-dump seemingly hinted at the extremely far-reaching Marvel Comics arc dubbed Secret Wars. But was the reference meant to imply a Secret Wars film or TV series is on the way, or was it just easier to explain away the Time-Keepers' existence by bringing up a completely unrelated timeline-mashing mega-war? It would be interesting indeed if the TV version of Secret Wars was actually a battle fought long before the present day, but we'll have to wait until things become not so secretive to find out.
Who Is The Hooded Loki Variant, And Are They The Real Villain?
We might as well start this one off with the much-embraced speculation that the hooded character seen in promotional material, and at the end of the premiere, is actually Lady Loki, a comic-originated character that hasn't yet been introduced in the live-action MCU. Such theories were possibly bolstered by the confirmation that Tom Hiddleston's Loki is gender-fluid, not to mention the fact that Comic Loki appeared in many more forms than just man and woman. Personally, I'd be down if the hooded mystery character is revealed to be Unicorn Loki, but I don't think the cloak would fit that version properly. In any case, we know the TVA is tracking this character, but are they in fact a true villain, or will there be a twist along the way that reveals the TVA is actually an antagonistic faction?
What's Up With Those Nightmare References?
Loki's creative team may have unwittingly unlocked several different theory trains that were initially fueled by WandaVision, with one centered on possible references to the freaky Marvel villain Nightmare. First, there was the Kablooie candy the young boy showed to Mobius in the church, which featured an illustrated character's face that shares similar features with Nightmare. Later, Loki called the TVA's vast existence a nightmare, at which point Mobius says that's a different department which he'd be interested in helping destroy. What does that even mean? Why would the TVA have a "nightmare" department in the first place?
Is Loki Going To Introduce Mephisto?
If you looked at the devil in the church's stained glass and your mind immediately went to "MEPHISTO, FINALLY," you are definitely not alone. The demonic Marvel entity was a fan-favorite target of WandaVision speculation, and fans are staying sharp when looking for potential Mephisto-flavored easter eggs. Unfortunately for theorists, the premiere's devil visual was confirmed to be merely a reference to Loki himself, thus the particularly shaped horns. However, that factoid doesn't negate the possibility that Mephisto will still be involved in some way outside of that non-reference. So let's keep hope alive, people!
Will Loki Introduce Kang The Conquerer?
With Lovecraft Country star Jonathan Majors believed to be playing the time-jaunting Marvel villain Kang the Conquerer in the upcoming sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Loki ramped up the Kang speculation with the introduction of the Time-Keepers. Many viewers found suitable comparisons to make between the middle Time-Keeper and Kang, whose schemes often included trying to take over time itself. Perhaps by setting Kang up as an O.G. Time-Keeper, Marvel is giving him room to fall from grace and cement himself as a frightening force to be reckoned with in the live-action MCU. It could be that the Time-Keeper just bears a passing resemblance, but considering how big Loki is meant to be by way of causing ripples throughout Phase 4, my money is on Kang showing up in one way or another.
There are certainly plenty of other questions to be asked about Loki's series premiere, such as how powerful would Loki be if he stole all the Infinity Stones and other objects from the TVA? As well, I have to wonder if Eugene Cordero's Casey is just naturally missing a few screws or if his mental hiccups are the result of having his memory reset too many times. Thankfully, we have the rest of Season 1 to think about such topics, all while presumably facing even more mysterious moments being introduced in the future. Such is life for Marvel fans.
Loki debuts new episodes every Wednesdays on Disney+ at 3:00 a.m. ET. Be sure to keep up with everything else on the 2021 Summer TV schedule while waiting for new eps.
