It’s never easy to choose just one favorite character from among the many we meet in our travels through fictional worlds. Even when we narrow the scope to just one year of television, movies, and more, defining what makes for a favorite or “best” character seems like a herculean task. And though we say this every year, this year, we truly were spoiled for choice when it came to nerdy offerings that graced our screens. From fantastical realms to multiverse shenanigans to spectacular season twos, spinoffs, and original stories, we received a veritable buffet of characters to love (or to love hating) in 2023. And so, despite the difficulty, the Nerdist team has set out to narrow down the greatest of them all. Here are Nerdist‘s picks for the best characters of 2023.

Monkey D. Luffy From Netflix’s Live-Action One Piece

Selected by Rotem Rusak

I went into the live-action One Piece series as cold as possible for a franchise that’s been around for so long. And though I had no prior love or loyalty to the series, Iñaki Godoy’s Luffy immediately had me signing on to become a Straw Hat Pirate. How could anyone resist when Luffy just wants you to treasure your dreams and be the best you that you can be?

Having now watched some of the anime, I can confidently assess that Iñaki Godoy’s rendition captures all the hallmarks of the original Luffy: his unbounded joy, his intent enthusiasm, his determined love of his crew, and his sometimes overly excited tendencies. But above and beyond that, Godoy injects Luffy with a tremendous heart and warmth that is all his own, which deepens, rounds out, and evolves the character, taking him to new heights and pulling us all along for the ride. 

With Iñaki Godoy’s Luffy as captain, it makes total sense that everyone he meets falls in love with him and decides to follow him to the ends of the earth, fans included. And that makes live-action One Piece‘s Monkey D. Luffy one of our best characters of 2023. 

Egwene al’Vere From The Wheel of Time

Selected by Amy Ratcliffe

We had to wait a couple of years, but The Wheel of Time season two finally happened. The adaptation of Robert Jordan’s books of the same name leveled up in a number of ways from season one, including character development. Egwene al’Vere was one of the MVPs, standing out as one of the best characters not just in The Wheel of Time, but in all the television I watched this year. Performed by Madeleine Madden, Egwene found herself pulled out of the White Tower in the worst way possible: betrayed by a member of the Black Ajah and given to the Seanchan to take as damane. Collared and enslaved by the Seanchan, Egwene faced horrors unknown to most Aes Sedai. The Seanchan controlled Egwene’s ability to use the One Power and used her as a weapon. They broke her.

But Egwene, powerful in every way that matters, fought back. She made a difficult choice, one that will impact her for years to come. But she made it. No one decided her fate for her. In season two, Egwene rose above pain. She showed her mettle and protected her friends. It was a moving, terrible, important step on her journey.

M3GAN From M3GAN

Selected by Eric Diaz

True horror icons come two, maybe three for decade. In 2023, it came in the form of a killer robot doll with a judgmental glare—and who has no time for your crap—going by the name of M3GAN. From the moment we saw M3GAN’s pre-murderbot rampage dance in the trailer for her big-screen debut, she was poised for star status. When Gerard Johnstone’s film was finally released in January of 2023, she earned that status. Screenwriter Akela Cooper created a true icon in M3GAN, and not one of us will ever hear the song “Titanium” the same way again. M3GAN is definitely one of 2023’s best characters.

Marie Moreau From Gen V

Selected by Tai Gooden

A world full of superheroes seeped in debauchery, lies, and murder leads to a lot of blood. For Gen V’s Marie Moreau (played by the brilliant Jaz Sinclair), the constant spilling of this bodily fluid works to the advantage of her ever-expanding hemokinetic powers. Marie’s enthralling and tumultuous journey throughout season one spans from an orphan grieving her parents’ accidental demise to a self-assured young woman who confronts internal and external shaming and bravely redefines what it means to be a hero.

As she further steps into her personal power, her abilities expand and allow her to rewrite her destiny. Marie Moreau has heart, but she won’t completely sacrifice herself for the sake of others. She’s broken and resilient, passionate and terrified, and socially awkward yet keenly aware of her place and space within society on multiple levels as a Black woman. Watching her conjure blood from the soaked grassy quad and shoot it like daggers was perhaps the most empowering moment in this universe so far. She’s a true gem in a mine of new TV characters.

Roderick Usher From The Fall of the House of Usher

Selected by Mikey Walsh

The full depth of Bruce Greenwood’s incredible performance on The Fall of the House of Usher couldn’t be totally appreciated until it was over. Long before his final moments, we knew the pharmaceutical CEO was responsible for a massacre of untold millions. Roderick Usher’s body count had few equals in history. Worse, he amassed his empire by sacrificing his kids’ future to a supernatural entity. And yet, even knowing all of that, Greenwood made Roderick compelling by making it hard to fully hate him. Hadn’t Roderick started out with good intentions? Didn’t he want to end suffering rather than inflict more? And wasn’t his punishment more than anyone deserved? Didn’t his mistakes and remorse make his story a tragedy because he was a flawed person rather than a real monster?

No. His final confession wasn’t about the murders he’d committed or the deal he’d accepted. It was about the greatest lie he’d told. He’d always known exactly what Ligodone was and what it would do to the world. It was only then we knew the truth—he really was the Devil, and he had tricked us into thinking he’s not. That’s why Roderick Usher is among 2023’s best new characters.

Caine From John Wick: Chapter 4

Selected by Kyle Anderson

The John Wick series has always offered action movie fans a cadre of wild underworld characters and hardened assassins to go up against our favorite gun-fu fighter. John Wick: Chapter 4 is easily the best of the bunch in this field, and while offering a number of cool new characters, none were as great as Caine, played by Donnie Yen. The sightless assassin with a sword in his walking stick and a pocket full of sound grenades gives John his toughest battle yet, and the fact that Caine is a reluctant combatant, an anti-villain trapped in a tough spot, endears us to him all the more. And yes, he kicks the most amount of butt; it’s Donnie Yen! Why wouldn’t he?!

O.B. From Loki Season 2

Selected by Mikey Walsh

This year proved it doesn’t matter which multiverse you find yourself watching, Ke Huy Quan is an absolute joy in all of them. The recent Everything Everywhere All at Once Oscar-winner joined Loki in season two and promptly stole all of his scenes. (No small feat considering his costars.) His brilliant, way-too-literal, wonderfully straightforward O.B. was a constant source of both humor and information. What really made Ouroboros one of 2023’s best new characters, though, was the way Quan was able to also convey the inherent sadness of the O.B.’s life, even if the engineer himself wasn’t fully aware of his plight. That gave the TVA employee a depth that easily could have been lost with a lesser performance. We wanted to hang out and listen to Ouroboros while also giving him a big hug. Just like we’d love to do with Ke Huy Quan himself in every universe everywhere.

The post Nerdist’s Best Characters of 2023 appeared first on Nerdist.

“I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose.”

Loki‘s season two finale proved the Asgardian prince was right all along. Only the glorious purpose with which Loki believed himself burdened turned out to be very different from anything he’d imagined. The God of Mischief, who wanted nothing more than to be loved, who thought personal fulfillment could only be found in the admiration of adoring crowds, realized the only true purpose in life is loving others. Loki became the God of Stories, the being at the end of time who makes it possible for everyone, everywhere, to live their lives freely. It was the final chapter in a story that saw one of the MCU’s best, most interesting, most important characters, one who began his own tale as a selfish villain, become a selfless hero. But it wasn’t exactly a happy ending.

Loki only got everything he ever wanted and redeemed his soul with great personal sacrifice. To protect those he cares for most he must spend eternity apart from them. He sits on a throne no one will ever come before. He shoulders a burden the very multiverse he saved will never know about. It was a conclusion as heartbreaking as it was beautiful, tragic as it was hopeful, ironic as it was poetic. It was an honest, earned, emotional farewell in the way only bittersweet endings can be.

Loki spent his life projecting strength to hide the weakness that truly drove hm. He played the villain to exude toughness because he was always scared and insecure. He thought he needed to intimidate and awe others into submission if he was ever going to earn what he thought he wanted most of all: love and respect. His personal failings didn’t just lead to his own suffering, though. They led him to hurt so many. Loki turned his pain into more pain.

That Loki, with whom we spent 13 years, was long gone by the time he destroyed He Who Remains’ Temporal Loom. By then he’d finally learned to be honest with himself. That self-reflection allowed him to recognize what he actually wanted in life. He would never find meaning in the love of others, but rather in loving them. To show love to those he cared about most, though, he had to do the one thing he feared most. To fulfill his glorious purpose he had to accept being alone. And he has to do it without thanks. The infinite number of people who owe him their very existence don’t even know he’s out there, let alone what they owe him. And the handful of friends who do will never again see him. To give everything to everyone Loki had to give up everything.

Whether you always loved Loki or came to begrudgingly respect him for what he did, it was hard to see him sitting on his throne at the end of time and not feel conflicting emotions. He wasn’t weak or afraid. He’d grown as a person and became strong enough to do something amazing with his life. He did something that mattered, something that earned him true redemption, something that benefitted all of existence. What greater purpose could anyone have then Loki, protector of the Tree of Life? What would his father, mother, and brother think of him if they could see him now? He’d been so desperate to make them all proud and now he had. And yet, to accomplish everything he ever wanted he had to accept being alone, the one fate he feared.

It was an incredible ending for an incredible character and story, one that felt both earned and right. It’s why Loki’s final chapter stands alongside other great goodbyes in the MCU, the ones that didn’t ask us to only feel good or bad, but to feel everything. Tony Stark was once a war monger who wanted to build a suit of armor around the world. In the end he was that suit of armor, but he paid for it with his life. Just as Natasha Romanoff did. The Black Widow who wanted to erase the “red” in her ledger sacrificed herself to save her best friend and the whole universe. Like Loki their endings were not only fitting conclusions to their stories, they stand out because they forced us to accept that emotions that seem inherently at odds with one another are anything but.

There is no good without bad, no hope with fear, no life without death. And we feel both good and bad more acutely when they come together because together they best resemble the conflict of being alive. None of us will ever get happy endings. One day we will all say goodbye to those we love. We might bid farewell first or be the ones left behind, but a parting is coming. Every hug, every “see you later,” every piece of key lime pie we share together could be our last. Remembering that is painful, but that pain it also reminds us to enjoy those moments and those people more. Stories that remind us of that force us embrace the most inescapable truth about existence, that to be alive and to feel is bittersweet.

Not every great ending is bittersweet. Neither is every bittersweet ending great. But when one is honest to the character and their arc, when it feels like the only ending they ever could have had, it lands an emotional blow no other conclusion can. Because a bittersweet ending is the only kind of ending that asks us to feel everything at once the way life itself does. How fitting the new God of Stories, the hero who saved everyone’s story, ended up telling one that did just that.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on  Twitter and  Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Loki‘s second season ended with the Asgardian prince getting everything he ever wanted. He really was born with a glorious purpose. It led him to sit upon a throne as he’d always coveted. And yet, the fulfillment of his lifelong dreams was not what he imagined. The God of Mischief, who had long played the role of a villain, proved to be anything but. His burden was not to earn others’ love but to show love. Loki saved everyone in every timeline by sacrificing himself to create a new kind of existence. It honors his Norse heritage and frees the universe from the Sacred Timeline’s oppression. The only thing it didn’t do was eliminate the danger posed by Kang the Conqueror and his dangerous Variants.

Loki spent the first half of his show’s season two finale desperately trying to fix the Temporal Loom that had seemingly exploded at the end of episode four. That blast had sent everyone at the TVA back to their original branch and life. It was everything Sylvie wanted, but in episode five those realities and everyone in them all began to turn to spaghetti. Without the Temporal Loom around to organize branches into the Sacred Timeline the entire multiverse appeared doomed. Loki was the multiverse’s only hope thanks to his time slipping.

Once Loki learned to control his movement through time he was able to go back to before the Loom’s failure. In the finale he spent centuries studying and repeatedly attempting to expand the Temporal Loom. He finally achieved his goal when he made it possible for Victor Timely to successfully fire the Throughput Multiplier onto the Loom before it was too late.

It didn’t work. It was never going to work. Scaling up the Temporal Loom’s size to fit more timelines was always doomed to fail. Without the TVA’s pruning of branches, new realities grow at an infinite rate. You can’t scale up for infinite. “It’s like trying to divide by zero. It can’t be done.”

Loki then decided he had to go back even further in time to fix everything. He needed to stop Sylvie from killing He Who Remains in the first place. The death of the TVA’s creator had put this existential disaster in motion.

Inside the Citadel of Time, during a sequence from the show’s season one finale, Loki tried again and again to prevent Sylvie from killing He Who Remains. He never succeeded. No matter how many times he time slipped to that encounter, Sylvie always murdered her sworn enemy. Each time she also told Loki if he wanted to stop her he had to kill her. Loki wouldn’t.

Eventually He Who Remains paused time when he realized Loki had relived this moment many times. The TVA creator also knew all about the time slipping. He had “paved” the road that led to Loki’s time traveling ability, because Loki was He Who Remains’ backup plan for reincarnation, not Victor Timely.

Loki then shared his own secret. He could also control time; he was much further along in his understanding of time manipulation. He Who Remains then explained exactly what was going on. There was no Temporal Loom scaling problem because the Temporal Loom is simply a failsafe. “When the Loom is overloaded with branches, it deletes the ones that aren’t supposed to be there. Everything except the Sacred Timeline.” Saving the TVA was never a concern. It was simply collateral damage that is “easy to rebuild.” The Loom’s protection of the Sacred Timeline and its finite number of chosen branches was all that ever mattered.

He Who Remains then told Loki something the Asgardian already knew: no matter what Loki did he would always lose. There was no way to save every branch. Not unless Loki changed the equation entirely and destroyed the Temporal Loom.

While He Who Remains said countless versions of his dangerous Variants already existed by now, destroying the Temporal Loom would mean multiversal war. That would result in the destruction of every branch of reality, including the Sacred Timeline. He Who Remains said that’s what this was all about. He offered mercy to some by making the hard choice to sacrifice timelines to prevent the end of them all. Loki was unconvinced. He still refused to kill Syivle and said he would “find another way.”

That other way led him to time slip to his first sit down with Mobius. There/then Loki asked his friend for help. Loki asked about how you decide who lives and dies. Mobius talked about keeping the big picture in mind and how “most purpose is more burden than glory.” Ultimately there is no comfort in real, meaningful purpose. The only choice we have is to pick which burden we are willing to live with.

Loki thanked him and then went to speak with Sylvie before she turned to spaghetti. When he told her the truth about the Loom being a failsafe Sylvie realized he might have to kill her. It was the only way to guarantee He Who Remains would live. Loki said it was either the Sacred Timeline or nothing, but she didn’t accept that. What gave him the right to take away everyone’s free will? What was the point of protecting an existence without it? Who was Loki to say they couldn’t die fighting instead? Why replace one nightmare with another anyway, especially when “sometimes it’s okay to destroy something.”

It’s what Loki needed to hear. Sylvie had never lost sight of the real big picture and what matters – a chance to live your life. Loki knew what he needed to do. He finally realized what kind of god he needed to be for his friends and everyone. Loki realized he could replace the branch-killing Loom, and therefore the Sacred Timeline, with something better: himself.

Loki went back to the moment before the Temporal Loom exploded to save the people he loved. He walked out on the platform without a suit and adorned his royal Asgardian clothes and horned crown. He then used his powers to destroy the Temporal Loom for good. Without it the infinite branches began to die, but Loki grabbed them and brought them back to life with his energy. He then gathered every timeline and carried them through a rift that led to the End of Time.

There he weaved the branches both into his robe and into himself as he claimed the throne as the King of All Time, Always. Only, unlike He Who Remains, he did not oppress timelines into a branch-killing Loom. Instead Loki let them all blossom and co-exist in peace as part of something new. Loki created Yggdrasil, the sacred ash Norse Tree of Life that contains all life.

Loki sacrificed himself to save everyone on every timeline. He also saved the TVA, a place people can now choose to serve freely. Some like Mobius opted to leave the TVA behind and go home. Others decided to stay because the TVA still serves an important purpose. It now monitors Variants of He Who Remains, one of whom caused (an already dealt with) problem in an Earth-616 adjacent world. That was a reference to Kang’s activities in the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Loki’s glorious purpose, which was never about earning the love of others but rather showing it to them, saved every branch in the infinite multiverse. He also stopped multiversal war and the potential destruction of everything. The Variants of He Who Remains will not destroy the entire universe. But when Loki broke the loop of time he did not destroy Kang and his Variants for good. Instead, in this new reality, they’re united as the Council of Kangs seen in Quantumania. He Who Remains Variants are no longer fighting each other to control the multiverse, they’re fighting together. That’s still a dangerous proposition for every branch of reality.

Loki’s sacrifice wasn’t a perfect solution because life isn’t perfect. We can never be truly safe. But it was beautiful and full of hope. He created a far better universe than the one He Who Remains maintained. Loki didn’t offer the multiverse false mercy defined by death. Loki has to give the multiverse life. Every life.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on  Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post What Happened in LOKI Season 2’s Finale and What It Means for the MCU appeared first on Nerdist.

The Temporal Loom is central to Loki’s second season, and we learn it’s critical in making the Time Variance Authority function. But what is Loki‘s Temporal Loom exactly? Here’s what we know about the Temporal Loom from Loki season two and what we can glean from Loki‘s various inspirations.

The MCU’s Loom: Loki Season Two’s Temporal Loom

Created by He Who Remains at some unknown point in time, Loki‘s Temporal Loom takes raw temporal energy and refines it into a physical timeline. Part of the reason the TVA prunes the extra timelines is so that the Temporal Loom doesn’t overload trying to “weave” too many timelines at once. Without the Temporal Loom, the TVA can’t function. And if it overloads, the TVA goes boom, and all of reality would soon follow. In episode two, we learn that a meltdown can’t be prevented without the temporal aura, or time signature, of He Who Remains. Who is currently quite dead.

By the third episode of Loki season two, the Temporal Loom is indeed overloading, thanks to the countless branched timelines that are returning with the death of He Who Remains. It simply wasn’t made to handle so many divergent timelines branching off at once. And without it, not only does the TVA cease to function, but chaos will reign in the multiverse. But we also learned of the origins of the Temporal Loom and how they tie into a specific Kang variant.

Victor Timely and the Origins of the MCU’s Temporal Loom

In episode three of Loki’s second season, Loki and Morbius travel back in time to the year 1893. There, they encounter a variant of He Who Remains. This variant, Victor Timely, is presenting his latest invention at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. It’s a very rudimentary version of the Temporal Loom, sold to the 19th-century audience as a way of harnessing energy. Victor Timely was able to create this Temporal Loom prototype based on his understanding of the descriptions of the TVA manual. A book that was left for him by Ravonna Renslayer and Miss Minutes when he was a child. Of course, the Temporal Loom malfunctions on stage after a mere few minutes. Yet it shows that as early as the 1890s, a Kang variant was working on the very thing that would make the TVA run.

Loki‘s Temporal Loom Isn’t Designed to Support the MCU’s Multiverse

In episode four, Loki and Mobius bring Victor Timely to the TVA to fix the overloaded Temporal Loom. They need the temporal aura of He Who Remains to open the blast doors to the Loom, which Timely matches. But Timely provided another service, what he called his “greatest invention” in the previous episode. Timley’s greatest invention is something that looks like a primitive version of Kang’s Multiversal Power Core from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. He can attach this invention to the Throughput Multiplier and expand the rings of the Temporal Loom. This would allow the new branched timelines to filter through, and save the TVA, and all reality. However, it doesn’t quite work out that way.

When Victor Timely tries to head out and fix the loom, he turns into spaghetti. And the Temporal Loom, well, it overloads and explodes. This explosion destroys the TVA, which appears to doom every branch, too. Every universe and thread of reality appears to literally shred, and there is nowhere to go for anyone except Loki, who finally manages to control his time slipping. But in the finale of season two, we learn that the Temporal Loom is a failsafe; it’s not designed to support the multiverse. No matter how many times Loki tries to get expanding it right, it simply always fails because it’s impossible to scale up for an infinite number of timelines. He Who Remains explains that the Loom’s purpose isn’t to support a multiverse of endless branches, but to destroy everything but the sacred timeline. To keep existence stable for other branches, something else has to be done.

Loki Replaces the Temporal Loom with Himself

In Loki season 2’s final episode, Loki destroys the Temporal Loom and replaces it with himself, forming the great tree of Yggdrasil out of the timelines and supporting them with his magic. With Loki at the center, the universe and all its branches can exist and thrive in a way they could not when the Temporal Loom wove the universe.

That’s the MCU. But does Loki‘s Temporal Loom have a precedent in the pages of Marvel Comics? Well, yes and no. But mostly, no. However, Loki season two’s Temporal Loom found inspiration in various parts of Marvel’s comics and actual myth.

Loki‘s Temporal Loom and Its Mythological Inspirations

In Greek mythology, there is a Loom of the Fates, which also exists in the Marvel Universe. In Norse mythology, that loom is the Loom of the Norns. (Marvel Comics combines these two mythologies together into one.) Essentially, in mythology, the three Fates weave this loom to shape the life and destiny of every being in creation. Thor destroyed the Loom of the Fates in Thor Vol. 2 #85 and broke the thread that holds the destiny of Asgardians, from which Those Who Sit Above in Shadow were absorbing energy. Those Who Sit Above were the silent beings who created the Asgardian Gods. So it’s fitting that a powerful loom that determines how the universe flows originated in Thor comics since the MCU’s Temporal Loom now appears in Loki, thus tying it to Thor’s mythos.

Spider-Man’s Loomworld

In the Spider-Man lore, there’s another powerful loom of sorts, reminiscent of Loki‘s temporal loom. The loom in this instance is a whole world itself, one that accesses all existence. There’s an entire Loomworld, where beings called the Inheritors could access the Web of Life and Destiny to travel across the multiverse and hunt down Spider-Totems. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse especially drew inspiration from this. They created the Loomworld of conquered realms from countless wars fought across realities. Eventually, several spider-people formed the Web-Warriors. They operated from Loomworld and used it as a focal point to protect the multiverse, which is similar to how the MCU’s TVA works.

Temporal Limbo, Chronopolis, and the Heart of Forever

In the comics, Kang did not create the TVA. There was a “He Who Remains,” but as far as we know, he’s not a Kang variant. However, the TVA has a lot in common with the realm of Limbo, a place outside of time historically ruled by Immortus, who was, of course, a Kang variant. Temporal Limbo was a timeless realm facilitating time travel to various points in history. Much like the MCU’s TVA, it existed outside the time stream. And time did not flow there the way it does everywhere else.

Limbo is also part of Chronicles, which has something very similar to the MCU’s TVA. At its heart is the most important component of the city, the Heart of Forever. It’s a trans-chronal engine that enabled Kang’s home to exist in every branch of the timestream simultaneously. While not exactly like the Temporal Loom in Loki, it has key similarities.

In the end, Loki‘s Temporal Loom is a hodgepodge of different elements from the pages of Marvel Comics—not to mention actual mythology itself. Ultimately, though, the Temporal Loom is a unique creation designed for the MCU. However, we’d hardly be surprised to see it retconned into the comics at some point.

Originally published on October 5, 2023.

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One of the greatest unrequited loves in the whole of the MCU has been the one between Loki‘s Mobius and a jet ski. Loki‘s first season gave us glimpses of Mobius’ jet ski adoration. Despite living his whole remembered life in the confines of the TVA, where there are certainly no rivers, lakes, ponds, or jet skis, Mobius had a very specific dream. In episode two of Loki season one, Mobius has a magazine with jet skis on his desk and tells Loki that he keeps it because “they’re awesome.” Then Mobius proceeds to give a touching monologue about jet skis and how they’re the only perfect thing in history. He calls them “a beautiful union of form and function.” Sadly, Mobius confesses he’s never actually ridden a jet ski. A cruel twist of fate! But did Mobius finally get to ride a jet ski in season two of Loki?

Here’s everything that went down (up to and including a commemorative Funko POP! figure).

Mobius Gets to Ride a Jet Ski in Season Two of Loki… Sort Of!

In episode five of Loki season two, we finally get to see Mobius ride a jet ski. And just like he told Loki in season one, it looks like fun. Mobius has the time of his life during his jet ski montage. He’s feeling the wind in his hair, he’s experiencing the sting of mist slapping him in the face, he’s surfing the waves. And it’s all set to some incredible funky instrumentals. But then, record scratch. It turns out Mobius hasn’t actually taken a jet ski out onto the ocean; he’s sitting on a stationary version of the watercraft in Piranha Powersports, the store where he works.

So did Mobius actually get to ride a jet ski in Loki? Well, technically, he was riding on a jet ski, but the adventure was still only in his mind. In our book, this is not that dissimilar to when he imagined riding jet skis in the TVA, though, of course, it’s closer. We feel happy that Mobius gets to actually touch and feel a real jet ski, but we still need to see him fulfilling his dreams.

Loki Season Two Enhances Mobius’ Love of Jet Skis

The anticipation is only heightening, though. Although Loki season one teased Mobius’ jet ski love, in season two, we see how deep it runs. In episode six, after the Temporal Loom’s dramatic explosion, Loki time slips to a a 2022-branched timeline where he meets a version of Mobius called Don. And this Mobius is obsessed with jet skis. He sells them and hypes them up every chance he gets. Among other things, Mobius shares that “a personal watercraft is kind of a thinking man’s dirtbike” and even very earnestly tries to sell the branched timeline version of Hunter B-15 on the idea of buying one though she lives in New York City. (New Yorkers will truly appreciate the futility of this mission. But Mobius is right; a jet ski would be a thrilling way to commute… Although maybe not on the Hudson.) What a truly pure love. It warms our hearts.

Mobius even owns two jet skis which he refers to as “beauties,” and offers to sell one to Loki. He, wholeheartedly agrees, of course, when Loki repeats his own words back to him and calls them “a beautiful union of form and function.” It would break his heart to let one go. But, well, Mobius can’t ride two of them, after all. Sounds like an excellent setup to us for a full-force “Mobius rides a jet ski” scene in Loki or elsewhere in the MCU.

The MCU Needs to Show Us Mobius Living His Dream in Full

Even though the branched timeline’s Mobius may have ridden his jet skis on open water, we don’t see our version of Mobius do that very thing. But we hope that in time, he gets to see his whole wish come true.

Producer Kevin Wright notes of the scene, “We wanted to find a way to do it in an unexpected way… I mean, there’s been so much anticipation, and I think we could have just plopped him on a jet ski riding around a lake, and people would have been just as happy. Owen said something really funny, which was he compared it a little bit to an old TV romance — will they, won’t they? He’s like, well, the second you do it, the thing kind of is done. So he’s like, if we’re going to do it now, it’s got to be really fun and really unexpected.”

He further shares, “That was kind of the genesis of, well, what if we tease this out?… We know we can get some of that out there. He’s working at a dealership. Also, the fun of, it is in Cleveland, which is not known for its water sports. It’s the dream but not exactly the ideal version of it.”

We completely agree that in the scope of this episode, this version of the moment was the right way to go. Mobius took one step toward his dream of riding a jet ski. But there’s still a dream out there ready to be realized… And two empty jet skis waiting patiently in a garage.

But, For Now, We’ll Celebrate with a Mobius/Don Jet Ski Riding Funko Figure

In the meantime, you, yourself, can help Mobius live his jet ski dream. A special Loki Funko POP! figure titled “Don Personal Watercraft Salesman Figure” captures the Mobius moment for prosperity.

A description of the figure shares, “Enjoy the wonder of recreational wave time with Pop! Don (Personal Watercraft Salesman)! Help prevent world devastation when you welcome him into your Loki collection. The clock is ticking to add this exclusive Deluxe Pop! Ride of Pop! Don on personal watercraft to your Marvel Studios lineup!”

Just add water, and you, Mobius, and his jet ski will be happy forever. This Funko POP! figure is a Target exclusive and is now available for pre-order for $29.99.

Originally published on November 03, 2023.

The post Does Mobius Finally Get to Ride a Jet Ski in LOKI Season 2? appeared first on Nerdist.

One of the most fun aspects of Loki, that they frankly have not done enough of, is when the writers use time travel aspects to explain away historical mysteries. In season one, we learned Tom Hiddleston’s Loki was actually the infamous D.B. Cooper, who robbed an airplane in the ’70s, popped out with a parachute, and vanished for all time. Now, in the second season’s penultimate episode, “Science/Fiction,” the show solved yet another historical mystery, MCU style. One involving the most infamous (and mythologized) prison in American history—Alcatraz.

At the end of episode four of this season, the Temporal Loom exploded, and we learned the different TVA employees who were in the control room, as well as Sylvie, were sent back to their lives before the TVA took them and wiped their memories. Mobius was a single dad named Don who sold jet skis (of course). O.B. was a scientist and an aspiring sci-fi author. Hunter B-15 was a doctor. Sylvie just went back to work at McDonald’s in 1982. But the most interesting true identity of a TVA employee had to be Casey. Turns out, the mild-mannered “guy at the desk” was once a notorious criminal, Alcatraz escaped convict Frank Morris.

When Loki starts time slipping again, Casey appears in 1962, escaping from Alcatraz. We even see the crude dummies the inmates made to appear as if they were sleeping during bedcheck. It’s something that really happened. Casey even says “If they catch us, they’re going to gut us like a fish!” That was a fun callback to season one, when Loki threatened to do the same to him but he had no idea what a fish even was. As they’re trying to escape, a time-slipping Loki appears on the shores of Alcatraz island in San Francisco. He finds Casey, now called Frank, who doesn’t recognize him, along with two other men getting ready to escape in a makeshift raft.

In reality, the two other men were Clarence and John Anglin. They were portrayed by the episode’s directors, Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson. The real Frank Morris was a lifelong criminal who spent much of his life in correctional facilities. Authorities arrested Morris for armed robbery, car theft, and finally, the crime that put him in Alcatraz, bank robbery. However, he had a genius I.Q., and was likely the real mastermind behind the whole escape. Being so smart, it’s no wonder the TVA wanted him as an employee.

Later in the episode, Loki appears to Frank Morris on a beach along with the other two escaped convicts, who made it to dry land. In reality, no one really knows what happened to the three men. Official reports suggest they drowned in the waters of San Francisco Bay, or hypothermia got them. But they never discovered any bodies. Over the past 60 years, some anecdotal evidence points to at least one of the men surviving. We have since mythologized the only successful escape from Alcatraz in pop culture. It was even the subject of the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood playing Frank Morris.

Frank accepts Loki’s offer to help restore the TVA, even though he doesn’t understand what’s going on. Once he realizes that O.B.’s temp pad can take anyone to anywhen, he even asks if it could take him into a bank vault. Even after doing time in the world’s most infamous prison, Frank still can’t get rid of the urge to rob banks. When one of the TemPads vanishes due to reality coming undone everyone thinks Frank stole it. Hey, when you’re famous for robbery, it’s hard to shake that reputation.

While we saw Frank/Casey unravel at the end of the episode, we have a strong feeling it’s not the last we’ve seen of him. If Loki has taught us anything, it’s that there’s always another branched timeline somewhere.

The post LOKI Reveals How One Character Was Involved in an Escape from Alcatraz appeared first on Nerdist.

Victor Timely’s stay at the TVA was both short and long. Soon after arriving he tried to stop the Temporal Loom’s complete failure but before he could, temporal radiation turned him into human spaghetti. What exactly happened to Victor? And what does his demise mean for Loki, the TVA, the Sacred Timeline, and the entire MCU? His un-Timely death just unleashed total chaos—and infinite Kang Variants— on the multiverse.

What Happened to Victor Timely on Loki?

Victor Timely provided the final component O.B. and Casey needed for the device they’d built to expand the Temporal Loom’s capacity. The Throughput Multiplier that Victor designed would ensure the Loom could handle more strands of universes safely, stabilizing the Sacred Timeline.

Just like in the season two premiere with Mobius and the Temporal Extractor, someone needed to physically place that piece of equipment on the Loom. That meant going outside the TVA and risking exposure to extreme temporal energy and “fatal corporeal de-husking.” (A term we know from an official show poster featuring O.B.)

Despite the risk, there was no time to waste. The Loom was ready to burst under the strain of too many branches. Victor, whose temporal aura had unlocked the blast doors, offered to go. Sadly his bravery led to his death. Even with a suit on, the instant Victor stepped outside he burst into ribbons. The amount of temporal radiation had become too much.

Why did Victor turn into spaghetti instead of simply exploding or having his skinned peel off, though? In the show’s season two premiere, Loki asked O.B. what would happen if the Temporal Extractor failed to the pull the Asgaradian out of the time stream. Ouroboros answered with a question. “Well, have you heard about how if you fall into a black hole you turn into spaghetti?” Loki had not, but we have.

What Is “Spaghettification?”

“Spaghettification” is a theoretical concept introduced by Stephen Hawking in A Brief History of Time. It hypothesizes what the immense density and gravitational pull of a black hole would do to someone or something who crossed the black hole’s event horizon. As NASA explains, “This effect essentially stretches out the object more and more as the object gets closer to the black hole, creating a long, thin shape.”

That is what O.B. warned Loki about, but it’s not exactly what happened to Victor Timely. For one Victor wasn’t caught in the time stream like Loki had been. Victor also wasn’t stretched into one long Variant noodle. Temporal radiation caused Victor to burst into multiple spaghetti-like ribbons, something we’ve seen before in the MCU.

Who Else Was Turned Into Spaghetti in the MCU Before Victor Timely?

Thanos used the Reality Stone in Avengers: Infinity War to briefly transform Mantis into loose ribbons.

The Scarlet Witch also used her dark magic to brutally murder Reed Richards of Earth-838 in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Magic. Wanda stretched Reed out into long spaghetti-like pieces before making his head explode.

Reed Richards’ slower, painful splintering more resembled Victor Timely’s instant death in many ways. However, the Kang Variant’s fate will have far greater ramifications for the entire multiverse. That starts with what Victor failed to stop.

What Happened to the TVA at the End of Loki Season 2 Episode 4?

Without the Throughput Multiplier in place the ever-increasing number of branches overwhelmed the Temporal Loom. The “heart of the TVA” could no longer weave all those strands of existence into one neat timeline. The result was an explosion of all branches and unrefined time that seemingly destroyed the TVA.

Without the Time Variance Authority there is no one to help manage the chaos of a multiverse that also lacks the guardrails offered by the Sacred Timeline. And we know that means because we know what happened before the TVA existed.

What Does the Implosion of the Temporal Loom Mean for Loki and the MCU?

The Temporal Loom’s explosion literally threatens all threads of reality in the MCU. In Loki season two, episode six, we learn that no branch of existence is safe after the Temporal Loom’s meltdown, they are all dying. We see both Sylvie’s and OB’s separate branches disintegrate into nothing before our eyes. Sphagettification is now happening across branching timelines, essentially destroying every MCU universe and every variant in existence.

But that’s not the only threat that exists for the MCU. He Who Remains created the TVA after defeating his Variants in the Multiversal War. Their battle nearly resulted in the end “of everything and everyone.” The TVA was He Who Remains’ solution to avoiding total annihilation, because without the organization, his Variants would always be a threat to existence. Without the TVA, Kang Variants always live since time is a circle. The TVA alone eliminated them as threats forever. (Except possibly Victor, who might have been He Who Remains’ backup plan specifically because Victor was not a threat, though we need more information to know for sure.)

The breaking of the Temporal Loom, and therefore the Sacred Timeline, means the system created to prevent Kang Variants from existing is gone. That means they might all have come back the second the Loom exploded. That would explain the existence of the Council of Kangs at the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. All those infinite strands of existence that just broke free of TVA control represent infinite Kangs.

That might ultimately explain why Victor himself turned into strands.

Is Victor Timely’s Spaghetti Fate Related to the Branching Timeline?

Temporal radiation is not a black hole, so Stephen Hawking’s theory doesn’t fully explain why Victor Timely became spaghetti in Loki. There’s also too much we don’t know about how time works in the MCU, specifically at the TVA, to explain exactly what happened to him and why. And since we know the season did not end with the Loom’s explosion, there’s still more to learn. But we can’t ignore that Victor literally branched out right before every branch of reality broke free.

Did Victor splinter into strands because the branches of reality did that to him? Or did the Loom finally burst because He Who Remains’ Variant did? If so, does that mean Victor’s temporal aura spaghetti-ed and brought all the Kangs back? Did He Who Remains actually want that so he’d come back, too? The last thing he told Sylvie after she stabbed him was that he’d see her “soon.” Was Victor his backup plan to restore himself rather than save the TVA? Does He Who Remains just assume he’ll win the next Multiversal War same as before?

Whatever answers await us during the final episode of Loki season two, one thing is clear: the untimely death of Victor Timely unleashed infinite strands of chaos on the multiverse. Fortunately, if anyone knows how to deal with time chaos it’s the God of Mischief, who already knows what it’s like to slip through time.

Originally published on October 26, 2023.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post What Victor Timely’s Fate Means for LOKI, the Sacred Timeline, and TVA appeared first on Nerdist.

Academy Award winner Ke Huy Quan appears in a major role in season two of Loki. The Everything Everywhere All At Once and Indiana Jones actor just can’t get enough of stories about the multiverse, it seems. His name is Ouroboros, or O.B. for short. But how does Ke Huy Quan’s Loki character tie into the existing Marvel Comics lore? And how does Ouroboros relate to existing mythological roots in our own world? Here’s what we know so far about Ke Huy Quan’s Ouroboros and his role in Marvel’s Loki season two.

The Ouroboros in Folklore and Norse Mythology’s Jörmungandr

You’ve no doubt heard the turn of phrase “the snake eating its own tail.” Well, that particular iconography comes straight from ancient mythology. That snake consuming its own tail is actually called the Ouroboros, and is found in the mythologies of ancient Egypt and Greece. According to Britannica, “[The Ouroboros] represents a being that is continually devouring itself, and thus reborn from itself. A gnostic and alchemical symbol, Ouroboros expresses the unity of all things, material and spiritual, which never disappear but perpetually change form in an eternal cycle of destruction and re-creation.” The Ouroboros is a fitting mythological reference to invoke in the MCU’s Loki which is all about questions of the destruction, creation, and flow of timelines.

Although the character Ke Huy Quan plays on Loki season two has the name Ouroboros, he might also have ties to a more specific character from mythology, one that even more directly related to our titular God of Mischief. In Norse mythology, the snake that consumes its own tail, a.k.a an Ouroboros, goes by the name Jörmungandr. This Ouroboros is also known as the Midgard Serpent or the World Serpent. In the old Norse myths, Jörmungandr encircles the realm of Midgard, which is another name for Earth. He is the son of Loki and the giantess Angrboða. He’s also the brother of the great wolf Fenrir and Hel. During Ragnarök, a.k.a, the Twilight of the Gods, Thor kills him.

In the pages of Marvel Comics, the Midgard Serpent has played a big role in several Thor comics. He first appeared back in 1966 and reappeared again and again over the years to fight the God of Thunder. Although the Odinson slays the gigantic beast, Marvel resurrects him more than a few times, and the two battle all over again.

When it comes to a connection with Loki, the god of mischief does ride the Midgard Serpent at one point. But there is never any real indication that Marvel Comics’ version of this Ouroboros is in any way the literal child of Loki. Marvel writers often play fast and loose with Norse myths, changing many things outright. This is another example of that. It will be interesting to see, however, what Loki season two does with the mythological origins of Ouroboros as the show continues to remix and reference mythology.

Ke Huy Quan’s Loki Character O.B./Ouroboros and His Marvel Comics Connections

Ke Huy Quan’s Ouroboros might be an original creation for the MCU series, not based on a preexisting Marvel Comics character. However, his name does pop up in several comics from the past. And in different forms.

The only Marvel Ouroboros with ties to the TVA is a certain Mr. Orobourous, who made one appearance in a She-Hulk comic in 2005. Created by Dan Slott, Orobourous was a judge for the Time Variance Authority. In Marvel’s She-Hulk comic, Orobourous is spelled a bit differently than the traditional Ouroboros of mythology, but the reference seems to be the same. This character was also a clone of Mr. Paradox, who himself was a clone of several TVA bureaucrats. We already know the O.B. is not a judge in Loki, but it seems the creators took a shine to the name at least.

But She-Hulk‘s judge is not the only Ouroboros in Marvel lore. First, there was the Oculus Ouroboros, which was not a person in Marvel Comics, per se, but a conduit of elemental magic, that depicts a variation on the classic Ouroboros shape of a snake eating its tail by featuring a second snake. It first appears in Doctor Strange #92, back in 1993. The Sorcerer Supreme stops an attempt by Doctor Doom to gain access to its power.

An actual character using the name is Admiral Ouroboros. He made his first Marvel Comics appearance relatively recently in 2015’s Silver Surfer #11. He battled the former Herald of Galactus during an adventure where the Surfer became stuck in a time loop.

The most recent Marvel usage of the name Ouroboros appeared in 2022, in Marvel’s Contest of Champions. In this instance, Ouroboros is an organization in universe 517. This organization came together to oppose the rule of the Elders of the Universe across the reality called Battlerealm.

However, despite all these possible references, we think it’s unlikely that Loki’s O.B. is directly related to the previous Marvel concepts of Ouroboros. It’s far more likely the MCU’s Ouroboros is riffing on one or more of the mythological histories of the creature.

Ke Huy Quan’s O.B./Ouroboros in the MCU and Loki Season Two

The version of Ouroboros played by Ke Huy Quan in Loki is an integral part of the TVA. He’s just someone who rarely gets a visit from other TVA employees. He’s been toiling away, quite literally without sleeping, in the Repairs and Advancement department. O.B.’s office is stuffed in the TVA’s basement. It’s a sprawling mishmash of all kinds of mechanical parts and different inventions. Mobius takes Loki to help with his time-slipping problem. O.B., a nickname for Ouroboros we learn Loki gave to him when he time-slipped into the past, becomes invaluable in helping them. In episode two of Loki, O.B. gives Mobius and Loki the TVA Guidebook to help them.

Here’s How O.B. Connects to Victor Timely and Kang on Loki

In the fourth episode of Loki’s second season, “Heart of the TVA,” O.B. and Victor Timely meet at last. In fact, their meeting reveals an actual ouroboros of sorts for the pair. Timely was taken aback at meeting the man who wrote the TVA Handbook, the book that he received as a child, which inspired all his inventions and career. O.B., meanwhile, was having his own fanboy moment meeting Victor Timely. The man who inspired him to write the Handbook in the first place. As O.B. said, their meeting was “the snake eating its tail.”

Loki’s co-executive producer Kevin Wright said that O.B. is integral to the functioning of the Time Variance Authority. Even if we never saw or heard of Ouroboros in season one of the MCU show. Wright said, “His job is basically every piece of tech, every computer, everything that is running at the TVA… He either designed it, or he fixes it and keeps it running.” None of that sounds remotely like the Marvel Comics versions of Ouroboros. So far, it seems as if the MCU’s O.B. is tied far more to the mythological concept of the character than anything in the comics.

Hopefully, we’ll soon learn more secrets about Ke Huy Quan as O.B. when Loki season two continues on Disney+.

Originally published on October 2, 2023.

The post Who Is LOKI’s Ouroboros? Ke Huy Quan’s Character O.B. Ties Into Mythology and Marvel Comics appeared first on Nerdist.

A lot has happened in the world of entertainment this week. Prime Video’s Gen V is really setting up season four of The Boys, Loki season two is making big moves with franchise level implications, and Disney released Chris Pine’s villain song. But that’s not all that’s gone down.

Here are some of our favorite pop-culture news odds & ends that you don’t want to miss.

This Week’s Odds & Ends in News:

• EA Motive’s Iron Man Game Gets Much-Anticipated Updates
• Magic: The Gathering‘s The Lord of the Rings Collection Expands with Four New Scene Boxes
• NYC Transit App Becomes Pokémon Go of Rats and Informs You About the Rattiness of a Station
• Get Up to Some Mischief with BoxLunch’s Loki Collection
• Disneyland Resort Announces Pixar Place Hotel, the First Fully Pixar-Themed US Hotel
• Goldfish Elf Maple Syrup Flavored Grahams Are Swimming in for the Holidays
• Lost and Avatar: The Last Airbender Concerts Coming Soon
• Buy a Tiny Elf Home on Zillow
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Actor Wants Spidey-Pool in a Future Game

EA Motive’s Iron Man Game Gets Much-Anticipated Updates

Last September, Marvel Entertainment and EA’s Motive Studios announced they were teaming up for a brand new Iron Man game. This “all-new single-player, third-person, action-adventure” will “feature an original narrative that taps into the rich history of Iron Man, channeling the complexity, charisma, and creative genius of Tony Stark and enabling players to feel what it’s like to truly play as Iron Man.”

We haven’t heard too much about it since, but recently, the game received a few exciting updates. First, EA Motive shared that while the game was still in early pre-production, it had selected Unreal Engine 5 as its game engine. Additionally, a Community Council of Iron Man and Marvel fans has been selected to offer feedback on the game’s creation. And finally, Marvel Comics’ own Ryan North has joined the Iron Man game’s writing team, bringing his passion and expertise to the table. All of that sounds incredibly promising.

For more fun Avengers adventures, check out the trailer for LEGO Marvel Avengers: Code Red.

Magic: The Gathering‘s The Lord of the Rings Collection Expands with Four New Scene Boxes

Magic: The Gathering‘s The Lord of the Rings collection is really something spectacular. And now, its gorgeous offerings continue to expand with four special Tales of Middle-Earth Scene Boxes. These special sets offer fans and collectors “6 foil Borderless cards with art that combine to showcase one of the most epic scenes from The Lord of the Rings” as well as “6 Art Cards featuring the same art without any game text obscuring the view” and three booster packs which contain 12 cards each, “including 1–4 cards of rarity Rare or higher.”

The four scenes depicted in these special The Lord of the Rings Magic card box sets are Gandalf in Pelennor Fields, The Might of Galadriel, Flight of the Witch-King, and Aragorn at Helm’s Deep. Each set costs around $41, or all four are available for purchase for $144. All of these incredible box sets go on sale on November 3. We first saw these on GameSpot.

To explore more about Magic: The Gathering‘s The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set, check out our deep dive into the set, here.

NYC Transit App Becomes Pokémon Go of Rats and Informs You About the Rattiness of a Station

Catching a glimpse of a rat in NYC is kind of like playing Pokémon Go in real life, right? To help the vision along, an app called Transit, which we first saw on Kotaku, is helping to detect rat-levels across NYC’s many different subway stops. Transit shares, “We enlisted thousands of rodent spotters across the five boroughs to rank the rattiest stations.” And in the end, Transit created the “NYC Subway Rat Detector.” Rats, it turns out, are everywhere, but in some places more than others. Those who actually download the Transit app can get updated reports on the state of their favorite station and check-in regularly on the rat situation. No word yet on what happens if you throw a Poké Ball in the direction of an NYC rat… But we’ll have to suggest that you don’t.

Did you know that rats can play video games too? Take a look at these rats playing Doom II.

Get Up to Some Mischief with BoxLunch’s Loki Collection

Ready to embrace some extra mischief in your life? BoxLunch’s Loki collection is here to help you celebrate Loki, Sylvie, Mobius, Miss Minutes, and the TVA. Even though Loki and co. are probably going to bring down some multiversal mayhem on us all, it doesn’t mean we can’t look stylish while they do. And what could we possibly need more in our lives than an Alligator Loki plush? Ask yourselves.

Click To View Gallery

The full BoxLunch Loki collection is available here.

To catch up with Loki season two check out our latest write-up.

Disneyland Resort Announces Pixar Place Hotel, the First Fully Pixar-Themed US Hotel

Disneyland + Pixar + fully-themed hotel? Sounds like a match made in heaven to us. We honestly can’t believe the United States didn’t have a full Pixar hotel already, but we guess it didn’t. Disneyland Resort recently announced the Pixar Place Hotel, which will give you an excellent new place to stay while celebrating all things Pixar.

Click To View Gallery

A release shares, “Pixar Place Hotel will evoke the inspiration and humor that goes into every Pixar film, while celebrating the artistic process. Showcasing early sketches to finished design, the art and decor will highlight vibrant Pixar stories, revealing some never-before-seen artwork.” From the iconic Pixar Lamp to The Incredibles to Toy Story 3 and beyond this new hotel will have it all. It will even include a Finding Nemo pool complete with “Crush’s Surfin’ Slide, a 186-foot-long water slide inspired by the coolest sea turtle in the ocean.” That’s cool, dude. You can check out more facets and concepts for Pixar Place above.

As if that’s not enough, a Haunted Mansion bar is coming to Disney’s next cruise ship.

Goldfish Elf Maple Syrup Flavored Grahams Are Swimming in for the Holidays

Celebrate this holiday season with something sweet, Buddy the Elf style. In honor of Elf and everyone’s favorite elf, Goldfish is putting on their holiday best and offering us some maple syrup-flavored snacks. The official description of these treats notes, “MAPLE SYRUP FLAVORED GRAHAMS: Inspired by syrup – one of elves’ four main food groups. Enjoy delicious flavors of sweet brown sugar and butter, with the taste of caramel and vanilla. Inspired by Buddy the Elf!” Count us in. We also plan to greatly enjoy the different shapes these treats come in, which include Buddy’s hat, a maple syrup jar, and, of course, the traditional goldfish.

Elf turns 20 this year, and we couldn’t think of a finer way to welcome Buddy and the gang into double digits.

Need something else sweet in your life? Stranger Things‘ Scoops Ahoy ice cream is now available at Walmart.

Lost and Avatar: The Last Airbender Concerts Coming Soon

In need of some fun geeky outings to attend? Well, two iconic franchises are about to bring you fun in concert form. Avatar: The Last Airbender and Lost are both promising concerts that will transport you.

The official website for Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert shares, “Immerse yourself in an over two-hour show with a live orchestra bringing the show’s iconic musical score to life, in perfect harmony with highlights and favorite moments from the series. Taiko and erhu will share the spotlight with violins and clarinets, while the series’ most beloved scenes play out on screen, bringing viewers into the Avatar world to experience the series’ most memorable moments with Aang, Katara, Toph, Sokka, Zuko and more.”

Four dates have been announced across Europe and the United States. Hopefully more will follow.

Meanwhile, Lost‘s Michael Giacchino offers us a concert poster and little else. We guess it’s the Lost way to be mysterious. We do know we’ll see this Dharma Initiative concert in 2024.

If you need more Avatar: The Last Airbender in your life, check out everything we know about the live-action series.

Buy a Tiny Elf Home on Zillow

Okay, so you can’t actually buy a tiny elf home on Zillow. But who doesn’t love a miniature? And if you get in contact with your elf realtor, you might just take home this little house and $10,000 courtesy of Icelandic Provisions Skyr. All you have to do is make an offering… probably not of your soul. But watch out, the fae folk are tricky. Just keep in mind that heating is wool sweaters, this home has been available for 1,000 years, and the price per square foot is a quarter leg of lamb. Can we please get Netflix on Selling Fairyland, stat?

For more fairies and mythology, check out the Ahsoka series connecton to folklore and myth.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Actor Wants Spidey-Pool in a Future Game

Let’s face it, the people love to see Spider-Man and Deadpool interacting together in a relationship affectionately known as Spidey-Pool. Maybe someday the stars will align, and we’ll even get to see them on the big screen. But another excellent option would be for Spider-Man and Deadpool to meet up in Marvel’s Spider-Man games series.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 recently released to much praise and love. We bet a Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 will become a reality sooner rather than later. But what will it entail? Well, Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s actor Yuri Lowenthal has an idea. He’d like Peter Parker and Deadpool to meet up.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, Lowenthal shared:

I mean, there are so many ways they could go with a third game. I’m assuming, at this point nobody’s had me sign a contract for a third game, but I’m assuming there will be a third game… Look, here’s something I’ve been pitching for a long time, and I don’t know if they’re going to do it, but I love the Spidey-Pool relationship. I love Deadpool and Spider-Man. As much as I talk about Moon Knight in this universe, and Bryan Intihar is tired of me talking about that, I’ve been hard-pitching, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if Nolan North and I got to play in that?” And so I would love to see that. I’d love to see Deadpool and Spidey in this. Is it going to happen? Probably not. Do they listen to me? Mostly not. But that is a relationship I would love to see explored in games.

It would, indeed, be great.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 also has its very own artbook. Check out our write-up, here.

The post IRON MAN Game Gets Update, ELF Maple Goldfish Are Here, and More News Odds & Ends appeared first on Nerdist.

In the latest chapter of Loki season two, we learned some pretty huge revelations about the relationship between former TVA judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and He Who Remains, a.k.a. Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), thanks to Miss Minutes. But what does it all mean, and how does it tie into some of the earliest Marvel comics? Buckle up, because the Ravonna and Kang romance is a very twisted affair.

Ravonna Renslayer and Kang Were Partners Before the Multiversal War

In episode four of Loki’s second season, Miss Minutes explains a crucial piece of Ravonna Renslayer’s history to her. Information she would not be happy to hear. She explains that Ravonna and He Who Remains were working together as partners during the Multiversal War and were likely romantic partners as well. At some point, he indicated she would lead with him in the aftermath. Together, they’d rule from the Citadel at the End of Time. But He Who Remains betrayed Ravonna. Remember when Victor Timely said he doesn’t work with partners? That seems to apply to He Who Remains as well. So he sends her back to the TVA and erases her memories along with the rest of its employees. As Miss Minutes explains to an angry Ravonna, she says “Maybe we don’t need him. Maybe we never did.” This leads Ravonna to attempt to take over the TVA herself, along with Miss Minutes.

The Complex Marvel Comics Love Story of Ravonna Renslayer and Kang the Conqueror

In the comics, Princess Ravonna Lexus Renslayer made her first appearance in Avengers #23, back in 1965. She and Kang have a rather complicated relationship, to say the least. She was the daughter of King Carelius, who ruled 40th century Earth. Kang tried to destroy any monarch who did not submit to him, like Ravonna’s father. But Kang fell in love with the stubborn and determined Princess Ravonna, and she also fell in love with him, admitting to it only before her death. In fact, she threw herself in front of a deadly blaster bolt meant for him, dying to save his life. But this was not the end of the Kang/Ravonna romance.

Another variant of Kang eventually plucked a version of Ravonna from the timeline moments before her death, while another Kang preserved her body in stasis, hoping to gain the power of Life (or Death) from the cosmic Grandmaster in a game. A Grandmaster who is far more powerful than his MCU played-by-Jeff Goldblum counterpart. He’d then use the Power of Life to revive her. Although he won the game, he chose the Power of Death to get revenge on the Avengers, instead of the Power of Life to revive Ravonna. Grandmaster revived Ravonna anyway, who was now furious and betrayed that Kang had chosen vengeance on his enemies over his love for her. The lovers were now mortal enemies.

In the Marvel Comics, Ravonna Renslayer Becomes the Terminatrix

Now hellbent on revenge, Ravonna eventually infiltrated the Council of Cross-Time Kangs. Not long after, she took on the very ’90s identity of the Terminatrix. She put Kang in stasis, much as he had done to her when she was presumed dead. She then fought a future variant of herself known as Revelation. After many time travel machinations and attempts at altering her own future, Ravonna and Kang were reunited. And she seemingly forgave him. Then, she literally stabbed him in the back. She went back in time to Timely, Wisconsin in 1903 to start things over with an earlier version of Victor Timely, hoping to rewrite their narrative.

He Who Remains Wiped Ravonna Renslayer’s Memories in the MCU

So how does all that comic lore inform Loki? Earlier in the season, we heard recordings of He Who Remains saying “Ravonna Renslayer, you are quite a marvel. I would be proud to lead with you. Thank you, for being on my team.” Now, we know these very words to her were spoken by He Who Remains after the Multiversal War. But He Who Remains betrayed her and sent her back to the TVA and enacted Protocol 42, which saw her and all the other TVA employees have their memories wiped. It’s also why Agent Mobius doesn’t remember He Who Remains. He wiped Mobius’ mind of all knowledge of him and replaced it with false memories of the Time Keepers. We’ll see how this anger and betrayal leads to a changed, and more dangerous, Ravonna Renslayer in the remainder of Loki’s second season. Maybe we’ll see the Terminatrix after all.

The post What Is Miss Minutes’ Secret About Ravonna Renslayer in LOKI? appeared first on Nerdist.

In the third episode of Loki season two, Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief and agent Mobius travel to the 1893 World’s Fair, in an effort to find a variant of He Who Remains. In the World’s Fair pavilion for the country of Norway, they see wooden carvings of their ancient gods. There’s Odin, Thor… and Balder the Brave. In the MCU series, Loki scoffs at Balder’s inclusion in the pantheon, saying “nobody cares about Balder.” But whatever Loki says, in Marvel Comics, Balder is indeed a key member of Thor’s supporting cast who has been conspicuously absent from the MCU. With confirmation now that Balder exists in the MCU, we never know when he might appear in the flesh. But just who is Marvel’s Balder the Brave?

Here’s the comics history of Balder, why he wasn’t in the MCU until this Loki season two mention, and how Balder nearly made his MCU debut previously.

The Marvel Comics History of Balder the Brave

Long before his Loki appearance, Marvel Comics introduced Balder the Brave in one of the earliest Thor stories, 1962’s Journey into Mystery #85. This story was written and illustrated by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who created Balder. This issue not only introduced Balder, but also Loki, Odin, Heimdall, and most of the other Asgardian gods. For years, Marvel Comics portrayed Balder as Thor’s trusted friend and battle companion, even though Balder was described him in Norse mythology as Thor’s brother. (We’ll get to that.) In Marvel’s comics, Thor and Balder trained together growing up, and no one was a fiercer ally to Thor.

The Marvel Powers of Balder the Brave

Like all of Marvel’s Asgardians, Balder’s abilities include heightened strength, speed, and invulnerability, but he also controls vast light powers. Only Thor was arguably a better warrior than Balder. In addition to the other powers, Balder can create powerful light blasts, manipulate light to appear invisible, and make clouds of mist. And just as Thor has his enchanted hammer in the Marvel universe, Balder has an enchanted sword Svraden, that allows him to teleport.

Because of Odin’s paranoia regarding Balder’s prophesied death triggering Ragnarok, he had his wife Frigga place an enchantment on him. One that would make him invulnerable to all harm, at least while in the Asgardian realm. The belief was that if they could not kill Balder, it would not trigger Ragnarok.

Balder the Brave’s One Weakness and Loki

Balder did have one very odd weakness, however. Balder the Brave remained vulnerable to, of all things, mistletoe. So often, his enemies laced arrows and other weapons with it hoping to do harm to the Asgardian warrior. Loki, of course, discovered this weakness in Balder, and sought to exploit it and kill Baldur, but was ultimately waylaid in his attempts.

We wonder if the MCU Loki has created a similar weak point for the MCU version of Balder. Loki exploiting Balder’s aversion to mistletoe sure would make for an interesting Loki Marvel Christmas special.

Is Marvel’s Balder Thor’s Best Friend or Thor’s Brother Like in Norse Mythology?

In the 616 universe of Marvel Comics, Marvel did not portray Balder as a Prince of Asgard like Thor or Loki. He believed himself to be a foundling child, taken in as a ward of the Asgardian court. And that was the official company line on Balder for many decades, Balder was Thor’s friend but not his brother. It wasn’t until Thor Vol. 3 #10 in 2008 that Marvel Comics continuity lined up more with Norse mythology with Balder.

Although Balder believed he was only Thor’s friend and a ward of the Asgardian court, he was, in fact, the first son of Odin and Frigga. Odin abandoned him out of fear because the King of Asgard had premonitions about how Balder’s death would cause Ragnarok, the end of all things. He later regretted that decision and took his child back into the court. But he kept his true parentage a secret.

Thor and Balder fought together in many, many battles. And Balder has died and returned to life several times (as have all the Marvel Asgardians). He’s been a stalwart member of Thor’s cast of characters since the earliest days. At the peak of Thor’s comics popularity, under the direction of writer/artist Walter Simonson, Balder the Brave even received his own Marvel mini-series. In more recent years, he’s even been the King of Asgard itself… at least for a brief time. So if he’s so crucial to the overall Thor mythos, why then no Balder the Brave in the MCU?

Does Balder the Brave Appear in the MCU? His Mysterious Absence, Detailed

When Marvel Studios introduced Chris Hemsworth’s Thor in 2011, they managed to introduce most of his most well-known comic book family and supporting cast. There was Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, of course, but also their parents, Odin and Frigga, Heimdall, the Warriors Three, and Lady Sif. But there was one big omission from the comics in the MCU, and that was Thor’s best friend (and sometimes brother) Balder the Brave. A major character from the earliest Thor comics, Balder previously went unmentioned and unseen in any MCU project. This has led many to believe Balder didn’t even exist in the MCU. But now, thanks to Balder’s mention on Loki, we know that’s not true. Balder the Brave has officially appeared in the MCU and he is even part of the main MCU continuity.

But why didn’t Balder the Brave appear in Marvel’s cinematic world until now? There’s never been a concrete answer for Balder’s MCU omission. However, one can guess that Kevin Feige thought another sibling would muddle the rivalry of Thor vs. Loki. Although the MCU could have made Balder just a good friend, the role of the loyal companions was essentially filled by the Warriors Three and Lady Sif. Perhaps the MCU thought of Balder as just superfluous? It’s unknown, but until the third episode of Loki season 2, Balder the Brave just didn’t exist in the MCU’s version of Asgard.

Daniel Craig Almost Played Balder in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

When Marvel Studios was developing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we almost got an MCU appearance of Balder the Brave at last. In fact, he was nearly played by James Bond himself, Daniel Craig. Craig was all set to play Balder as a member of the Illuminati on Earth 838. And that would have officially confirmed that the character existed in the greater Marvel multiverse. Elizabeth Olsen also confirmed in interviews that she saw the concept art of Craig as Thor‘s Balder the Brave. Everything was ready to go, until Craig dropped out due to concerns over the pandemic filming. But he was this close to appearing in the MCU.

A Balder Confirmation in the MCU’s Disney+ Series Loki Might Lead to His Arrival 

Even though evidence of Balder appeared before Loki in a branched timeline in the 19th century, he recognized Balder’s statue and knew exactly who he was. And since the Loki of the series is a variant that branched from the Sacred Timeline, it means Balder exists in the main MCU version of Asgard. But where is he? Balder certainly wasn’t on Asgard during the first three Thor movies and didn’t get a mention in Love and Thunder.

Given that we almost got Balder in Multiverse of Madness and his big name drop in Loki, it feels like Balder the Brave is gearing up for an MCU arrival at last.

The post LOKI Makes a Classic Thor Character MCU Canon appeared first on Nerdist.

Episode three of Loki season two on Disney+ introduced us to a variant of He Who Remains. As a child, this variant, Victor Timely, received a TVA instruction manual in the year 1868. This acquisition of future knowledge led him to become an inventor. In Loki, we meet adult Victor Timely at the Chicago 1893 World’s Fair, where he is presenting his rudimentary version of the Temporal Loom. Timley gets caught up in the time-traveling shenanigans of Loki and Mobius, who travel to his branched timeline to find him. But how is the MCU’s Victor Timely different from the one found in Marvel Comics? So far, the Victor Timely in Loki is a totally different character from his Marvel Comics counterpart—aside from both being variants of the despotic Kang the Conqueror.

Victor Timely, the Victorian Era Marvel Comics Kang Variant

In Marvel Comics, the Victor Timely variant of Kang the Conqueror first appeared in 1992’s Avengers Annual #21. Writer Peter Sanderson and artist Rich Yanizeski created him. In that issue, we learned this Kang variant traveled back to Wisconsin on January 1, 1901, the first day of the new century. Once there, he established the town of Timely. He named it after his newly assumed name, Victor Timely. This small town, with its quaint All-American Victorian feel, would serve as a 20th-century base for his future self. From this chronal vantage point, Timely would eventually evolve into the Prime Kang and make life miserable for the Avengers.

The relatively immortal Victor Timely became an industrialist, turning Timely into a boom town of industry. He became a business rival of people like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. As the 20th century unfolded, Timely faked his death repeatedly. He would then assume the identity of his own son Victor Timely Jr., then Victor Timely III, and on and on. He introduced very advanced technology to unsuspecting scientists of the time. Timely was the man who introduced the concept of androids to Dr. Phineas Horton. The same man eventually created the first android Human Torch in 1939. The Torch, in the comics, would also become the basis for the synthezoid Avenger, the Vision.

Timely, Wisconsin and Kang’s City of Chronopolis

Timely, Wisconsin also became the hub from which Kang would create the city of Chronopolis. Existing outside normal time and space, Chronopolis would serve as a hub for Kang’s conquest of all known time periods. Various eras of history intersected in Chronopolis, only perceivable to Kang himself. It eventually bled into the realm of Limbo, which exists outside of time. It’s something very similar to how the Time Variance Authority functions on Loki.  

The MCU Victor Timely and How He Differs from Marvel Comics’ Version

The MCU Victor Timely on Loki does not seem to be a Kang from the future who has settled in the past. That is, unless they throw some last-minute twist at us. From what we can tell, Loki‘s Victor Timely was born in the 19th century when Ravonna Renslayer and Miss Minutes interfered in his life and created the version of Victor Timely we see in 1893. From all indications, it appears the MCU’s Victor Timely belongs to that time and that he isn’t a future Kang who went back in time. The main similarity between the comics and the MCU is that Victor Timely is an assumed name. We may never know what the true birth names of the Kangs really are.

The MCU Victor Timely may actually evolve into Kang during Loki‘s run and may even be the same version from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. But for now, Victor Timley’s ultimate MCU fate and future are some of the big questions the Loki series sets up. We’re interested in what we’ll learn about Timely going forward.

The post How LOKI Season 2 Reimagined Marvel Comics’ Victor Timely appeared first on Nerdist.

The second episode of Loki season two introduced a reference to a very obscure character from the pages of Marvel Comics—the murderous and monstrous Zaniac. We actually learned in Loki season two’s second chapter that TVA Hunter X-05, played by Rafael Casal, actually was an actor who portrayed Zaniac in 1970s movies. It’s something he did when he escaped into the past of the Sacred Timeline. But who is this long-forgotten Marvel baddie? Here’s the comic book history of the killer called Zaniac.

In the comics, Zaniac was a villain who first appeared in Thor #319, back in 1982. Created by writer Doug Moench and artist Keith Pollard, this wild villain remains a relatively obscure one from the God of Thunder’s pantheon of bad guys. While most of Thor’s main villains are other mythological beings, occasionally, he battled a more Earth-bound villain like Zaniac. Although, Zaniac’s powers came from otherworldly forces. So god or not, he was definitely more than a mere human.

Who Is Zaniac in Marvel Comics?

In the late 19th century, Dormammu, Lord of the Dark Dimension and mortal enemy of Doctor Strange, exiled an entity to Earth to possess a mortal human to be his agent of chaos. This being attached itself to a deformed and shunned man named Tom Malverne, a man harboring bitter resentment for the way the world treated him. With the power of this entity within him, Malverne went on a murderous rampage in 1888 London, where he butchered five women. He became the serial killer we know as Jack the Ripper. Once the person it possessed died, the entity continued to possess as the decades went on.

Also, this is the basic idea for the original Star Trek episode “Wolf in the Fold.”

Zaniac Fights Thor

This brings us to the modern day. A movie star by the name of Brad Wolfe was filming a slasher movie at the University of Chicago, which was where many early experiments for the Manhattan Project took place. While in costume as the film’s slasher villain, the Zaniac, Wolfe found himself trapped in a nuclear explosion. A pyrotechnics accident on set triggered residual radiation from the Manhattan Project experiments of the 1940s, causing this explosion. Wolfe gained incredible super strength and could create energy knives with a thought. Clad in the killer’s movie costume, he became the Zaniac.

The Entity drove Wolfe to madness; it also amplified Wolfe’s already inherent misogyny. He began to act out the movie’s plotlines. He kidnapped Shawna Lynde, a friend of Thor’s alter-ego Dr. Donald Blake. Thor saved Shawna from Zaniac, but Zaniac got away. He then attempted to act out the movie’s ending in real life, which involved murdering dozens of innocent women. Victims he called his “pretty pretties”. Luckily, Thor ended Zaniac’s plans. Zaniac only appeared a few more times, and Marvel killed him off in 1986’s Thor #372, a story where the Time Variance Authority appears.

How Zaniac Ties into Loki Season Two

In the second episode of Loki’s second season, we found outTVA hunter X-05, upon learning the truth about the Timekeepers, retreated into a new life on the Sacred Timeline, in the year 1977. He used the name Brad Wolfe, which might have been his true name. Much like the comics, this Brad Wolfe was a movie star. He played a character named Zaniac in a film of the same name. However, the similarities ended there with his comic counterpart. Zaniac was just an acting role for MCU Brad, not a being who possessed him. Loki eventually takes him back to the TVA as a prisoner. Will his Zaniac past come up again? Maybe when Marvel Studios does Wonder Man we’ll learn the superhero/actor is now starring in a modern reboot! We definitely think that would be a fun connection.

Originally published on July 31, 2023.

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Loki‘s first season established the TVA as a place outside of normal time and space. He Who Remains and his servants didn’t age over eons inside the Machiavellian bureaucracy. Mobius wasn’t even sure exactly how long he’d been protecting the Sacred Timeline, since “time moves differently” at the TVA. Combined with Multiversal War, the Citadel at the End of Time, Variants, branches, and pruning it was a lot to make sense of. Now Loki‘s second season is showing we didn’t even know as much as we thought.

What exactly is going on with time at the Time Variance Authority? What does all this new information mean for the MCU’s multiverse? The TVA’s own past, present, and future? Here’s what every episode of Loki season two has revealed about how time does—and sometimes doesn’t—work in the strange world of the TVA.

Episode 1

Time Slipping

Time slipping is when someone is violently ripped through the past, present, and future. It’s supposed to be impossible inside the TVA, a place where magic doesn’t work and countless Infinity Stones are nothing more than colorful paper weights. O.B. and Mobius solved Loki’s time slipping problem by extracting a pruned Loki out of “every strand of time and space.”

The TVA’s Own Linear Timeline

Loki’s time slipping explained why Mobius didn’t recognize the God of Mischief at the end of season one. It also revealed the TVA still has its own self-contained timeline. The organization exists outside of normal time and space, but people in the TVA still live a linear timeline with a past, present, and future.

When Loki went into the past he went into the same TVA’s own past. That was a period when He Who Remains didn’t hide his identity from his workforce. When Loki went into the future it was the same TVA’s future. His travels through TVA time also made it possible for Loki to help save himself from time slipping. He told O.B. about his problems in the past, which made it so O.B. in the present had the Temporal Aura Extractor ready to go.

Mobius attached the Extractor to the most important device in the TVA, machine that weaves entire branches together.

Temporal Loom

The “heart” of the TVA is the Temporal Loom, a device that refines raw time into a “physical timeline.” The death of He Who Remains caused the Sacred Timeline to branch off. Those new strands then began to overload the Temporal Loom, which is not designed to handle that many strands at once.

Read More About Loki Season 2 Episode 1

• How Loki’s Season 2 Premiere Explains Season 1’s Ending
• Does Loki’s Season 2 Premiere Have A Post-Credits Scene?
• Loki’s Post-Credits Scene Ties Into A Classic Thor Comics Location
• Loki’s Temporal Loom: What Is It And What Are Its Marvel Comics Inspirations?
• Who Is Loki’s Ouroboros? Ke Huy Quan’s Character O.B. Ties Into Mythology And Marvel Comics

Episode 2

The Secret Brad Wolfe Life of Hunter X-5

The season premiere saw heavily armed TVA hunters under General Dox’s command go through a Timedoor. Episode two revealed their mission was to blow up all the new branches. One of the Hunters who went on that mission originally was X-5, but Mobius learned he’d abandoned his post entirely in the second episode, which took place immediately at the first within the TVA’s own timeline.

That’s not how much time had passed for X-5, though. He’d left the TVA to make a life for himself as a actor on the Sacred Timeline in 1977 London.

X-5, now known as famous Zaniac star Brad Wolfe, had much longer hair than he had in the first episode. Between his notoriety, success, and lengthy follicles it was clear he lived a long time on the Sacred Timeline even though very little time had passed for his former colleagues in the TVA. The same was true of Sylvie. Despite killing He Who Remains just days prior within the TVA’s own timeline, she’d already established a life on a new branch in 1982 Oklahoma.

Time Discrepancy Between the TVA and Normal Life

The implications of this time discrepancy between normal life and the TVA are terrifying. Someone could theoretically leave the TVA, live an entire life on a branch for many years, and then return to the TVA mere moments after they originally left it. What kind of damage could someone do to the Sacred Timeline if they could do what they wanted for decades before the TVA even knew they were gone?

We’ll have to wait for future episodes to find out. That’s also when we’ll learn whatever else it is we don’t already know about time in the TVA.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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The chaos of Loki‘s season two premiere began during season one’s finale. When Sylvie killed He Who Remains she upended both the Sacred Timeline and the entire TVA. And yet, the rogue Variant responsible for all that turmoil didn’t appear during season two’s debut until it was already over. A post-credits (more specifically a mid-credits) scene in Loki season two’s first episode revealed where Sylvie headed after leaving the Citadel at the End of Time. She went as far away from the royal court of Asgard as possible. At the very end of Loki’s first episode, Sylvie travels back to 1982 and visits a McDonald’s in a small Oklahoma community on a branch of reality that only exists because of her. This Loki season two, episode one post-credits scene location already had major ties to Marvel Comics. Now it’s home to one of the MCU’s most beautiful scenes.

What Happened in Loki‘s Season 2 Premiere Post-Credits Scene?

Sylvie ended Loki‘s first season in He Who Remains’ Citadel. At the time, she also had the dead TVA’s leader’s TemPad, which was how she opened up a Time Door to kick Loki through. Loki thinks that TemPad might have unique abilities (and he’s almost certainly right).

So what exactly did Loki‘s post-credits scene reveal to us? Well, in its only after-the-credits moment, the show’s season two debut shows us where Sylvie went next after the events of Loki season one. In it, we learn that Sylvie used a Time Door to go to Earth on a new branch that broke from the Sacred Timeline after she murdered He Who Remains. That place was Broxton, Oklahoma, in the year 1982. Her Loki armor would have stood out even in the 21st century, but she made for quite a spectacle when she walked into an ’80s-era American McDonald’s.

Sylvie had spent plenty of time on Earth before, but always under the worst circumstances. She successfully hid from the TVA inside apocalyptic events. Her best method of evasion involved mass casualties with no survivors. But in Loki season two’s post-credits scene, inside that normal McDonald’s, she saw peaceful Earthlings eating and laughing with friends. She then asked the young restaurant manager—who admirably did his job under strange circumstances—how “this works” so she could order food. When he asked her what non-rat and non-possum option she wanted to try, Sylvie smiled and said, “Everything.”

Why Did Sylvie Go to Broxton, Oklahoma on Loki?

Sylvie spent her whole life running from the TVA. The organization took her as a kid without ever telling her what her Nexus Event was. She spent decades fighting to survive, all while planning to bring down the TVA itself.

Once she seemingly did that by killing He Who Remains, she opted for a quiet, easy existence in a place that is the proverbial antithesis of an Asgardian god’s life. The place she sees in Loki‘s post-credits scene is also the antithesis of her own experiences. The TVA is a lifeless, emotionless bureaucracy of death where Variants and timelines are pruned to a Void where a monster eats them. The opposite of that is the quiet beauty and ease of a place like Broxton, Oklahoma on Earth in 1982, a time before cellphones and computers that never knew alien invaders.

Even that McDonald’s, a place totally unremarkable from any of the chain’s other locales, had a simple grace to it. A fast-food burger joint is as unpretentious as the TVA is arrogant. It’s a place designed for people to enjoy a simple pleasure that is so easy to take for granted.

But why Broxton specifically? Why an unincorporated community in Oklahoma’s Caddo County (a real place with less than 7,000 residents) versus the countless other similar locals on Earth? Because Broxton’s Marvel appearances aren’t just limited to Loki season two, episode one’s post-credits scene. Broxton was actually a major location in J. Michael Straczynski’s Thor comic series.

You can read more about Broxton’s Marvel Comics history and how it was briefly New Asgard in our own Eric Diaz’s deep dive.

What Was the Meaning of Loki Season 2’s Post-Credits Scene?

He Who Remains had Loki debating the merits of taking control of the TVA as a necessary evil. Sure, pruning Variants and entire branches might be awful, but isn’t the alternative worse? Aren’t some terrible sacrifices in the name of order better than all-out chaos?

It was easy for Loki to think that way because he never had to deal with being one of those sacrifices. But Sylvie had. She had her entire life stolen from her. She was a person with a home and a family, and the TVA took that away from her, just as it had to every Variant it pruned or stole to do its dirty work. A necessary evil is still evil, and it’s not even clear the TVA was necessary.

When Sylvie walked into that McDonald’s in Loki season two’s post-credits scene, she was finally free. No more running. No more TVA. And no more death. Instead, she found a simple life, the kind where you can sit down and eat a cheeseburger without worry. And while those people didn’t know it, they owed their entire existence to her, one brave individual who wanted nothing more than to let others live.

It was the culmination of Sylvie’s entire life. All that hard work fighting for survival and refusing to give in to evil led to a truly beautiful moment of hope and appreciation. And that was before she got to find out just how good Chicken McNuggets are.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and  Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Loki‘s first season ended with He Who Remains dead, the Sacred Timeline in chaos, and Mobius not knowing who Loki was. It seemed Sylvie’s decision to kill the TVA’s leader upended the entire multiverse and all of time itself. Even worse, it seemed Kang the Conqueror or one of his Variants had risen to power amid all the upheaval. But the show’s season two premiere revealed that’s not actually what happened. Loki didn’t end up in a new TVA under a different ruler; he ended up in the same exact TVA’s past. How? Why? When? From time slipping to Temporal Looms, here’s what the premiere of Loki‘s second season revealed about the God of Mischief’s struggle to save both himself and everyone.

What Happened at the End of Loki Season 1?

Loki‘s season one finale revealed He Who Remains, the secret head of the TVA, wanted Loki and Sylvie to replace him. Loki came to believe the Time Variance Authority was a necessary evil after hearing about the Multiversal War. However, Sylvie wanted to free the infinite universe from TVA control. After a lifetime of running from hunters and agents she refused to even discuss taking over the TVA. Instead, Sylvie killed He Who Remains after kicking Loki through a Time Door.

When He Who Remains died the Sacred Timeline went haywire. Mobius and Hunter B-15 watched as a monitor showed the neat, orderly stranding of the multiverse began branching off into total chaos.

Moments later Loki found Mobius and B-15 in a different part of the TVA. He warned them about all the terrible Variants who would now be coming. Except the two TVA employees didn’t know Loki at all. It was as though they’d never met. In the midst of their confusion Loki saw the TVA itself had undergone a transformation. It now featured giant statues of someone who looked like He Who Remains.

Why Was Loki Time Slipping?

Loki‘s season two premiere clarified what actually happened in the show’s season one finale. The murder of He Who Remains did not reset the TVA, time itself, or the multiverse. His death did not cause anything that dramatic. At least not yet. When Sylvie kicked Loki through the Time Door he went to the same TVA’s own past. That’s why Mobius and B-15 didn’t recognize him at the end of season one. That’s also why Loki saw those massive statues. Earlier in the TVA’s history He Who Remains did not hide his identity behind robot Time-Keepers. His face was once everywhere, including on the walls inside TVA offices and in Ozymandias-sized public idols.

Loki thinks he might have ended up in the past because Sylvie opened that Time Door with He Who Remain’s special TemPad. O.B. thinks the branching overloading the Temporal Loom might be responsible. It’s possible one, both, or neither contributed to Loki getting ripped across time in the TVA’s past, present, and future.

As painful as it was to watch, though, Loki’s involuntary journey through time also helped Loki save himself. And it also taught us more about He Who Remains and the TVA’s creation.

What Did Loki‘s Season 2 Premiere Reveal About the TVA’s Past?

Loki listened to an old recording while trapped in the TVA’s past. It featured He Who Remains speaking to Ravonna Renslayer. On the tape He Who Remains said, “For us. For all time.”

After she answered “always,” He Who Remains said, “Ravonna Renslayer, you are quite a marvel. I will be proud to lead with you. You made a difference in this war. Thank you for being on my team.”

During season one of Loki, Renslayer did not know about He Who Remains. Clearly, though, she once knew him quite well. She not only fought for He Who Remains in the Multiversal War, she was marked to co-lead the TVA with him. But at some point after that conversation He Who Remains wiped the memories of Renslayer and everyone else in the TVA.

Loki correctly recognized He Who Remains wiped TVA employees’ minds more than once. None of them remembered the prominent He Who Remains paraphernalia that once adorned the organization. Present day Casey also had no memory of how the floor got cracked despite being there when it happened. That blind spot in Casey’s memory shows least one mind wipe happened after Loki showed up in the past, which is why none of the TVA employees remembered meeting him then. And Mobius also did not fully remember visiting O.B. 400 years prior. (Though it’s unclear if Mobius’ confusion is the result of mind wipes, forgetting the details of a four century old encounter, mixing up similar memories, or a combination of all those things.)

It’s not clear how often or why He Who Remains erased everyone TVA workers’ memory more than once.

Who Is Orobourous and What Is the TVA’s Temporal Loom?

Ke Huy Quan’s Orobourous (O.B. for short) is the lone employee of the TVA’s Repairs & Advancements division. He also wrote the TVA guidebook and is an expert on the device currently holding all of time together.

Despite the Sacred Timeline’s countless branches that began to sprout with the death of He Who Remains, the entire multiverse has yet to collapse. That’s because the Temporal Loom is barely keeping the multiverse from exploding. O.B. called that device “the heart of the TVA.” It refines raw time into a “physical timeline.” It’s not constructed to weave together so many new branches, though, so it’s overloading. To keep the TVA itself safe from that possible blowup, O.B. needed to close the building’s blast doors. But first Loki needed access to the Temporal Loom to save himself.

How Did O.B. and Morbius Stop Loki’s Time Slipping?

Time slipping should be impossible in the TVA since time works differently there. It’s a place that is timeless, as people working inside those walls don’t age over eons. Yet, Loki‘s second season has revealed the TVA still has its own linear timeline with a past, present, and future.

Loki’s time slipping also provided him with a solution. It sent him to the past where he met O.B. During that meeting—which O.B. notably only remembered when confronted with its existence—the technician was able to build the Temporal Aura Extractor, a device that ultimately solved Loki’s problem.

At great personal cost to his own skin, Mobius attached the Extractor to the Temporal Loom. When someone or something then pruned Loki—violently ripping the god from “every strand of time and space”—it sent him out of time. The Extractor then pulled him back into the present and crashing into Mobius. That sent them both behind the safety of the blast doors before they closed.

Without the Extractor in place Loki would have been “lost to time forever.” Instead he’s in the present with Mobius, B-15, and the other TVA employees who do not want to prune branches anymore. They know pruning timelines kills billions of innocent people.

Not everyone at the TVA agrees with this new approach. Dox and her band of heavily armed Hunters headed through a Time Door on a mission. B-15 thinks they’ve accumulated too much fire power to only be going after Sylvie, but what exactly they have planned is unclear.

What is clear is that a lot of what we thought we knew at the end of Loki‘s first season was wrong. Clearly we don’t/didn’t/won’t slip into the past ourselves after seeing the show’s season two premiere.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on  Twitter and  Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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In the post-credits scene in the first episode of Loki season two, we finally find out what happened to Sylvie after her killing of He Who Remains. She actually went to a branched timeline, in the town of Broxton, Oklahoma in 1982. She wanders into a local McDonald’s establishment and sees the customers just living their ordinary lives. So she decides to stay there. But why would an Asgardian god want to live in a small town in the American Midwest? Well, there actually is a comic book precedent for Asgardians hanging out in this particular Oklahoma town, believe it or not.

Broxton, Oklahoma Was Home to Asgard in the Thor Comics of J. Michael Straczynski

Broxton first appeared in writer J. Michael Stracyinski’s celebrated run on Thor, which began in 2007. After the events of Ragnarok and the death of all the Asgardians, they are all ultimately reborn once more. Only this time, the Asgardians are mortals with no memory of their godly lives. Thor eventually awakens to his true self and recreates the City of Asgard close to the town of Broxton, OK, a mere few miles away.

For some months, the ordinary citizens of the town had to contend with ancient and powerful gods who were living among them. Asgard actually floated above the ground, making it even more off-putting to the nervous Broxton residents. Thor actually paid for the use of the land with Asgardian treasure, even if it took him some time to do so.

Lady Loki First Appeared During the Broxton Era of Thor

Interestingly enough, Loki during his time in Broxton took the form of a woman. It was the first time they portrayed Loki as female, at least for an extended time. Since Loki is the God of Mischief, when he was reborn he took the form that they originally intended for Lady Sif. But the truth is, in comics as well as actual Norse mythology, they have always described Loki as genderfluid. So the Lady Loki we met in Broxton was actually the same Loki as the one we’d always known in a different form. Unlike Sylvie, who is a variant from another timeline. But it’s fitting that a version of the Trickster God that’s a woman resides in Broxton in both the comics as well as the MCU.

The Sad End of Broxton in the Pages of Marvel Comics

Hopefully, MCU Broxton receives a better fate than the one in the pages of the comics. Obviously, a floating City of Asgard nearby placed a huge target on the small town. The often corrupt company Roxxon, a longtime enemy of the Thunder God’s, started “investing” in Broxton. Sadly, the town became wrecked as a result. It was their evil CEO’s plan to blame the Asgardians for what befell the town. When the Asgardians finally left, they allowed their Everlasting Fountain and Bountiful Tree to remain there. But the town was later totally destroyed when the God of Hammers annihilated it just to spite his nemesis, Thor. Ultimately, this poor small American town paid the price for its association with these higher beings.

The “ancient Asgardian god in a tiny American town” was the basis for the first Thor film back in 2011. Only there, they changed it to a New Mexico town instead of one in Oklahoma. Thor: Love and Thunder also played with the concept of Asgard coming to a small human town and integrating. Now, Broxton has arrived in live-action thanks to Loki. Hopefully, nothing terribly sinister happens to the poor Broxton in the MCU, as it did in the comic books. It seems like a nice chill town. And that McDonald’s that Sylvie pops in gives us all the retro vibes we love. And yes, there actually is a real town named Broxton in Oklahoma, near Caddo County. Hey, if Marvel can use real big cities like New York and Los Angeles, then why not real small towns?

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There was more than a little excitement when fans heard that Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan would join the cast of Loki season two. After all, the beloved Indiana Jones and The Goonies actor recently wowed audiences in Everything Everywhere All at Once and fully recaptured all of our hearts. But, in truth, we still don’t know too much about what Loki season two will entail, and that involves details about Ke Huy Quan’s character. Aside from a few glimpses of the actor in Loki‘s trailers, Quan’s role in the series has remained mysterious. But now, we know a little bit more about the character and about how Quan came to be involved in the show. Ke Huy Quan’s Loki character officially has a name and a job at the TVA. Meet OB.

Meet Loki‘s O.B.

Entertainment Weekly revealed the news of Quan’s character. It notes that OB is a “quirky repair guy” in Loki season two. And that OB inhabits the “deepest bowels of the TVA.” He “works in the repairs and advancement department, and his office is stuffed in the basement, a sprawling mishmash of gadgets and gizmos.”

Co-executive producer Kevin Wright shared more about the Loki character, noting that Ke Huy Quan’s OB has his hands in many parts of the TVA. Wright said, “His job is basically every piece of tech, every computer, every thing that is running at the TVA… He either designed it, or he fixes it and keeps it running.” As Barbie‘s Ken might conclude, OB’s job is technology.

We know from trailers that Loki and Mobius will come to seek OB’s help with Loki’s seemingly uncontrollable time-slipping. But whether OB will play a big role in the MCU show or the MCU going forward remains unknown. It’s also unclear if OB has any roots in Marvel Comics or is simply an original MCU character. IGN revealed that O.B.’s full name is Ouroboros. The Ouroboros, of course, is a mythological creature that represents the infinite nature of time. And the name is referenced a few times in Marvel’s history—but its direct analog is not yet clear. But given that Loki plays with mythology, time, and Marvel lore, there’s likely more to Ke Huy Quan’s Loki character than appears.

Ke Huy Quan Wanted to Nod to The Goonies in Loki

Loki‘s costume designer Christine Wada recently shared a little bit about dressing O.B. According to ComicBook, she shared that Ke Huy Quan wanted to give a nod to his The Goonies character Data in his Loki look. Wada shared, “It was really fun because he talked about, well, the first fittings, or maybe it was a phone call, he talked about patches because Data had patches and he was like, ‘What about patches? It’d be so fun.’ And it was really, but then it quickly just became OB. Now just he brings so much, I mean, you could put him in a paper bag and he would bring life to it.”

We love hearing about this Easter egg.

How Ke Huy Quan Became a Part of the MCU’s Loki

One thing is for sure, the MCU likely wouldn’t have cast Ke Huy Quan so specifically if the Loki role didn’t merit it. Wright shares, “I think Kevin Feige made a call maybe April 12, just to follow up and say, ‘Please, please do this.'” In an interview with Variety, Write expands on the story offering, “We pitched him the show and this character. We shared that introduction scene with him and maybe the full script. And then we called in the big guns that Monday; Kevin Feige got on the phone with him and said, “Ke, I know you read the script. I know you talked to the guys. We really think you should do this. I really want you to join the Marvel family.”

Everything Everywhere All at Once, of course, premiered in theaters on April 8. Entertainment Weekly notes that Marvel casting director Sarah Halley Finn initially suggested Quan for Loki based on an early screening she saw of the movie. Write shares that she told the Marvel team, “I think you guys should meet with him quick, because probably by Monday, he’s going to have a lot of offers for different things.” But it was an excellent offer for all because, as Wright concludes to Entertainment Weekly, “Ke is apparently already a giant Marvel fan and was a big fan of Loki season 1.” We love a happy ending.

We can’t wait to see more of Ke Huy Quan as OB when Loki season two releases on October 6. The series will stream on Disney+.

Originally published on September 11, 2023.

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The Disney+ Loki series is all about Loki, of course. His name is right there in the title. But for fans of the MCU, Loki was a departure from the Loki story they were used to seeing. For so long, Loki and Thor had incredibly interlinked MCU narratives . But in Loki, the trickster god has had to go it alone. Still, the presence of Thor hovers around the character and the expectations of fans. In many ways, it’s good to see Loki without Thor. But after a while, the natural question starts to bubble up. Will Loki and Thor have an MCU reunion? Well, it sounds like even though Thor and Loki might not reunite in the Disney+ series, the show is doing the hard work to get Loki to a place where he could be a meaningful part of a future reunion.

Speaking to Variety in the run-up to Loki season two, executive producer Kevin Wright discussed whether Loki would return to the world of the MCU at large. He offered, “That’s the hope. I don’t want to — yeah. I think the the sun shining on Loki and Thor once again has always been the priority of the story we’re telling. But for that meeting to really be fulfilling, we have to get Loki to a certain place emotionally. I think that’s been the goal of these two seasons.”

Cue the tears from many a Thor and Loki fan. In Avengers: Infinity War, Loki tells Thor, “I assure you, brother… the sun will shine on us again.” And although Loki met his death shortly after, the statement felt prophetic. And now, thanks to the Loki series, the door remains open for Thor and Loki to see one another again in the MCU. It’s interesting to hear that preparing for this reunion has been a subtle goal of the Loki series all along. And we hope we’ll get to see it culminate on our screens. Loki does have to meet his new niece, after all. Uncle Loki, it has a nice ring.

While such a thing could be saved for a movie, Wright also discussed the possibility of a Loki season three. He noted, “I think it’s open-ended. We certainly did not develop this season going, ‘We have to tee up Season 3’ — in the way that we did with Season 1, where there was a very specific, ‘Hey, we’re coming back.’ But I also think that where this show goes, there certainly can be many, many, many more stories told with Loki in the Loki world, and in other worlds connected to Loki, the character.”

Maybe, if we’re lucky enough to get a Loki season three, one of those stories can involve Thor. And hopefully, he’ll even be in his human form… Although we’d settle for Frog Thor in a pinch.

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The first season of Loki on Disney+ brought back Tom Hiddleston as the seemingly unkillable Asgardian God of Mischief. It was a huge success. The series introduced MCU fans to the Time Variance Authority, or TVA, who watch over the timeline of the known universe. Loki also formally introduced the concept of the Marvel Multiverse. We also got a perfect foil for Loki in the form of his variant Sylvie. Perhaps most importantly, it’s the only MCU series to get a second season (so far). But what wild adventures through the spacetime continuum will Loki’s second round include?

Here’s everything we know about Loki season two.

Loki Season Two’s Plot

The first season of Loki ended with Sylvie killing He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), thereby erupting the Sacred Timeline and unleashing the Multiverse in full. When Loki returned to the TVA, it was altered in the timeline, and no one remembered him. Not to mention, statues of He Who Remains (or one of his variants more likely) stood tall in the TVA’s halls.

The synopsis for Loki season two says:

Loki Season 2 picks up in the aftermath of the shocking season finale when Loki finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority. Along with Mobius, Hunter B-15 and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie, Judge Renslayer, Miss Minutes and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.

We can see what will go down in Loki season two in this Disney+ trailer.

Behind the Scenes

Season one writers Michael Waldron and Eric Martin are coming back, with Martin now the head writer instead of Waldron, and Waldron serving as executive producer. One of the creatives from season one not returning is showrunner Kate Herron, according to a report from Deadline. Co-directing several episodes in season two, also according to Deadline, are Moon Knight’s Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. Natalie Holt is also back as the series composer.

Loki Season Two’s Cast

Tom Hiddleston returns, of course, as the titular Loki. Also returning is Owen Wilson as Mobius, Sophia DiMartino as Sylvie, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ravonna Renslayer. Eugene Cordero as ever-present TVA employee Casey (he’ll play a series regular in season two), and Tara Strong as the voice of Miss Minutes will also come back. No word yet on Jonathan Majors as one of the Kang variants, although the giant statue of him at the end of season one suggests we will see him again.

Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once) is in season two of Loki, but we don’t know details about his role yet. Additionally, Deadline reports that Game of Thrones‘ Kate Dickie will likely play the villain in Loki‘s second season.

Loki Season 2 Release Date

Loki season two will release on October 5, 2023 and 6:00 PM PT/9:00 PM ET.

Originally published on August 24, 2022.

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Since the moment DVDs first arrived on store shelves I’ve been the world’s biggest sucker for deleted scenes. Even when they aren’t very good they still offer fascinating insights into the making of shows and movies. Plus on rare occasions they’re actually great. Both things are true of deleted scenes from the new Blu-ray of Loki season one. They each show the God of Mischief in physical confrontations. That includes a delightful, angry meeting between Loki and Chris Hemsworth’s frog thunder god, Throg.

Disney has shared two bonus deleted scenes from its upcoming Blu-ray release of Loki‘s debut season. The first, titled “Loki’s Coronation,” comes from Mobius’ interrogation of the Asgardian prince, when the TVA agent showed Loki losing moments from the god’s past. During one attempt to name himself the future king, Loki’s brother Thor turned up unexpectedly as frog thor. (Well, not that unexpectedly. Loki had transformed Thor into an tiny amphibian.) A powerful frog punch to the face ended Loki’s almost-moment of triumphant.

It’s a great sequence that would have expanded Throg’s role on the show. He briefly appeared trapped in a jar underground during the first season. That was fun, but not as good as this unfinished scene.

A second deleted scene, “The Standoff,” doesn’t end much better for Odin’s mischievous boy. It starts with Loki holding Sylvie at knife point and ends with both Variants in TVA custody.

It’s a well-acted, emotional scene, but the omission ultimately makes sense. It would have really changed the powerful moment the two had right before this portion started.

Good. Bad. Terrible. Amazing. I don’t care. I just want more deleted scenes from every show and movie I like. And since I always want more Throg this is an especially good batch.

Loki season one is now available on both 4K UHD Blu-ray and standard Blu-ray.

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We officially have a trend. Loki season two has announced its release date will arrive earlier than planned. Loki has moved its second season release up by one day. It will now release on October 5 instead of October 6. But Loki season two’s release date move isn’t so much about releasing one day earlier. No, it’s about the time of release.

When Will Loki Season 2 Episodes Release? Here Is the New Time and Day They’ll Drop on Disney+

Joining Disney+’s Star Wars series Ahsoka, Loki season two will be released at Disney+’s newer, friendlier release time, 6:00 PM PT/9:00 PM ET. And what a gift from the gods that is.

When we saw Ahsoka had shifted its release date by one day, so it too could air at 6:00 PM PT/9:00 PM ET, we crossed our fingers that this would be the new normal for Disney+. And it seems like that’s exactly what will happen with Disney+ shows releasing from now on, on both the Marvel and Star Wars fronts. A release shares that “Marvel Studios’ Loki Season 2 launches exclusively on Disney+ at 6:00 P.M. PT on Thursday, October 5.  All subsequent episodes will also be available starting Thursdays at 6:00 P.M. PT.”

All we can say is that we will not miss late-night vigils to watch our favorite MCU and Star Wars shows.

Is This Earlier Release Time for Star Wars and Marvel Shows Now an Official Strategy?

We now have one Marvel and one Star Wars Disney+ show landing at the 6:00 PM PT/9:00 PM ET release slot. So it does feel like this time could become the official drop time for Disney+ shows. However, Disney+ has still not officially confirmed that this will hold true for all its shows. For now, as with Ahsoka and Loki season two’s releases, announcements are being made on a case-by-case basis.

More About Loki Season Two

To celebrate Loki‘s new release date and time, Marvel Studios released a brand new featurette for the series’ second season. This new look at Loki takes us behind the scenes of the show, assures us that Loki and Mobius will reunite as we know them, and gives us a look at many hugs. The featurette also teases that Loki will really lean into his heroic side this time around.

Loki season two has now officially set its release date for October 5. As mentioned, the show will return at its new time, 6:00 PM PT/9:00 PM ET.

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McDonald’s is celebrating its pop cultural history with a brand-new “As Featured In” Meal. This new meal option lets you order “fan-favorite menu items that have made iconic appearances throughout film, television, and music.” It’s a clever conceit because, as the trailer for this meal lays out, McDonald’s has had quite a history across some of our favorite movies, TV shows, and more. (Yes, the “As Featured In” meal has a trailer. It is kind of fitting.) Honestly, seeing all the instances of characters ordering at or working in a McDonald’s arranged into a nostalgic sort of montage does drive the point home. We don’t love product placement in our movies and shows, but McDonald’s has undoubtedly been around the block. And, of course, the trailer also features the latest entry into McDonald’s pop-culture oeuvre. This McDonald’s meal also treats us to new footage from Loki season two.

Sylvie, Loki, Mobius, and More Arrive In a McDonald’s In Season Two

Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie will have their big reunion in a McDonald’s. It’s another dramatic moment below the glow of golden arches. Of course, they aren’t the only Loki season two denizens snagging a treat at the fast food place. Owen Wilson’s Mobius is spotted treating a TVA prisoner, played by Rafael Casal, to a milkshake. We wouldn’t necessarily say we associate Loki and McDonald’s, but we’ll stay tuned to see if the god of mischief at least gets a Happy Meal toy made in his image in season two. In the meanwhile, we hope everyone enjoys their awkward encounters among the fries.

Additional Loki season two footage from McDonald’s shows a slightly longer version of the reunion scene. This time Mobius and Rafael Casal’s character are present and watching the two gaze meaningfully at one another. But all Mobius can think of is an apple pie.

Why is Sylvie in a McDonald’s in Season Two of Loki?

As to why Sylvie is in a McDonald’s in this Loki season two footage? Well, it might not be what you think. Loki‘s producer, Kevin Wright explains:

This character had been on a decades-long, maybe centuries-long revenge mission, and the classic trope of those stories is that it’s all-consuming and she’s not thinking about what comes next… Now she has this moment of opportunity – where is she going to go?

When we stayed in the view of character, this woman who went on the run as a child, had been running through time, a fugitive of time, living in apocalypses, never being able to relax or slow down, the novelty of walking into a 1980s McDonald’s looked appealing… You play a Little League game and go to McDonald’s. You go to a kid’s birthday party at McDonald’s. Someone like Sylvie would never have experienced that and would be really taken by that.

Additionally, Wright notes that it was Loki and not McDonald’s idea to add the ode to the resturant, “I was worried that McDonald’s would think we wanted to do something ironic or make fun of them. But we were selling an earnest story, a love letter to nostalgia through a character’s eyes who will see all of the novelty and joy of it.”

Sophia Di Martino who plays Sylvie in Loki adds of Sylvie’s Loki season two job “She’d probably be pretty hungry.”

New Loki Season Two Image Provided By McDonald’s

McDonald’s took to their social media to share our latest look at Loki season two. Sylvie continues to rock the McDonald’s uniform, making us feel like the fast food restaurant will have quite the sequence when the show returns.

What Is McDonald’s “As Featured In” Meal?

In addition to Loki, McDonald’s highlights its appearances in The Office, The Fifth Element, Seinfeld, Friends, Clueless, and more. The “As Featured In” meal lets you choose between the most often-cited McDonald’s pop-cultural elements, McNuggets, a Big Mac, and a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. It then adds fries and a soft drink and finishes with a special Loki season two Sweet ‘N Sour Sauce. It may not seem like much, but those McDonald’s sauces can create a frenzy.

In fact, act fast if you want one because otherwise, you might have to slip through time for a taste. Get an extra pack or two to enjoy when Loki season two releases on October 6.

Originally published on August 14, 2023.

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Stealing scenes left and right on the Disney+ series Loki is Sylvie, an alternate timeline variant of the mischievous prince of Asgard. Sophia Di Martino deliciously plays the character deliciously in season one of Loki, and soon, in season two. But who is Loki‘s Sylvie in the comics? Is she the same person as Lady Loki? Turns out, not so much. In Marvel Comics, Sylvie is a totally different character from Loki Laufeydotter. Unlike in Loki, Sylvie is related to the adopted Asgardian Frost Giant, but not exactly another version of her. Marvel Comics’ Sylvie is also a relatively recent creation, debuting in 2009’s Dark Reign: Young Avengers mini-series. Here’s the rundown.

Marvel Comics’ Sylvie Becomes a New Enchantress

Marvel Comics

Originally hailing from Boxton, Oklahoma, Sylvie Lushton believed she was just an ordinary American girl. Until one day, the Asgardians who perished during Ragnarok reappeared in the skies over her small town, reborn. Shortly after the resurrected Asgardians arrive, Marvel Comics’ Sylvie discovered she suddenly had magical abilities, like teleportation. She could also cast many spells, including transmutation. Sylvie also had the standard flight, mental manipulation, and telekinesis powers. And she was proficient at creating forcefields and detecting others’ spells.

These powers were themselves all products of Loki’s magic. In fact, Loki would later suggest that Sylvie didn’t even exist at all until the moment she awoke with powers, and the God of Mischief totally fabricated her memories of an ordinary life. Loki was amusing herself by creating a mortal being that only suspects she’s an Asgardian. The Loki of this Marvel Comics era presented as a woman, which ties the concept of Lady Loki together with the creation of Sylvie. Sylvie also took on the name and general appearance of Amora, the Enchantress, a longtime Thor foe from Asgard. One who has yet to appear in the MCU.

Sylvie’s Short-Lived Avengers Career

Marvel Comics

Although the original Enchantress was a villain, Marvel Comics’ Sylvie became a hero. Well, she tried to. She went to New York and joined a team called the Young Masters. This was during the period in the Marvel Universe called “the Dark Reign.” During this time, Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, positioned himself and other villains as Earth’s great heroes. The Young Masters became Osborn’s counterparts to the Young Avengers. Despite being on a Marvel team already, Sylvie tried out for the Young Avengers and got in. But then, the truth came out. Sylvie was a creation of Loki’s sent to dismantle the Young Avengers’ magical defense systems from within, as a sort of trap. Soon after this revelation, the group kicked her out.

After the events of the Dark Reign, and her disastrous brief tenure with the Young Avengers, Sylvie wandered around the Marvel Comics’ universe looking for a purpose. Ultimately, Sylvie embraced her role as a bad guy. She joined the Hood’s version of the villainous Illuminati and also joined the Doom Maidens. She even joined up with a new version of the Masters of Evil. All of her adventures on different Marvel Comics villain teams ended when the real Enchantress, Amora, returned. Not too keen on someone infringing on her trademark, the real Enchantress subsequently banished Sylvie to one of the Ten Realms. And she remains lost there to this day.

Marvel Comics

The MCU’s Sylvie Appears on the Disney+ Series Loki

Sylvie Laufeydottir, born as Loki Laufeydottir, was a Princess of Asgard who caused a Nexus event as a child and escaped the wrath of the Time Variance Authority. On the Loki series, Sylvie spent the following years seeking revenge against the TVA, and their mysterious masters, Time-Keepers. However, the Loki we all know and love interrupted Sylvie’s big plan. Having been convinced of the TVA’s lies and manipulations, Sylvie and Loki teamed up together to fight them on the MCU Disney+ series. This is where we learned the Time-Keepers were phonies.

At the end of Loki season one, despite warnings from Loki, Sylvie goes on a rampage, killing He Who Remains, the true “man behind the curtain” of the TVA. Ultimately, Sylvie’s decision causes the Marvel Multiverse to explode in many comics and movies.

So, is the Sylvie from Loki tied into the Sylvie from Marvel’s comics? Right now, the name might just be an Easter egg for Marvel Comics fans. And the character from the series might just be a creation of the true Lady Loki, who remains offscreen. Only time will tell. No pun intended, of course.

Originally published on June 28, 2021.

Featured Image: Marvel Comics

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Season one of Loki introduced the TVA to the MCU. That secret organization in charge of the Sacred Timeline wasn’t especially ethical. However, as He Who Remains warned, it really might have been a necessary evil. The latest Loki teaser trailer for the show’s upcoming second season features the God of Mischief trying to restore some semblance of order to the multiverse. Again. It seems he’s been working on this problem, repeatedly, for a long time since we last saw him.

The first season of Loki was among the MCU’s strangest installments. That was a big reason for its success. But everything we’ve seen of Loki season two so far, including this wild trailer, indicates we’re in for an even weirder storyline with even bigger ramifications for the entire franchise. When Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie killed the TVA’s original founder she did more than just murder the most powerful figure in the universe. She plunged time itself into anarchy. Now her Variant and former cohort, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, is trying to fix everything.

The worst things get for him, the more entertaining it will be for us. Getting dragged through time means visiting lots of interesting places. It also means Odin’s trickster son will get to show off more of his many powers, which the MCU has not always fully utilized.

Loki‘s second season also stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Rafael Casal, Tara Strong, Kate Dickie, Liz Carr, Neil Ellice, Jonathan Majors, Ke Huy Quan, and Owen Wilson. Eric Martin serves as head writer. Directors Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, Dan Deleeuw, and Kasra Farahani will all be in the the show’s big chair over its six episodes.

Season two of Marvel Studios’ Loki arrives at Disney+ on October 6. At least that’s the plan now. It’s possible someone screws up the timeline before that. Again.

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Enjoying a show on a streaming service is a dangerous mission in our current world. You’ll dig the first season and its awesome cliffhanger only to discover that there will not be a second season. Or, even worse, a streaming service pulls the plug on a show you love and removes it from the service altogether. This is why physical media will never go out of style. If you own a copy of your fave movie or series, no one can take it away unless they physically fight you first. While Disney+ probably won’t remove its MCU nor Star Wars shows any time soon, you can now own physical copies of Loki, WandaVision, and The Mandalorian on 4K UHD and Blu-ray. These will be the first Disney+ original series to get a physical release.

These collector’s editions from Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm will have Steelbook packaging, exclusive concept art, and bonus features. Here are the titles and release dates for the Disney+ MCU and Star Wars series that will have physical copies available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray. 

• Marvel Studios’ Loki: The Complete First Season: 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases on September 26, 2023
• Marvel Studios’ WandaVision: The Complete Series:4K UHD and Blu-ray releases on November 28, 2023
• Star Wars The Mandalorian: The Complete First Season: 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases on December 12, 2023
• Star Wars The Mandalorian: The Complete Second Season: 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases on December 12, 2023

Right now, there aren’t more details for what WandaVision and The Mandalorian will offer with their 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases, but here’s what the Loki release will include:

• Designing the TVA – Step into the incredible set of Loki Season 1 with Production Designer, Kasra Farahani, and Tom Hiddleston while getting a sneak peek into Season 2.
• The Official TVA Orientation Video – Miss Minutes explains the inner workings of the TVA timeline in her orientation video.
• Gag Reel – Take a look at some of the fun outtakes on set with the cast and crew of Loki Season 1.
• Deleted Scene: Loki’s Coronation – Mobius reviews some moments from Loki’s timeline, in which Frog Thor makes an appearance during Loki’s coronation.
• Deleted Scene: The Standoff – Loki holds Sylvie hostage against the TVA in a standoff.
• Assembled: The Making of Loki – Loki explores the series centering on the MCU’s chief mischief maker.

We can also check out the artwork for these lovely releases. It will certainly make you want to add them to any collection that you already have or want to build. And, if the day ever comes when Disney+ doesn’t have MCU or Star Wars content anymore, you will own these shows forever in their physical forms.

Click To View Gallery

All four of these 4K UHD and Blu-ray Disney+ releases will be available for preorder on August 28.

The post LOKI, WANDAVISION, and THE MANDALORIAN Are Getting 4K UHD and Blu-ray Releases appeared first on Nerdist.

Somebody get Steve Miller on the phone cause the God of Mischief could use his expertise. Odin’s son keeps on slipping through time in the new trailer for Loki season two. But that’s far from the biggest problem he’ll face when his MCU series returns to Disney+. He has to save both the multiverse and the Sacred Timeline from the most dangerous man the past, present, and future have ever faced. Fortunately Loki still has some friends around to help him.

Tom Hiddleston is back for another season of time-hopping adventures, only this time the stakes are even greater. The decision of Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie to kill He Who Remains at the end of season one unleashed so much chaos Loki himself is now getting pulled through time itself. His unplanned trips through the past and future is why he knows there’s a very fine line separating his world and “utter destruction,” in what looks like an action-packed season.

That is unless Owen Wilson’s Mobius can slow things down. He likes to be more methodical in his work. He likes to savor a nice piece of pie when facing annhilation, which, fair.

This Loki season two trailer also features some surprise moments, like the marquee teasing the Marvel Comics’ villain Zaniac. Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan is also getting in on the fun. This teaser also seems to confirm something the MCU has only been alluding to, which is that the TVA and Citadel exist inside the Quantum Realm. And, despite the actor currently facing very serious allegations, the trailer does tease the return of Jonathan Majors’ Kang.

The series also stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Rafael Casal, Tara Strong, Kate Dickie, Liz Carr, and Neil Ellice. Loki season two debuts on Disney+ on October 6. That is unless someone messes with the timeline. Then it might already have premiered last month. Or it will next year? Or today? Maybe Steve Miller knows?

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The God of Mischief warned countless versions of a “very dangerous person” are coming to the MCU. We’ve already seen just how right he was thanks to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. But something else is also coming, and it sounds a lot less dangerous than Kang the Conqueror. Literally. Mondo is bringing the Emmy-nominated soundtrack for Loki season one to vinyl with a beautiful multi-album set. And Nerdist has your exclusive first look at limited-edition collection.

Mondo and Hollywood Records have partnered for the first physical release of composer Natalie Holt’s score for Loki. The show’s score earned Holt an Emmy nomination, as did the series’ main title theme “TVA.” But her involvement with this new set went beyond composing the music. She also contributed to the collection’s design, which comes in a slipcase featuring an original illustration from artist Anne Benjamin. Her green-hued picture features the show’s mast notable Loki Variants looking united and ready for battle. Inside each record comes with its own individual sleeve.

“I had an idea for the look of the sleeves, inspired by the opening credits from the TVA theme in Loki’s logo in black and white, and I’m thrilled with how Mondo and artist Anne Benjamin have taken my concept and created such epic and beautiful Loki inspired artwork,” said Holt in a press release. “I really hope people can turn down the lights, open their ears and enjoy interacting with this Loki vinyl set!”

Marvel Studios’ Loki – Original Soundtrack – Season One ($50) comes pressed on three 180 gram colored-vinyl discs. Or you can also grab it with black vinyl discs. It will be available later this year at Mondo and in record stores. But the pre-sale at MondoShop.com begins this week, Wednesday, March 22.

Considering what Kang is doing with the timeline right now, it’s probably best not to wait on ordering yours. You just know one of his countless Variants will try and buy every copy if we let them.

The post MONDO Brings LOKI’s Emmy-Nominated Score to Vinyl with Beautiful Set appeared first on Nerdist.

Forget Thanos, Ultron, and Loki. In the pages of Marvel Comics, the Avengers’ biggest adversary was always Kang the Conqueror. And after years of waiting, he arrived in the MCU on Loki, played by Jonathan Majors. Marvel’s Kang the Conqueror appeared in full villain mode in the MCU’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. These appearances are all just the warm-up act. Because we know he’s going to unleash chronal hell in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and in all likelihood, in Avengers: Secret Wars. But who (or what) is Kang from the Marvel universe? More than any other Marvel villain, the answer here is quite complex.

Jump to: Kang’s Origins // The Many Kang Variants in Marvel Comics // Kang and the MCU

When Does Kang the Conqueror First Appear in Marvel Comics?

Despite primarily being an Avengers villain, the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby creation Kang first appeared in the pages of Marvel’s Fantastic Four. This detail made him a part of the Fantastic Four film rights, and therefore, it wasn’t until Disney purchased Fox that Marvel Studios could use him properly. His first appearance was in 1963’s Fantastic Four #19, as the Pharoah Rama-Tut. Kang the Conqueror wouldn’t appear in a more recognizable Marvel form until a year later, in 1964’s Avengers #8. But let’s begin at the beginning, which in this case, means ancient Egypt, by way of the 31st century.

Kang the Conqueror’s Path From Fantastic Four Villain to Avengers Adversary

Kang is complicated to explain, thanks to the many, many variants of him across multiple Marvel timelines. For the purpose of clarity, we’re going to focus on what they call “Prime Kang,” and we’re going to focus on this Kang’s chronological Marvel appearances. Nathaniel Richards, who may or may not be a descendant of the Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards and Doctor Doom, was born as a human male in 31st century Earth. As a young man, he discovered his ancestor Doctor Doom’s time platform, which he used to travel to ancient Egypt.

He conquered this past era and became the Pharoah Rama-Tut. But a time-traveling Fantastic Four defeated him and sent him packing to the far-flung future. This war-ravaged 40th century Marvel Earth the soon-to-be Kang landed in, 1,000 years further from his birth era, utilized technology the population no longer understood. So Richards used his scientific knowledge to conquer this time period and became Kang the Conqueror. Kang had no superpowers to speak of, but he had a genius intellect and access to all time periods. This allowed him to access almost godlike technologies.

But the 40th century was not enough for him, and Marvel’s Kang decided to conquer other eras as well, with the goal of eventually ruling over all of history. This is when he came into conflict with the Avengers. As a young man, Kang the Conqueror was obsessed with Earth’s “Heroic Age,” and saw them as the only ones who could stop him. So Kang traveled to the past to destroy the Avengers. This marked the first of literally dozens of times combatting Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Kang was more of a master strategist than Thanos, but despite incredible power, he wasn’t on the level of the Celestials—despite trying to steal their technology once.

Jump to: Kang’s Origins // The Many Kang Variants in Marvel Comics // Kang and the MCU

The Many Identities and Variants of Kang in the Marvel Universe

Eventually, Kang time-traveled so much in Marvel Comics that multiple variants of himself spread across spacetime. If one Kang died, another always existed in an alternate timeline to cause trouble. One version of Kang went by the name the Scarlet Centurion, an identity he adopted after his time in ancient Egypt, but before becoming the Kang we know—even though the Kang identity appeared in Marvel Comics first.

Those are all just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Kang variants. In one story, he traveled back to the early 1900s and took the name “Victor Timely,” and built a small town in Wisconsin from which he could alter the flow of time. In the year 2099, he was the owner of a large company known as “Kang the Conglomerator.” In the 21st century, another CEO-style variant of Kang went by Mr. Gryphon. He even melded once with Ms. Marvel and became “Kamala Kang.”

On Earth-18854, Kang took the power of Galactus himself and became “Kang the Time Eater.” Because of his control of time, he may even be more powerful than the Celestials themselves. Not all of Marvel’s Kangs were totally cold and power-hungry, however. One fell in love with one of his subjects, a woman named Princess Ravonna. In one timeline, they even had a son together named Marcus. He would assume a former alias of his father’s, the Scarlet Centurion.

Immortus, the Most Dangerous Kang Variant

But the version of Kang the Avengers tangled with the most was Immortus. This was a much older version of Kang. After having conquered timeline after timeline, Kang grew weary of battle. The alien race called the Time-Keepers approached him. They were time travelers from the end of the universe and the last living creatures known to exist. Kang became their agent and began preserving Marvel’s timelines instead of conquering them. He did all of this for the Time-Keepers, in exchange for immortality (hence the new name). The former Kang accepted and reinvented himself again, this time as Immortus, the lord of the other-dimensional realm of Limbo.

But conquering timelines and pruning them are also aggressive acts—just not in the same way the younger Kang was prone to. All of this constantly brought Immortus into conflict with the Avengers. Although this Kang variant did officiate at the wedding of Vision and Scarlet Witch. Speaking of Wanda Maximoff, Immortus was later revealed to be the one behind the Scarlet Witch’s dark side turn in Marvel’s comics. Kang’s manipulations caused all the tragic events in her life. He didn’t only Wanda; Immortus’ hand lead to a teenage Tony Stark’s death in the ‘90s as well. (Don’t worry, he got better.)

In the comics, we even saw a “Council of Cross-Time Kangs,” made up of hundreds of Kang variants from across the multiverse. But Marvel later revealed this Kang Council to be a trap of sorts, one made by Immortus to slowly eliminate all variants of himself to ensure that only he remained at the literal end of time. Confused yet? We know, it’s a lot. And that’s without getting into how Kang once manipulated time to fight the X-Men and the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Yes, that is an event that happened back in the ’90s.

That Time Kang Was an Avenger

The most intriguing version of Kang first appeared in 2005, and readers didn’t even know it was Kang at first. After the Avengers broke up (in the pages of Avengers: Disassembled), a young hero named Iron Lad appeared. He wore an advanced version of Tony Stark’s armor, one that was neuro-kinetic in nature. When teen Kang discovered what his dark destiny had in store for him, he fled back in time to seek the Avengers for protection. He landed at a point in time when the team had split up, so this Kang used his know-how to assemble Marvel’s Young Avengers team. Eventually, he realized he must return to his own time and fulfill his destiny and become a villain, or he’d damage the timestream even more.

Jump to: Kang’s Origins // The Many Kang Variants in Marvel Comics // Kang and the MCU

The MCU’s Version of Kang, a.k.a. the Time Tyrant in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Phase 6

Loki‘s Kang and Ant-Man’s Kang in the MCU

Loki introduced us to “He Who Remains,” played by Jonathan Majors, as the last version of Kang who ruled from his Citadel at the End of Time. He explained how his variants all went to war with each other, leading to a huge multiversal conflict. He warned Loki and his variant Sylvie that if they killed him, it would ignite another multiversal war. When Sylvie ended him, the multiverse ripped open again.

Loki had another nod to the comic book Kang’s Marvel history, which we may see explored in the MCU. This one had to do with one of the TVA agents, Ravonna Renslayer. She was based on Kang’s great love from the comics. Another way “He Who Remains” echoed Marvel’s comics was with his elimination of other Kangs and their timelines. This was very Immortus-like. But now that Loki‘s Kang is dead, we’ll likely see his much more destructive MCU variants spread chaos throughout Marvel’s Multiverse.

Lord of the Quantum Realm

In Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania, we learned that the Kang we met in the Quantum Realm was exiled there by his other variants, essentially for being worse than the rest of them. There, he met the also-lost Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer). At first, they were seemingly friends, and she tried to help fix his time chair to get home. But when she learned that he had conquered countless timelines and destroyed them, she turned on him. Janet tried everything she could to stop him from ever getting out. She even aided in the rebellion against him when he conquered the Quantum Realm. After she returned to the Quantum Realm, along with her husband, daughter, and Scott and Cassie Lang, they stopped Kang from escaping again. They also toppled his microverse empire.

Kang’s MCU Future

It looked like Scott and Hope killed Kang in the finale of Quantumania, but he possibly disappeared into another time period. The end-credits revealed the Council of Kangs, and introduced Immortus, Rama-Tut, and a version of Scarlet Centurion, all infamous variants of Kang—not to mention hundreds of others we saw in the Council. Will the Kang of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty be one of these? Or will the Kang we met from the Quantum Realm be the “Big Bad?”

All of Quantamania‘s adventures will, of course, lead to The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars. All in all, Kang the Conqueror’s MCU future looks to be very exciting. Or should we say, one of his futures? When it comes to Kang, there are an infinite number to choose from.

Jump to: Kang’s Origins // The Many Kang Variants in Marvel Comics // Kang and the MCU

Originally published on August 1, 2022.

The post Who Is Kang the Conqueror? The Marvel History of the MCU’s Next Villain, Explained appeared first on Nerdist.

Kang, Kang, Kang. So many Kangs, so little time. But actually a ton of time, yet still a lot of Kangs. Anyway, we live in the age of Kang in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kang the Conqueror has stepped in to fill the villain vacuum left in the wake of Thanos’ double deaths. And while Jonathan Majors is a super muscular dude, it’ll take a number of him—across many universes and timelines—to give the growing number of Marvel heroes a proper run for their money. Phase Five just began and we’ve already met several Kangs. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty won’t come out until May 2025, so that’s plenty of time for even more Kangs!

Here are the Kang variants we’ve met in the MCU so far.

He Who Remains

Our first blush with the Conqueror wasn’t even with the name Kang. Stuck at the very end of time, one particular variant, seemingly in an effort to protect reality from himself, pruned all other timelines of any would-be Kang variants. This is He Who Remains, the final “villain” in season one of Loki. A much more humble (to a degree) version of Kang, he may have done a lot of bad things but for, it seems, the right reasons. However, he seemed to know Loki and/or Sylvie wouldn’t have agreed to take over for him because his final words “See you soon” are far too portentous to be coincidental.

Exile Kang

The main Kang from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we learn, is actually an exile from the Council of Kangs we see at the end of the movie. This Kang is, evidently, the worst possible Kang. Too cruel or something even for the rest of the Kangs. We learn precious little about him in the movie but he seems to have fought the Avengers previous (or perhaps later?) and killed several of them. Whether that’s in a different universe or a future within Marvel’s 616 Universe is still unknown.

We also know that this Kang is extremely powerful, enslaving the whole of the Quantum Realm in relative ease. He built an army so he doesn’t have to get his hands dirty, but we see in the movie’s third act that he’s more than capable. Totally ruthless, he disintegrates fleeing Quantumanians just because he’s angry. He also turned Darren Cross into M.O.D.O.K. which is maybe his cruelest act ever.

Is Exile Kang the Same as Prime Kang?

This is an interesting question. The end of Quantumania has Kang sucked into the imploding/exploding multiversal engine. It sure seems like he’s dead, and even the later Kangs assume as much. But the movie—for all its faults—did a very good job of establishing Kang the Conqueror as a threat and a force to be reckoned with. The rest of the Kangs all seem to think he’s bad news, and despite his possible remorse of his actions, he knows there’s no other way for him. (Remorse because he seems to weep openly at what he must do.)

It’s entirely possible that this Kang will return, and remain the main Kang of the MCU. His costume and general demeanor seem to indicate he’s Prime Kang, and it would be a shame if he’s gone for good. Now will we see other Kangs as main villains of movies and shows? Certainly. But the first Kang of Phase Five should definitely come back.

The Pharaoh Rama-Tut

At the end of Quantumania we see the Council of Kangs. There are, roughly, 19 million of them. The movie features three of these variants specifically, and each corresponds to the most famous of Kang’s variants. First is Rama-Tut, who is actually the very first version of the character we ever saw in Marvel Comics. The villain in 1963’s Fantastic Four #17, he’s a time traveler from the future who uses his advanced tech to conquer Ancient Egypt. It wasn’t until Giant-Size Avengers #2 in 1973 that we learn Rama-Tut was a future version of Kang.

Immortus

Another variant of Kang who debuted long before anyone knew he was Kang. Immortus first appeared in Avengers #10, only two issues after Kang. Immortus is, in most continuities, a Kang variant who took over as emissary and keeper of time at the end of all things. In a lot of ways, Immortus has traditionally done things that He Who Remains did in Loki. Here, with his wizened, distant look and headwear, he seems more like the ruler of the Kangs than of some benevolent future Kang. But time will tell! (Get it?)

Immortus is also the Kang who informs the others that the Avengers killed “the exile” and that they need to prepare for more conflict. Like Gary Oldman in The Professional, Immortus summoned EVERYONE.

The Scarlet Centurion

It wasn’t entirely clear in the film which variant of Kang was the third of the Council’s triumvirate. This Kang seems younger than the other two, with his Snagglepuss-like voice. He also seems to have received a number of cybernetic upgrades, making him partially, if not mostly, mechanical.

We thought this Kang seems to evoke either the Scarlet Centurion variant from the comics (despite being silver rather than red) or Iron Lad (though, again, certainly not obviously Iron Man-adjacent). Turns out, thanks to an interview with director Peyton Reed for ET Online that it was indeed Scarlet Centurion. Or “Centurion” as Reed called him. This makes sense, as Centurion really is the third biggest Kang variant following Rama Tut and Immortus.

However, unlike the other two, there is no one definitive beginning for the Scarlet Centurion. He’s often a distant future offspring of Kang, or just a younger Kang from a different universe. Either way, Snagglepuss voice.

Victor Timely

In the post-credits scene for Quantumania, we see Loki and Mobius have ended up in the early 1900s where someone named Victor Timely is giving a demonstration of his technological achievements. We see this Victor Timely is, in fact, Jonathan Majors sporting a period hairstyle and facial hair. In the comics, Victor Timely was a Kang variant who first appeared in Avengers Forever #9. After a humiliating defeat in the comics, he traveled back in time to the early 20th Century, set himself up as a Thomas Edison-esque inventor and created a business and tech empire.

Perhaps this version of Kang is the big villain of Loki season two, or perhaps it’ll end up being yet another variant in disguise. Who can say?

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

Originally published February 23, 2023.

The post How Many Kang Variants Have We Seen in the MCU So Far? appeared first on Nerdist.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania brought Kang to the MCU. It also brought a whole lot of Kang the Conqueror’s Variants to the franchise. The only thing the movie has more of than versions of Jonathan Majors’ character is unanswered questions. Some of them are obvious, like, “Where the hell was Judy Greer?” and “How could you not include Judy Greer?” But because most of the story—like Loki before it—takes place outside of normal time, it’s not even clear what we should be asking. Things work differently in the Quantum Realm, and that means we have to approach Quantumania differently, too. The challenge is figuring out exactly what we don’t know. And these are the right questions to ask to do just that.

What Comes First: the Events of Loki or Quantumania?

The Quantum Realm exists “outside time and space,” same as the domain where He Who Remains built his Citadel. (We’ll get to whether or not they’re the same place a little later.) We can’t use a linear understanding of time to easily place events occurring at either location in a normal chronological order. We have to forget everything we know about how time usually works.

That’s easier said than done, of course. We can’t fully comprehend the concept of existence without time. The best we can hope to do is understand where the events of Loki take place relative to the events of Quantumania. Right now we have no idea.

What we do know is the correct sequence will have huge ramifications on the entire MCU. It will also affect Kang’s future in it. Assuming He Who Remains told Loki and Sylvie the whole truth, He Who Remains won the first-ever Multiversal War and defeated all his Variants. He then organized all realities into the neat, closed circle of the Sacred Timeline. That prevented his Variants from ever rising up again, risking all of existence in every reality via an apocalyptic incursion.

If He Who Remains did all of that before Quantumania, the third Ant-Man movie likely showed us the start of the second Multiversal War, the one that results in Kang taking over the TVA. (That will mean Loki season one started before Quantumania but technically ended after it.) This is the easier of the two possibilities to follow, as it also explains why the Council of Kangs now oversee a fractured, messy connection of realities. He Who Remains’ death caused the orderly Sacred Timeline to fracture and branch.

If instead, though, Sylvie killed He Who Remains after Quantumania then we have total chaos and no idea what’s going on. In that scenario we can’t even begin to guess at a timeline of events within the MCU. We can’t even know the real number of Multiversal Wars ever fought. Neither can we place the creation of the Council, Sacred Timeline, nor He Who Remains’ reign in any sort of chronological order.

All we know is that the possibility suggests the most dangerous Kang ever is about to be unleashed. He would have more experience than any of his Variants, because he was the only one exiled outside of time while they didn’t exist at all. His memories and knowledge are all intact.

Confused? That just means you’re paying attention, because when it comes to the timeline of Multiveral Wars there’s so much we don’t know. And that includes not even fully knowing everything we don’t even know to ask.

Is Kang the Exile the MCU’s Answer to Marvel Comics’ Prime Kang?

The story of Marvel Comics’ Kang is so complex it’s nearly impossible to untangle. But there does seem to be one clear difference between him and his new MCU counterpart. In Marvel Comics, every Kang Variant is the byproduct of Prime Kang, the original Nathaniel Richards. Nathaniel’s time hopping creates alternate realities, which in turn creates alternate versions of him. This leads some of his more famous Variants, like Immortus, to try and ensure Prime Kang’s further actions leads to their eventual creation. (The ramifications and rules of this kind of time travel would make Scott Lang cry.)

He Who Remains (who we are again are assuming was telling the truth) explained why Kang Variants are different in the MCU. The MCU is a world with infinite parallel worlds, and these worlds contain infinite Variants. You don’t need to travel between them to create new timelines like Kang in the comics, they already exist. (Like how Doctor Strange had Variants without multiverse hopping.)

But is Kang the Exile the live-action equivalent of the comics’ Prime Kang, the one Kang who matters above all else?

Considering Quantumania raised the very real possibility (some would argue near certainty) that its main Kang is not dead, all while showing the Council of Kangs fears him, the Exile might very well be the MCU’s own type of Prime Kang. And if that’s true, the story of every Kang Variant still runs—and ends—through him.

Is Victor Timely Actually Kang the Exile?

Quantumania‘s second post-credits scene is from the upcoming second season of Loki. In it Mobius and the God of Mischief watch a Kang Variant during the early part of the 20th century. This Variant performs on stage under the name Victor Timely, a character we also know from Marvel Comics.

The comics Victor Timely is really Prime Kang who went to Wisconsin in the year 1901 to show off his amazing technological advancements. There he founded the city of Timely, Wisconsin, which also contained Chronopolis, “a crossroads into virtually every era in human history” that “lays just out of phase with the timestream and is therefore undetectable.”

Loki believes Victor Timely is the terrible Variant that He Who Remains warned him about, the one that took over the TVA. We don’t know for certain if Kang the Conqueror is the new TVA leader, but if Loki is right about Victor there’s a good chance Timely is also the Exile. We’d just need to know how and why Victor Timely ended up in that exact spot in the timeline following his defeat to Ant-Man. And also how he plans to build his new Empire from there.

What Exactly Does the Council of Kangs Do and What Are They Readying for War?

Quantumania‘s first mid-credits scene featured an arena of Kang Variants. That included three of the most important ones from Marvel Comics: Immortus, Rama-Tut, and (we think, even though he doesn’t wear red) Scarlet Centurion. Those three, who appear to be the Council’s leaders, meet outside time and space, just as He Who Remains did from his Citadel. Only the Council oversees an interconnected, chaotic blending of realities, a far cry from the previously neat and ordered Sacred Timeline.

What exactly is the group’s purpose? Are they a de facto TVA? Did they ban the Conqueror to the Quantum Realm? Is that why the Council formed originally, to team up against him? And if they fear him, why are they so mad an Avenger killed the Exile they couldn’t? What exactly is the harm in others traversing the multiverse if it’s already a mess? Why would they risk calling all of their Variants to war when they believe their greatest enemy is already dead?

In Marvel Comics, the Council of Kangs exists in Limbo, outside time and space. What they didn’t know was that Prime Kang set up the group as a form of control. He used the Council as an easy way to kill his Variants and control every reality and timeline. If that’s also why the Council exists in the MCU, it raises even more questions about its role in the franchise.

Do the TVA and He Who Remains’ Citadel Both Exist in the Quantum Realm?

We know, we’ve already tired of hearing it too, but the phrase “outside time and space” is essential to understanding the MCU’s new existential threat. He Who Remains, Kang, and their Variants operate outside the confines that bind other beings. When they exist they exist outside a timeline that never ends. It’s also a timeline they can freely move about into any world they please. They don’t age, either, and they have access to all forms of technology.

And the only places in the MCU where we’ve seen living people exist like this is the Quantum Realm, the Void at the End of Time where He Who Remains sent pruned Variants, and the place where he built his Citadel.

After Loki‘s first season we theorized his Citadel existed in the Quantum Realm. After Quantumania that seems all but certain. Both places share physical traits, like their notable blue and purple skies. The Quantum Realm was also the only place that could “hold” Kang, just as it was the only place where He Who Remains could oversee all realities and the Sacred Timeline.

Janet said the Quantum Realm exists below “the void.” It was a noteworthy phrase to describe a place considering He Who Remains sent pruned Variants to “The Void” where Alioth ate them. The Void existed at “the end of time,” and the Citadel existed past that. The Disney+ show also revealed that outside the TVA sat a complex world full of bustling cities and civilizations. Same as the Quantum Realm.

That’s a lot of evidence for the TVA, Citadel, and Council of Kangs all existing in the Quantum Realm. But if that is true, it raises questions about how the same place could serve as both prison for Kang the Exile and kingdom for He Who Remains. It also means we don’t actually know if the people of the Quantum Realm are now free. They defeated Kang, but when did they do that? And does/did/will He Who Remains rule them when the Conqueror doesn’t?

For now those answers exist outside time and the space in our brains.

Did Janet Only See Kang’s Past Memories or Were Some From Kang’s Future?

Initially it seemed obvious what happened when Janet Van Dyne read Kang’s mind via his neurokinetic ship. She saw the Conqueror’s past where he wiped out entire realities, killing trillions. That’s what led to his banishment.

But Kang himself did not know exactly what she saw, suggesting she saw something he doesn’t know about. And since his life is not bound by the normal passage of time, we can’t rule out the idea Janet also saw “memories” from his future. If she did it means the Exile is not dead. He might be regrouping in a universe below the Quantum Realm. He might already be Victor Timely. Or he might also be an infinite number of other people we haven’t even met yet.

Yeah, it’s all a lot. Trying to figure out what Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania means for Kang’s future in the MCU is like entering a probability storm. Only, this storm is a lot more fun than the one Scott Lang got stuck in.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at   @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Loki‘s season one finale marked the debut of a surprise Marvel Comics character, Kang, in the MCU. We expected Kang’s first appearance to come in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as the franchise’s next Thanos-level threat, but we first got to know He Who Remains in Loki. Now that we’ve met Kang the Conqueror proper in the MCU, did he live up to his reputation? And what role will Kang’s other Variants play in the MCU’s future? Here are all the ways we know Loki connects to Quantumania, along with a few ways it might, and what all of this tells us about our many Kangs and the MCU’s future.

What Loki‘s He Who Remains Revealed About His Variants and Multiversal War

He Who Remains was a scientist from Earth’s 31st century who learned how to travel between parallel worlds. Many of his Variants from those infinite alternate dimensions did, too. Some of them initially worked together, sharing knowledge and technology. But others opted to attack and conquer. That resulted in a Multiversal War with each Variant “fighting to preserve their universe and annihilate the others.” The result of that battle between worlds was the near destruction of all realities everywhere, which we now know would have been the ultimate Incursion.

He Who Remains ultimately defeated all his other Variants by using a monster their very conflict caused. The Multiversal War created Alioth, a storm-like creature that could “consume time and space.” With his Variants bested, He Who Remains created the Sacred Timeline. It put all realities into an orderly circle. He then created the TVA to keep the Sacred Timeline intact. The group’s agents (unaware Variants themselves) pruned any Variant who created a branch that threatened the entire Sacred Timeline.

The Death of He Who Remains and the TVA’s New Leader

The TVA existed outside of time and space, as did the Void of Alioth and the Citadel of He Who Remains. For a thousand lifetimes, He Who Remains watched over his creation, keeping his countless Variants at bay within the closed circle of time. But he eventually grew tired and sought a replacement to maintain the Sacred Timeline. He Who Remains told Loki and Sylvie he wanted them for the job and that if they didn’t accept, the alternative was a much worse version of himself taking control of the TVA. That was if another Multiversal War didn’t destroy all of reality first.

Loki recognized the necessary evil of the TVA. But Sylvie thought it was nothing more than a form of control and took her revenge on He Who Remains, killing him. As he died, He Who Remains winked at her and said he would see her soon. He expected history to repeat itself, with him coming out on top once more. Instead, Loki returned to the TVA to find one of He Who Remains’ Variants had taken over. Loki saw a giant statue that looked a lot like Kang the Conqueror.

He also discovered Mobius and the others within the TVA had no memory of anything that had happened prior. Everything had changed in an instant (that might have lasted thousands of lifetimes).

Loki knew to fear more than just one Variant of He Who Remains, though. He tried to warn a confused, ignorant Mobius by syaing, “Someone is coming. Countless different versions of a very dangerous person. And they’re all set on war. We need to prepare.”

(Note: The only person besides Loki and Sylvie who seemingly will remember about He Who Remains is Ravonna Renslayer. She did not appear or factor into the events of Quantumania. But she is likely to play a major role in Loki season two and possibly beyond.)

The Sacred Timeline Fractures and Threatens a Mass Incursion

The Death of He Who Remains led to more than just a dangerous new head of the TVA. It also caused the Sacred Timeline to break apart. The neat order of realities that kept all of the MCU’s universes safe was last seen on Loki splintering into mayhem.

It’s unclear if the new TVA head (who we don’t know for certain is Kang the Conqueror) got it back under control. That scene came before Mobius’s mind wipe, when everything changed. But thanks to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we know why He Who Remains worried about branching. When two realities collide, it can cause an incursion, which results in the complete destruction of one or both universes. Trillions of innocent beings can die because of travel between the multiverse. Trillions of innocent beings can also die because someone killed them and their universe.

Kang the Conqueror’s Past and Banishment to the Quantum Realm in Quantumania

There is so much we don’t know about Kang the Conqueror/Exile after seeing Quantumania, but the film still revealed a lot about his past. Kang’s fellow MCU Variants (or at minimum, He Who Remains) banished the Conquerer to the Quantum Realm “outside space and time” because it was “the only place that could hold him.” Once he got his suit and technology back, we saw why they wanted to be free of him.

Kang, once he got back his suit and technology, eventually took over the Quantum Realm. (Which seems to be the same dimension He Who Remains ruled from). There he reigned from his own Citadel. It wasn’t his first time installing himself as a ruthless dictator. He had plenty of experience from conquering countless worlds and destroying entire universes. This “The Conqueror” version of Kang seemed to be the single most dangerous of his many dangerous MCU Variants, the one all the others feared the most. And when they couldn’t kill him, they locked him away for eternity.

But the movie also suggested Kang’s path of destruction was not merely a quest for power. Quantumania raised the idea his reign came as a response to an attack on his own universe The Exile, who couldn’t hide his sadness, was likely the most dangerous Kang, but he might not have been the one to draw first blood or cause the first Incursion. Exile Kang said he would get his revenge on his Variants for “everything” they had done to him. This Quantumania Kang also seemed determined to organize the chaos of reality into a neat, protective circle, the same as Loki‘s He Who Remains did. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s first mid-credits scene showed not all of his Variants cared to do that much to protecting all worlds.

The Council of Kangs’ Reaction to the Exile’s “Death”

The Exile is dead. At least, that’s what the Council of Kangs believes. (Scott Lang has very valid doubts about that.) Instead of rejoicing over the death of their most dangerous Variant, though, the Council of Kangs is preparing for an MCU war, just as Loki feared.

But this time, they aren’t preparing for war with one another. They are preparing for war against the Avengers, who are beginning to “touch” the multiverse. Multiversal travel from others “threatens” everything the Council built.

What exactly the Council of Kangs has built in the MCU is not yet known. All we know is that they seemed to meet in an arena outside of time and space in a place that overlooks a chaotic meeting of realities. The strands of universes they apparently control in Quantumania are the antithesis of the Sacred Timeline we saw in Loki.

But if the Exile is alive, and if he currently controls the TVA, when did that scene with the Council take place? What are they protecting? Also, will they inadvertently make it easier for the Exile Kang to conquer them if they’re distracted or weakened by war with the MCU’s Avengers? And what does any of that have to do with Victor Timely?

Loki and Mobius Find the Kang Variant Victor Timely in Quantumania Credits

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s second post-credits scene introduced another famous Kang Variant to the MCU, Victor Timely. We broke down what that scene means and what we know about Victor Timely from Marvel Comics. But what might be most important is who Loki thinks this Quantumania credits character is: the new head of the TVA.

If Loki Odinson is right and the Victor Timely Kang is the new head of the TVA, then we need to know why he’s living in the early 20th century and showing off his technological advancements. And if we’re also right that Loki season one ended with Kang the Conqueror in charge, that means Victor Timely is the Exile who survived Quantumania.

And all of that means when we finally see Loki season two, we’re going to have to add even more connections between the Quantumania and the show. Don’t worry; we’ll have the time and space to do that… That is unless a Kang or two travels back in time to stop us. You really never know where, or more importantly, when, one of them will pop up.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at  @burgermike, and also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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With Halloween fast approaching, many of you out there are already planning your costumes for the festivities. But you’re also probably planning the ones for your pets too. Because nothing gets more candy in your kid’s plastic pumpkin than a cute pooch in a silly costume at their side. And although we’ve seen a few cute Marvel-related costumes for dogs and cats over the years, this one might break the Multiverse open with its sheer cuteness.

Thanks to PureCostumes.com, you can now get a Loki costume for your doggo for $39.95. But not just the Asgardian God of Mischief as played by Tom Hiddleston. We’re talking about the variant alligator version from an unknown world in the Multiverse, as seen on the Disney+ Loki series. And it’s pretty much perfect. You can see an image, as well as read the official description for the Alligator Loki pet costume, down below:

What could be better than dressing up as Loki? Well, dressing up as Alligator Loki, of course! Turn your pet into everyone’s favorite god of mischief…or, a variant of him, anyway. This costume is perfect for any pet owner who is a fan of the Marvel universe! Items include a walking costume bodysuit and a headpiece.

In addition to Alligator Loki, Pure Costumes will soon offer a Captain America pet outfit too. Of course, there are other Loki costumes available on as well, even for (slightly less adorable) human children. Right now though, those are out of stock. Your kid would have the best MCU costume on the block if they went as Kid Loki, with a cute pooch/alligator variant following along. And we certainly wouldn’t judge any grown-ups who want to join in the fun and make their own “classic Loki” costume to go with them. Especially one resembling Richard E. Grant. After all, there’s an infinite number of Lokis out there. Why not have an infinite number on Halloween night too?

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Being a fan of the MCU used to mean watching just one or two movies a year. Now there are weeks when Marvel debuts both a film and a new episode of TV. Disney+ has helped turned the franchise into a 365-day endeavor. So it’s only fitting the streaming site is getting its own line of Marvel Legends Figures from Hasbro. The set will let you bounce around time, fight zombie Avengers, imagine what might have been in a different world, and construct your very own idol of an ancient Egyptian god.

Hasbro’s newest additions to its Marvel Legends lineup includes collectibles for Disney+ MCU shows What If…?, WandaVision, Loki, and Moon Knight. The set has both a Zombie Iron Man and a Zombie Wanda Maximoff from the animated series. They’re also joined by What If…?‘s versions of Howard the Duck (with Scott Lang’s floating head!) and Red Skull.

You’ll also be able to have the law on your side with a figure of WandaVision FBI Agent (and close magic enthusiast) Jimmy Woo. And you can finish out the primary set by creating your very own branch of Loki‘s Sacred Timeline. The collection includes both a Classic Loki figure as well as one for the Citadel’s (former) ruler, He Who Remains. And yes, he has an apple.

Each piece comes with their own personal accessories to add authenticity. And with the exception of Zombie Iron Man, every figure includes at least one part for the set’s Build-A-Figure. When combined they’ll bring Moon Knight’s Khonshu to life. (Hopefully that won’t mean become his killer avatar.)

You will have to wait a little bit to get your hands on these new figures, though. They won’t be available (for $24.99 each) until spring of 2023. Fortunately the MCU will give you plenty of ways to pass the time until then. And well past then, too.

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Magic is a big part of Marvel Comics. Numerous characters wield magical powers of varying levels. Some magic users can control the elements or even change the universe. Others focus on illusions. But if you wanted to learn magic from one of the most knowledgeable tricksters around, who would you turn to? Loki. He’s the focus of one title in Smart Pop’s new multiple book licensing deal with Marvel Comics. Nerdist can exclusively reveal Loki’s Book of Magic and Mischief: Tricks and Deceptions from the Prince of Illusions. Take a look at the cover.

The synopsis of this tome from author Robb Pearlman and illustrator Megan Levensis as follows:

In this new translation of an ancient artifact Loki left for himself, the famed Prince of Lies shares step-by-step instructions to recreate over 35 of his most mischievous tricks. Filled with classic comic book art and all new illustrations, readers of all ages, and from all ten realms, will learn the secrets to perform Loki’s signature close-up and sleight of hand moves involving cards, balls, scarves, and other easy-to-find objects.

Sitting down to learn about magic directly from Loki? We are here for it.

Loki’s Book of Magic and Mischief is one of the two titles that will kick off Smart Pop’s Marvel Comics partnership. The second one is The Secret Journals of Tony Stark (out June 20, 2023). This one is a first-person memoir by Iron Man himself. The book is the first in a series of official autobiographies for adult readers featuring some of Marvel Comics’ most beloved characters. He’s waiting

Loki’s Book of Magic and Mischief: Tricks and Deceptions from the Prince of Illusions arrives on May 23, 2023. You can place a pre-order now.

Amy Ratcliffe is the Editor-in-Chief for Nerdist and the author of Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy, The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, The Jedi Mind, and more. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

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If there’s one thing that’s true about the MCU, it’s that Loki, the god of mischief, has more lives than a cat or even a Flerken. For Loki fans, there have been too many many “This is it” moments to count. So as the fourth Thor movie rolled around, many MCU viewers had one question on their minds when it came to the trickster god… Will Loki appear in Thor: Love and Thunder. Now that the Thor movie has been released, we can finally answer that question. But, like Loki himself, the answer to whether he appeared in the latest Thor is tricky.

Jump to: Is Tom Hiddleston in Love and Thunder? // Is Loki in Love and Thunder? // Thor and Loki’s MCU Future

Is Tom Hiddleston in Thor: Love and Thunder?

The short answer is, no. Tom Hiddleston’s Loki does not appear in Thor: Love and Thunder. Although a version of this Loki is still running around the MCU, thanks to the Disney+ show Loki, our favorite Loki variant is nowhere to be found. This will mark the first Thor movie that Tom Hiddleston does not appear in as Loki. And although he always caused a lot of trouble, we and Thor do miss him. Happily, Loki will return in his Tom Hiddleston form when Loki season two eventually hits our screens.

Is Loki in Thor: Love and Thunder?

But is Loki in Thor: Love and Thunder? The answer is, technically, yes, the character of Loki does appear in Thor: Love and Thunder. Or rather, a character of Loki, if we’re splitting hairs. As we get our first real glimpses of New Asgard, we see Thor: Ragnarok taking place in play form to entertain the tourists. This is a reprisal of the play scene from Thor: Ragnarok, which is an incredibly meta addition that we’re sure Taika Waititi loved.

In Love and Thunder‘s play, we see Odin’s death and Hela’s introduction. And those scenes feature, you guessed it, Loki. And yes, Matt Damon returned to play as Loki for this brief interlude, reminding us of that precious time when Thor and Loki were together. We’re thankful this Matt Damon cameo gave us just a hint of Loki to tide us over. It can’t really be a Thor movie without Loki.

Thor’s Loki Tribute Tattoo

And, of course, Loki was with us in spirit in Thor: Love and Thunder… and in ink. When Thor visits Omnipotence City to ask the gods for help fighting the villainous Gorr the God Butcher, he gets himself into a little trouble. And, in an attempt to remove his disguise, Zeus flicks a little too hard, accidentally ridding Thor of his clothing. There’s a lot to take in when there’s a naked god on screen, the movie version of naked Thor is not pixelated. But most importantly, on Thor’s back, we see a huge tribute to Loki. Thor’s Loki tattoo features the trickster god’s helmet and a massive “RIP Loki.” Of course, we were looking at that and nothing else…

According to Taika Waititi, the Loki tattoo was “a comedy bit that was supposed to be in Ragnarok. When Loki faked his death and he’s reunited with Thor and Thor can’t believe he’s alive, he was to say, ‘I mourned you, look I even got this stupid tattoo,’ and Thor lifts his sleeve and it’s a tattoo that says ‘RIP Loki.’ For some reason, it didn’t make it into the film, but I was determined to get it into this one so I doubled down and put it on his back. And then [Marvel Studios head] Kevin [Feige] was like, ‘Can we make it five times bigger? So that’s why it covered his entire back.”

Thor’s Love and Thunder tattoo is a sweet tribute to Loki. And we’re glad it made it into this movie. It reminds us though the Loki was not present in Love and Thunder, he is never far away.

What’s Next for Thor and Loki in the MCU

As we mentioned, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is heading for season two of his show. Meanwhile, it looks like Thor may yet get another movie.

At the beginning of its credits Thor: Love and Thunder reveals that “Thor will return.” And recently Kevin Feige shared, “there are plenty of other incarnations of Thor that we have that we have yet to see.” So, even though it didn’t happen in Thor: Love and Thunder, we’re betting we see Tom Hiddleston and Loki again in a Thor movie, sooner or later. That is, if the thunder god doesn’t show up in an episode of Loki. After all, Loki needs to meet Thor’s new daughter, his new niece. And won’t that be a happy family reunion?

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“Family Bonding.” That’s a nice theme for a story. Very wholesome and sweet… Or is it? It’s hard to say when Lokis are involved. But that’s exactly the theme of the first issue of the Alligator Loki comic series. Alligator Loki, the bitiest of Loki variants (we think), devoured our hearts on Disney+’s Loki. And now, he’s getting his own full adventure as part of Marvel Comics. It’s a big honor. Not every new MCU character makes it onto the pages of Marvel’s comics. But Alligator Loki is no ordinary character. He’s a Loki! And that always means a good time (that may or may not end in tears.) Here’s a deeper look into the Alligator Loki comic and its issue #1.

The official description of the Alligator Loki series reads:

He may be smaller, he may be cuter, and… an alligator?! But don’t be deceived, Alligator Loki has all the same attributes as his human counterpart and is ready to get into some trouble!

Honestly, we believe that. Loki equals trouble in any form. And especially you condense all the mischief into a smaller body and add teeth… well, Thor may have his hands full. Alternatively, he could much prefer this version of his brother which can’t snark at him ceaselessly. And in the first issue of the series, they do seem to get along pretty great.

What do Thor and Alligator Loki do together, you ask? Well, obviously, they “get to know one another at an Asgardian amusement park.” I mean, obviously. An in-depth first look at the series courtesy of Marvel brings that sentiment to life.

Thor has a baby carrier for Loki. And together they do all the normal amusement park things. They check the map and make a plan. They ride the roller coasters. And they even eat cotton candy and buy merch. It looks like a total blast.

Honestly, this is too cute to handle. And exactly what we need, literally always. Alligator Loki will have 12 issues to its name. And that should keep us happy until this Loki variant (hopefully) returns to our screens. The series is created by writer Alyssa Wong, artist Robert Quinn, and colorist Pete Pantazis. Alligator Loki issues release every other Friday starting March 11 exclusively on the Marvel Unlimited app. And they’ll absolutely make your week.

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Marvel Studios tasked the team at ILM with a lot more than just glorious purpose. Loki‘s six-episode first season required a myriad of VFX shots in every installment. That was especially true for the show’s fifth episode, “Journey Into Mystery.” It saw Endgame Loki working with his Variants to escape death in the Void. That included hanging out with the adorable but deadly Gator Loki. Which the Industrial Light & Magic team created with a combination of puppets and computers.

That broken down world of castaways also filmed on huge sets. But they still needed massive amounts of visual effects to complete. ILM filled in the sky and horizon for those many wide shots that appeared throughout the episode. And sometimes the effects studio made massive battleships of doomed sailors from nothing.

But the most impressive sequence might belong to Richard E. Grant’s Old Loki. In a triumphant moment of redemption and sacrifice, he conjured a fully realized recreation of Asgard. His selfless act bought Loki and Sylvie enough time to defeat Alioth.

For a visually distinct, important place MCU fans know so well, he had to get the look just right. Fortunately for Old Loki he knew both actual magic and the people who work Industrial Light & Magic.

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In many ways, 2021 felt like a surreal continuation of 2020. There are still many bizarre, frustrating, and sometimes sad things going on in the world. And COVID-19 came out with more variants than Loki. But thankfully we can always count on TV to deliver just what we need, whether we want to laugh, cry, debate, theorize, or simply escape it all. We can’t include every single great show in the world, but here are Nerdist’s picks for the best TV shows of 2021.

WandaVision

WandaVision kicked the year off in style, marrying the MCU with classic sitcom nostalgia. The show drummed up a ton of interest last year with hints of Wanda and Vision somehow living together in a 1960s era world. We all wanted to know WTH was happening and why. And this Disney+ series did not disappoint. From its ample nods to old TV shows to its examination of Wanda’s grief and psyche, WandaVision gave us something truly unique in the Marvel world. And we got the gift that keeps on giving: the infectious “Agatha All Along” bop.

Mare of Easttown

Kate Winslet stuns in this suspenseful small town thriller as its titular detective tasked with solving a teen’s baffling murder. The words “complex” and “layered” often get lazily thrown around when describing women characters with an ounce of nuance. But Winslet’s Mare is truly a fully realized and imperfect protagonist grappling with the pressures of work, family/community dynamics, and emotional upheaval. Mare of Easttown interweaves its key and secondary players together brilliantly, keeping the viewer engrossed and guessing with every new reveal and twist. At only 7 episodes, it’s the perfect weekend marathon watch. Who doesn’t have an affinity for crime dramas starring detectives whose personal lives are in shambles?

Lupin (Part One and Two)

The adventures of Arsene Lupin came to life in this swift, slick, stylish, and smart French crime drama. The show gives us an alternative to the many white male spy leads with its titular character, a Black immigrant who seeks to avenge his father’s death. His many exploits, masterful costumes, and unbelievable ability to study and con those around him is top-tier entertainment. Lupin’s breathtaking drama, cliffhangers, and swift pace play perfectly alongside its masterful unwinding of its protagonist’s inner core. It’s no wonder Netflix pushed out two parts of the series this year with a third set to arrive in 2022.

Pose (Season Three)

Pose broke ground with its ensemble cast comprised of primarily trans women telling the stories of NYC’s ballroom culture and the LGBTQ+ experience for people of color during the 1980s and 1990s at the height of the AIDS crisis. The final season took fans to 1994 and dug deep, diving into the backstories of its most mysterious figures and unveiling the current lives of its protagonists as the ballroom dynamics change. The episodes take you through a gamut of emotions, delivering shock, heartbreak, and joy while continuing to teach vital history lessons to mainstream audiences. We all needed a happily ever after and Pose gave us a series finale with just that, although it was sad to leave the ballroom floor.

What We Do in the Shadows (Season Three)

Did you really think we’d leave our vamp fam off the list? This website is, after all, the same one that did an entire week dedicated to vampires. What We Do in the Shadows continues to be comedy gold in its third season. The chemistry between its main players is still scary good as it deals with the fallout of last season’s finale while still dishing out humor and other fun happenings. This world continues to spin on a highly creative and expansive axis and we cannot wait for season four to land, hopefully next year.

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (Season Two)

This popular sketch comedy show finally made its way back to TV over two years after its debut season. The series doubles down on its wild skits this round for ample laughs. From a ghost tour with graphic questions to a foray into what happens during distracted driving, it’s the funny thing we needed as the pandemic goes on. And, who doesn’t love a quick 15-ish minute episode for a quick bite of joy?

Midnight Mass

Let us rejoice! Pretty much anything Mike Flanagan touches is golden. And Midnight Mass is no different, taking us into an isolated community teeming with supernatural events and intriguing characters. A man’s journey back home unveils a trove of sinister happenings. Nothing, and no one, is quite what it seems in this horror drama as things begin to unfold. This basis provides a brilliant exploration of grief and faith anchored by stellar performances. Midnight Mass sinks its teeth into you and refuses to let go until the very last moment.

The Underground Railroad

Barry Jenkins is one of the premier storytellers of our time. The Moonlight director and writer took Colson Whithead’s book of the same name, which blends an examination of slavery-era USA with magic to make a literal railroad, and brought it to beautiful life. The series follows Cora, an enslaved Georgia woman who boards this train on a trip towards freedom. The Underground Railroad is vital, brilliant, painful, exhilarating, and undoubtedly one of the best TV shows not just in 2021, but perhaps in the last decade. It is certainly not just “another slavery” story; it’s a narrative that humanizes people who were stripped of their human rights.

Squid Game

Of course, the Netflix smash hit deserves a spot on everyone’s best TV shows of 2021 list. Squid Game had us all in a viewing headlock with its premise of contestants doing deadly challenges in hopes of clearing their debt. The contestants are much like many of us, trying to survive and hoping for financial security. Clear commentary and analysis of society, friendships, intensity, and a premise that sadly seems far too plausible combined with its performances make this a solid drama.

Reservation Dogs

Taika Waititi champions another hit with Reservation Dogs. Indigenous teens in Oklahoma get into all sorts of trouble (illegal and otherwise) with their eyes on Cali to life. The series not only stars Indigenous actors but places Indigenous creatives behind the scenes. It is a (far too) rare glimpse into its protagonists’ coming-of-age experiences through a specific lens. It’s funny, challenging, and vital TV watching.

Cowboy Bebop

1,2,3…let’s jam! Cowboy Bebop’s live-action show hit Netflix this year. The space cowboy adventures of Spike, Jet, and Faye came to life after great anticipation. The series draws from its anime origins, obviously, while serving up some witty originality of its own. Its modern take on this trio’s life and bond brought more depth to interpersonal relationships. Yes, it became divisive among the fandom for, well, many reasons. It certainly wasn’t a carbon copy of its predecessor…and that’s cool with us. Cowboy Bebop had enough fun and camaraderie for a highly entertaining watch.

Succession (Season Three)

The Wheel of Time

Sometimes, the best things come in the 11^th hour. Such is the case with Prime Video’s fantasy series The Wheel of Time, a foray into a magical place that initially drew Game of Thrones comparisons. But, it is indeed a unique and engaging universe. The Wheel of Time empowers its magical women characters, pitting them against a dark force that wishes to crumble the world. It’s a slow, methodical build that opens up like a rose blooming in the spring. The monsters, the curses, the secrets…they all combine to make a solid fantasy series.

Yellowjackets

What happens if you take Lord of the Flies and invert it in a modern, interesting way? You get Yellowjackets. This show focuses on a group of ‘90s high school soccer players whose lives are changed by a terrible accident. They survive a deadly plane crash and are forced to do gruesome things to survive. The narrative flips between those harrowing times and four survivors’ current lives in 2021. Both eras boast solid casts with great chemistry who bring the series horror, drama, and sadness to life.

The Long Call

This British miniseries co-starring Doctor Who alum Pearl Mackie combines all the common trappings of a police procedural with something extra. The Long Call delivers on a winding murder mystery but also explores religious fanaticism, consent, relationship abuse, homophobia, and more. With slow unravelings, unexpected red herrings, and a host of suspect Devon residents, The Long Call stands out from the crime drama pack.

Hawkeye

Last but certainly not least is Hawkeye. The Marvel show evokes the spirit of the comic giant’s run of Netflix shows, infusing it with everything we want from a superhero show. Easter eggs? Got those. Expanding on lore? Yep. Representation? Hello Echo and the exploration of what Deaf and Hard of Hearing people experience. Fun and action? That car chase scene is an instant classic. And, there’s also Pizza Dog. So much to love and we are enjoying the ride.

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Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line has been killing it lately, having recently revealed a huge 32″ Galactus figure. And now, they are revealing their next wave of 6″ figures, as part of the Hasbro Pulse Fan First Wednesday livestream. Most of this wave centers on Marvel Studios’ upcoming What If…? series on Disney+. And a lot of these figures are giving us some details about the upcoming series that we didn’t know before. So, for those of you who want to go in totally fresh to What If…?, these action figure reveals might be on the spoiler side. Consider this a warning, True Believers! You can watch the full live stream right here.

Hasbro

Among the What If…? characters in this wave are Captain Carter a.k.a.Peggy Carter if she got the Super Soldier serum; T’Challa as Star Lord; Doctor Strange Supreme; Heist Nebula (who has hair??); Zombie Hunter Spider-Man, who looks like he’s wearing Doctor Strange’s cloak of Levitation; and Zombie Captain America. Part of this wave also includes a Build-A-Figure, which has pieces to assemble Uatu The Watcher. And the What If…? series even has a Deluxe Hydra Stomper, which is the proto-Iron Man armor that we’ll see scrawny Steve Rogers wear on the series.

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There are some other cool, non-What If…? figures in this wave that Marvel Legends fans are definitely going to want too. Among them is a Sylvie figure, making this the first time the most chaotic Loki variant has appeared in 6″ plastic form. From the world of the comics, Walgreens will have an exclusive Binary figure, showcasing Carol Danvers in her cosmic form from the early ’80s. A ’90s-style Tigra of the Avengers is also on its way, as a Fan Channel exclusive along with a Black Hand Ninja army builder. And finally, the Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming wings his way in as a Target exclusive. You can see the full selection down below. Pre-orders for these figures begin on July 29.

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All we know for sure about the past of Owen Wilson’s lovable TVA agent is that he loves Josta soda and jet skis. We imagine he had a Nirvana poster in his garage, too. But we don’t know for sure what else was going on in his former life during (presumably) the ’90s.

However, we almost found out! Loki director and executive producer was a guest on the Phase Zero podcast (as we first heard at /Film). On the show, she explained why they ultimately decided not to include more about Mobius’ life pre-Time Variance Authority.

“There were a few drafts of the script where you did see, like, a family, or you did see a life,” she said. “But I think we all kind of decided we don’t know what it is yet. And I think that’s exciting, right? Because it gives more road to travel with him.”

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Omitting additional details also made one of the show’s most emotional moments that much more effective. “And I think it’s more painful when he is going to be deleted, him saying, ‘What if I had a family?’ Because, maybe he did or maybe he didn’t,” Herron said. “I don’t know where the writers will take his character.”

We know where they should: to a large body of water back home. Loki had good reasons not to do that in season one. But no timeline is worth protecting if Mobius doesn’t get to ride his jet ski eventually.

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Our newest Nerdist Remix comes from our own history-making editor, Matt Caron. This time he combined Marvel with the BBC, into a crossover trip through the Sacred Timeline. Instead of a blue police box TARDIS though, this journey will be made with a TemPad. It can also open doors to any time and any place in history. And rather than the Ninth Doctor, we’ll be joining Odin’s troublemaking son for some time-hopping fun.

Like Time Lords, Loki will even run into other versions of himself. There’s Loki, Loki, Loki, and, of course, Loki. The similarities don’t end there though. Each Loki even has their own distinct attire, just as Gallifrey’s most famous denizen’s many iterations do. Apparently Time Lords, no matter the franchise, love to keep things fresh with every regeneration.

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Technically this crossover already exists within the MCU. He Who Remains said his world contains infinite universes. One of them must have its very own millennia-old alien hopping across time in a scarf or long coat. And like Loki, they too are a charming rogue who keeps making friends everywhere they go.

The deeper into the timeline of both shows you go, the more you realize the MCU series does owe a whole lot to Doctor Who. Loki was a remix even before we gave it one.

The post LOKI Becomes a Time Lord in DOCTOR WHO-Style Credits appeared first on Nerdist.

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Kasra Farahani spoke to Vanity Fair about building Loki‘s last set. He Who Remains resides in a castle, atop a floating asteroid, in a dimension outside of time. For that, the show drew inspiration from Jordan’s iconic Petra. Like Petra, He Who Remains chiseled the Citadel from the rock it calls home. Jordan’s landmark has stood for thousands of years. In fact, so has He Who Remains home. The Citadel stands as an immovable symbol of power. Just with what Farahani calls a more “flashy” Gothic revival style than that of Petra. The building borrows from multiple European castle styles, which influences the feeling that He Who Remains is both timeless and all powerful.

The size and scope of the Citadel also draw inspiration from a much more recent source. It hearkens back to magazine magnate William Randolph Hearst, who was the inspiration for Citizen Kane. The powerful publisher also built his own castle by borrowing from multiple old European styles. Why select from just one when you can have everything?

But the Citadel also reflects the similarities of both Hearst and He Who Remains.

Hearst Castle and Kane’s fictional equivalent Xanadu served as the base for powerful figures who lorded over their realms from high atop their extravagant kingdoms. Like Kane, dying in his home, Farahani says He Who Remains also retreated to his lair.

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(Don’t worry. Farahani says we’ll eventually get an answer over the identity of the unseen fourth Time Keeper, whose statue laid shattered on the Citadel’s floor.)

The Citadel was not designed to just be a monument to its ruler. It was also designed to serve as a monument to the domain he rules: time. The many engravings and props found throughout the building call attention to He Who Remains’ authority over all of existence. Combined with others elements intentionally “more unknowable and fantasy” related, as well as “a unique cocktail of this obscure time-related and philosophy-related obscura” on his desk, the combined effect is a grandiose warning to anyone who enters that a powerful man lives there. This being is unlike any others. You can’t know him for he is unknowable. All the more reason to fear him.

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And yet, the most unnerving element of the entire set is the dust and decay found throughout. His atrium, with the destroyed statue of the Time Keepers, showed how he had turned away from the timeline leaving his home in “disrepair.”

The man controlling the lives of every being, everyone who has or will ever exist, has long kept himself hidden away. He holed up in his castle many, many centuries ago. And any ruler who forgets what it’s like to live among his kingdom is one who can forget what it means to truly be alive.

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The issue of security, and the sacrifices we’re willing to make to protect ourselves, has been a part of the MCU from the start. The franchise began with an arms dealer—whose family long justified its business in the name of national security—building himself a literal suit of armor. Iron Man kept Stark Industries in the security game even after the company gave up building weapons. He stopped making bombs for profit. But kept working to keep himself and others safe.

It was only fitting that He Who Remains presented Loki with the choice between freedom and control. It was the God of Mischief who first brought the idea to the forefront of the MCU in the original Avengers movie. “Freedom is life’s great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart…you will know peace,” he said. Later he told a crowd of cowering people, “Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It’s the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life’s joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity.” Loki said that you can’t have both freedom and security. You can’t even have freedom and peace. That’s no different than what He Who Remains said to him in the Citadel.

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In his own personal timeline, Loki gave his speech mere days before he heard the TVA ruler’s own monologue. The Time Variance Authority nabbed Variant Loki, the one offered control of the TVA, minutes after the Battle of New York ended. And yet, even though he was just trying to take away peoples’ freedom, the Loki at the Citadel couldn’t have been more different than the The Avengers Loki. Avengers Loki only wanted power for himself. The Variant Loki, who pleaded with Sylvie to consider their options, worried for the safety of everyone and everything. He was being selfless. That’s often the fine line between hero and villain. They can both try to do the same thing, but their perspective and motivations can be totally different. Still, that doesn’t mean either version was right to seek control.

Earth’s mightiest heroes have never been able to agree on this question either. Nick Fury is an unelected government official with more authority and power than most world leaders. He had S.H.I.E.L.D. secretly building weapons from the Tesseract to prepare for a future war against unknown foes. Tony called it a “nuclear deterrent” before sarcastically pointing out, “That always calms everything right down.”

That didn’t stop Tony from trying to do the same exact thing in Age of Ultron. “What if the world was safe?” he asked Bruce Banner. “What if next time aliens roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn’t get past the bouncer?” Tony, having met those foes Nick Fury worried about, wanted to build a suit of armor around the whole world; a noble goal of turning the planet itself into Iron Man. Bruce said a world surrounded by weapons sounded like a cold place. But Tony wanted “peace in our time.” Even if it meant peace through strength and security.

Accidentally making a sentient murder-bot intent on destroying mankind showed why Steve Rogers was right when he said, “Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time.” But not even Captain America had all the answers. Secretary Ross wasn’t wrong about the Avengers in Civil War. A group of super-powered people, acting without oversight or approval, ran around the world doing what they wanted wherever they wanted. We normally call people like that dictators and tyrants. And despite their intentions, how safe did the people of Sokovia and Lagos feel after the Avengers came to save the day?

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If Steve had listened to Tony and sacrificed a little autonomy, the Avengers might have stopped Thanos before he snapped his fingers. “Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not, that’s what we needed,” Tony said in Endgame. But if Tony had listened to Steve, about the dangers of handing over their freedom to power-hungry politicians with conflicting agendas, the Avengers also might have stopped the Mad Titan together. Both men are right. Both men are wrong. The right balance between freedom and security is not only unknowable, it might not even exist.

But what does exist is intent, purpose, and what someone carries in their heart. Tony knew what unaccountable freedom could mean. It could lead to the complete opposite: total control. “We need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I’m game. If we can’t accept limitations, if we’re boundary-less, we’re no better than the bad guys,” he said. Steve knew that too. In The Winter Soldier, he learned firsthand how chaos could become a hammer against freedom.

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Dr. Arnim Zola (as a computer) told Captain America that HYDRA had used S.H.I.E.L.D. to bring mankind to its knees. HYDRA “created a world so chaotic” that humanity was “finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security.” For years, the organization worked within the confines of a national security agency to undermine the very thing S.H.I.E.L.D. was designed to protect. HYDRA didn’t build those Helicarriers, the weapons that could wipe out enemies in an instant. The good guys did.

Alexander Pierce was a lot like Nick Fury. Both men agreed that the world needed to be protected. So Pierce enabled Fury’s mission, as it so closely aligned with HYDRA’s. “Your work has been a gift to mankind.” Pierce told him. “You shaped the century, and I need you to do it one more time. Society is at a tipping point between order and chaos. Tomorrow morning we’re gonna give it a push. But, if you don’t do your part, I can’t do mine. And HYDRA can’t give the world the freedom it deserves.”

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Tyrants have always laid claim to security as their reason for infringing and persecuting on others. That they, and they alone, can keep people safe. Long before He Who Remains promised he kept an even worse version of himself at bay, Alexander Pierce said, “Our enemies are your enemies, Nick. Disorder, war. It’s just a matter of time before a dirty bomb goes off in Moscow. Or an EMP fries Chicago. Diplomacy? Holding action. A Band-Aid. And you know where I learned that—Bogota. You didn’t ask, you just did what had to be done. I can bring order to the lives of seven billion people by sacrificing 20 million. It’s the next step, Nick, if you have the courage to take it.”

It’s easy to see Nick Fury as a hero and Pierce as a villain. Fury answered his former friend by saying, “No, I have the courage not to.” And yet, Variant Loki wasn’t a villain for wanting to say yes to that same question. He was willing to sacrifice Variants to protect the entire universe. But Sylvie wasn’t necessarily wrong for sticking her dagger in He Who Remains anymore than Nick Fury and Natasha Romanoff were for killing Alexander Pierce.

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This issue, that has long been at the forefront of the entire MCU, is set to remain a major part of the franchise going forward. Agatha Harkness fears Wanda’s powers, known as Chaos Magic. Agatha thinks chaos itself is a threat to the world. And, like so many villains and heroes before her, she thinks only she can be trusted with it. Agatha would rule over the TVA.

Even though Doctor Strange will be called on to help save reality from the seemingly opposing threats of Chaos Magic and the TVA, he himself still has to answer for his own actions taken in the name of safety. In his first film, he broke the natural order to stop Dormammu. Yes, he saved the day. But at what cost? “You still think there will be no consequences, Strange? No price to pay?” said Baron Mordo. “We broke our rules, just like her. The bill comes due. Always. A reckoning.”

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You can be a hero and believe it’s okay to sacrifice freedom for security. You can be a villain who thinks the same. Just like you can be a good guy or a bad guy who accepts the inherent risks of chaos. What you can’t do is ever know which Loki Variant was right. Neither were, even though both acted heroically in that moment.

But while the MCU never can tell us if the TVA is wholly good or wholly evil, because there is no right or wrong option when it comes to freedom versus stability, it has given us an answer on what it means. “Humans are odd,” Vision said to Ultron. “They think order and chaos are somehow opposites and try to control what won’t.”

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The natural order is chaos because existence itself is chaos. Life is too complicated to ever control it. It’s why freedom might be impossible when we also want the freedom to be safe. We can’t ever find the right balance because the two because they exist on a coin with no side. The best we can do is to make the most selfless decision we can for the right reasons. The main difference between heroes and villains: heroes also deal with the consequences that follow those decisions. And they do it with the “grace” that Vision said can be found in our failures to do good under impossible circumstances.

We will fail at this impossible question. Always and forever, because chaos and order are one and the same. But failure is okay too.

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“They’re doomed,” Ultron said in response to Vision’s observation about us.

“Yes,” said Vision, a creature made of both the best and worst the MCU has to offer. “But a thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts.” It’s beautiful because while it had the chance it did the best it could for the most people it could.

Featured Image: Marvel

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike, and also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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It is the greatest dream of many a fan to step into the world of the story they most love. In other words, there are plenty of people out there who’d give anything to live in the MCU. Once inside, there are a good plenty landmarks a touring fan would likely visit. Stark Tower, natch. All of Wakanda, of course. Westview, if you could guarantee a safe trip back out. Alas, we may never quite win the chance to set foot inside the Sanctum Sanctorum or cross Bifrost Bridge. However, there is at least one (newly minted) MCU locale that welcomes real-world visitors on the regular. If you’re within traveling distance of Atlanta, Georgia, you can visit Loki‘s Time Variance Authority headquarters any time you wish.

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And it won’t even entail being apprehended by a dimension-hopping hunter. In real life, the TVA HQ is in fact the Atlanta Marriott Marquis Hotel. Perhaps it’d be more appropriate to say that the Atlanta Marriott Marquis is the TVA’s Variant in our reality; however, this is no swamp reptile complement to Tom Hiddleston. The interior of the hotel evidently boasts the sci-fi veneer that enlivened the backdrop of the Disney+ series. Design Taxi first pointed out the connection; you can take a look by way of the establishment’s Instagram.

The building is located at 265 Peachtree Center Ave NE in the state’s capital city. Unlike on Loki, it is not overrun by gear-clad hunters, statues honoring otherworldly supremacies, or sentient cartoon clocks. It’s simply a neat looking hotel situated in the part of the country where Marvel hosts a lot of its production. So perhaps one day, if you are so inclined, you can spend a night in the would-be TVA. Maybe you’ll get to live out your dreams of unraveling the mysteries of the Sacred Timeline. Or maybe you’ll get pruned. Traveling is always a crapshoot.

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We who live in orbit of the MCU have been mulling over the matter of Kang for quite a while. Right on the heels of Avengers: Endgame, we began to wonder whether all that timeline-shifting would result in dimensional rifts. As we know now, thanks to the finale of Loki, where there come rifts, there comes Kang the Conqueror. It wasn’t until December 2020 that we heard official news that the character would be taking form in the franchise; specifically, in the forthcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where he’d be played by Jonathan Majors. Once that news hit us, we wondered if we might get a preliminary introduction in one of Disney+’s Marvel shows. We were wrong about WandaVision, but Loki ended up making good on the promise of He Who Remains.

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The final episode of Loki introduced us to one of countless variants of Kang. The character took form as a chatty, well-mannered, Machiavellian diplomat with a proclivity for eating apples painfully slowly. And all his charisma can be thanked to the acting prowess of Jonathan Majors. But as a discussion in Entertainment Weekly has revealed, this wasn’t the only role that Majors played on Loki. As it turns out, he lent his voice to the Time Keepers, the would-be rulers of the TVA.

Loki showrunner Kate Herron told EW that she took advantage of Majors’ talent when casting the unseen Time Keepers.

“Something that was really fun for me was we hadn’t, for example, cast the voice of the Time Keepers yet, because you know Wizard of Oz was an obvious reference of ours. I was like, ‘Oh, let’s get Jonathan to do it, because he’s an amazing character actor,'” she said. “We sent him the art of all the characters and it was really fun [because] he was sending us all of these different voices he could do for each character, which was great.”

You may know Majors for turns in Lovecraft Country or The Last Black Man in San Francisco. If you haven’t seen his previous work, know that He Who Remains is just a taste of his talent; that he provided numerous distinct voices to Loki should only prove that further. We’re excited to see Majors embody Kang full force in Quantumania and, presumably, Loki season two. It was worth waiting on the Conqueror if it meant an actor like Majors bringing him to life.

Featured Image: Marvel Studios

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A mix between high technology, old PSA ads, and a cereal commercial mascot, we should have known that we couldn’t trust her. In the season finale of Loki, they reveal Miss Minutes is actually in cahoots with He Who Remains (a.k.a. Kang), who is running the TVA from his Citadel at the End of Time. In an interview at Marvel.com, Loki director Kate Herron revealed that Miss Minutes’ function on the show was something that grew as time went on (pun fully intended). And she nearly got to kick some butt.

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Although Miss Minutes was always a part of the grand plan, her close relationship with He Who Remains was something the writers and Kate Herron came up with during the pandemic break. Everyone wanted to keep Miss Minutes in the narrative somehow, because she’s so awesome. And they figured out a way to make her the eyes and ears of He Who Remains at the TVA. Not to mention, his loyal guardian in his Citadel. So loyal, she almost had an actual fight with Loki and Sylvie to protect him in the season finale.

Herron said “We always had a version where [Loki and Sylvie] kept meeting her at the Citadel. At one point, we had a fight scene with Miss Minutes in the Citadel; we had all kinds of stuff [for her].” Ok, we’re not sure how Miss Minutes could fight two Gods of Mischief. But we know we need to see it. Someone please make this happen in Loki season two. We have a feeling we’ve only begun to discover the truth about Miss Minutes. Marvel fans simply won’t achieve full happiness until we hear that “Hey, ya’ll!” one more time.

This post has affiliate links, which means we may earn advertising money if you buy something. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, we just have to give you the heads up for legal reasons. Click away!

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President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige recently revealed on the D23 Inside Disney podcast (via The Direct) that he met with the “whole broad Marvel Studios team” recently. They’re “going through the Multiverse” to discuss, primarily, “the rules of the Multiverse and exactly how to really deliver on the excitement surrounding the Multiverse.”

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He noted how in order to create the Multiverse we’re seeing develop in the MCU, Marvel initially had to “dole out” the concept of the Multiverse. Doctor Strange introduced the concept, Spider-Man: Far From Home had a fake out with a Multiverse. “In the same way, the Multiverse is something we geek out about and we really love all the storytelling potential it brings,” he said. “But, we had to dole out what it was.”

According to Feige, he planned to introduce the Multiverse to fans a little like how he planned and expected to have to educate audiences about Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury. But, it turned out, Marvel fans didn’t really need that much education. 

“I thought it would be a relatively small group of people that were excited by that and that we’d have to then educate a broader public about what that meant and who Nick Fury was, but almost instantly, if you remember, way back to the Summer of 2008: it ignited everyone’s imagination.”

So what does that mean for the future of the MCU and the Multiverse? Right now, we can only wonder as the team themselves discuss how to build on that storyline. He also notes that producers Louis D’Esposito and Victoria Alonso are among the people whose “sole task” is to keep in mind how development for the films or shows “grow and evolve.” 

“It’s really exciting even to see it mid-way through the Loki series now, as people respond to the possibilities.”

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The first season of Loki has only just come to an end. So recently, in fact, that it’s still pretty dangerous to get explicit on the details of the ending. (I’ll hold all details for later in the post… just in case you maintain a healthy sleep cycle and weren’t able to watch an hourlong TV show at 3 a.m. No judgment—get your REM! Yay REM!) However, the following news may clue you to the fact that Loki’s finale left things at least somewhat open-ended. Apparently, six episodes could not contain the story of Loki, Sylvie, the TVA, Alioth, alligators, and jet skis. Loki has officially been renewed for a second season on Disney+.

Loki is already the third MCU series to air on Disney+ this year, with several more heading our way soon. Only the first of the batch, WandaVision, has not formally declared intention to continue on in further seasons. (Granted, we’ll still see Wanda and Vision’s story take shape on the big screen.) But established plans for more The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and Loki suggest that ongoing TV shows will become a major piece of the Marvel Universe.

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If you did manage to catch the Loki finale (who needs REM! Boo REM!), then you know that season two has a lot of ground to cover. In its final installment, Loki season one introduced the long-looming-large Kang the Conqueror. Well, at least one manifestation of him. This Chatty Cathy has been secretly controlling the TVA from behind closed doors; Loki and Sylvie attempted to undermine his master plan, but a bit of multiversal mayhem got in the way. Now, our primary timeline’s history has been retconned, leaving Loki alone with memories of the past. Er, the previous past. The past past. Jeez, timeline stuff is confounding.

But Loki‘s Kate Herron, director and executive producer for season one, won’t return for another season. Deadline talked to Herron on Friday and said, “I’m not returning. I always planned to be just on for this and to be honest, season 2 wasn’t in the—that’s something that just came out and I’m so excited. I’m really happy to watch it as a fan next season, but I just think I’m proud of what we did here and I’ve given it my all. I’m working on some other stuff yet to be announced.”

And the other stuff to be announced is not a Marvel movie either, Herron confirmed.

It’s wild to think of Loki without her. But season two will find its way to Disney+ sometime down the line. At which time, all of our questions will be an…um, probably made even more confusing. But that’s half the fun.

Originally published on July 14, 2021.

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The clock hasn’t run out on the God of Mischief’s adventures through time just yet. Loki is coming back for a second season. But things will be very different when the show returns. Sylvie set off another Multiversal War, and a much more terrifying Variant of He Who Remains has won. What does that mean for the series, the MCU, the TVA, and both Lokis? Here’s everything we know, think we know, and still need answers to.

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A New Timeline and a New TVA

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The death of He Who Remains did not result in his return to the TVA, as he thought it might. Season one’s final scene revealed a Variant of his triumphed in the latest iteration of the Multiversal War. But the TVA still exists in this new timeline. It also has the same people working for it. The new ruler’s approach to maintaining a Sacred Timeline is not completely different than the old one’s. But just how much is the same remains to be seen.

As is the actual identity of the Variant who now controls the TVA. If it’s who we think it is, He Who Remains warning to Loki and Sylvie was well-founded. The new head of the TVA is much worse.

Kang the Conqueror

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Jonathan Majors will play Kang the Conqueror in the MCU. The character is set to appear in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The time-controlling baddie is one of the Avengers’ most memorable, most dangerous villains in Marvel Comics. But that’s not exactly who we met on Loki.

He Who Remains was one of the character’s many Variants. Majors might end up playing multiple versions of that 31st century scientist. But Kang is the current best bet to be the new head of the TVA. And if that wasn’t his statue Loki saw at the end of the season finale, Kang will do everything he can to usurp whomever it belongs to.

Kang might already be here, ready to battle the Avengers. If he’s not, he’s coming soon. The only good news is that maybe one of his Variants will also come along to help fight him.

An Altered Timeline

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The new timeline’s Mobius didn’t recognize Loki. That doesn’t portend well for the God of Mischief. Beyond Mobius not remembering the timeline we witnessed, it suggests that Lokis might be a rare breed in this new reality. They might also be a doomed one. It’s less clear if a new timeline will mean a new past for the MCU. The TVA exists outside of time. Will things within time be slightly altered too? Dramatically different? Or exactly the same as before?

We wouldn’t bet on wholesale changes to Marvel‘s MCU past. But we wouldn’t be surprised by small changes. And we definitely think an altered timeline has huge implications for the future.

Loki and Sylvie

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As mentioned above, Mobius and Hunter B-15 don’t remember the old timeline. However, Loki definitely does, likely because he met He Who Remains. If that’s why, Sylvie will remember him too, making the pair the Multiverse’s best bet to do anything about this new Variant in charge. The old Sacred Timeline either broke or never existed. (Just because He Who Remains said time was a loop doesn’t mean it is.)

The problem (one of many) for Loki and Sylvie is that even if they can work together, they might be alone in this battle. It won’t be easy for a god renowned for lying to get anyone to believe the outrageous story they will tell. And two Lokis telling such a tale is twice as likely to be ignored. Even worse for them, one potential ally is someone neither can trust. And the other is a hologram.

Judge Ravonna Renslayer

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Judge Renslayer still believes in the agency’s mission. This despite learning that the Time Keepers never existed, and not knowing who controlled the old TVA. He Who Remains sent her files that strengthened her resolve to stop the destruction he claimed would follow the collapse of the Time Variance Authority. But those mystery files also made Renslayer seek power herself. She’s on a quest to find free will. And she thinks the only being who has free will is the person in charge.

Renslayer might have been He Who Remains’ failsafe. At the very least, she is a threat to the new leader of the TVA. Possibly as her comic book time-defying space-pirate persona Terminatrix. More importantly, she might also be the only other person besides Loki and Sylvie in all existence who knows about the old timeline. But can three known liars with an ugly past work together?

Miss Minutes

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If knowing the identity of He Who Remains helped Loki and Sylvie keep their memories, the old TVA’s trusted sentient hologram might also remember him. Miss Minutes was more than just a projection. She was capable of lying and emotion. She was angry at Loki and Sylvie for not accepting an offer to be reinserted into the timeline. Is Miss Minutes also capable of feeling loyalty? Will she serve the new TVA ruler the same way? Or work against him to restore the Variant who created her?

The fate of time and reality, across infinite universes, might depend on three conniving Variants and a sassy orange hologram with a Southern accent. Not great!

Season Two’s Release Date

Marvel

When Loki season two comes to Disney+ might be the most important question of all. Will it air before or after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which comes to theaters in March 2022? Will we see it before Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which premieres in February 2023 and will feature Kang? As we know, time in the MCU isn’t always linear. The events in one movie or TV show can greatly change what happens in the next MCU installment. An entirely new timeline doesn’t make predicting what will happen next any easier either.

Knowing Loki‘s second season release date would still provide a lot more context for what to expect from both the show and the MCU. Each might have a different Kang Variant as its primary enemy. Or the Conqueror could appear across many installments of the franchise. As soon as Disney announces the placement of Loki season two in its release order schedule, we can really ramp up the speculation. Right now we’re only at a 10 out of 10.

Other Connections to the MCU

Marvel

Between the introduction of Variants, the multiverse, and Jonathan Majors, Loki has plenty of connections to other upcoming MCU projects. But those obvious ones aren’t the end of them. The upcoming animated series What If…?, which will explore alternate versions of the franchise, might be way more important than anyone expected. And Loki also had a potential musical connection to Marvel’s upcoming Eternals. Why was that there?

And those are just the ones we know about. Other foreshadowing, clues, and relevant plot points to the MCU at large might only become apparent in future films.

All Our Remaining Questions

Marvel

Before Loki‘s first season finale we had nine major questions we hoped would be answered. Some were, but not all. While—as you can see—many new ones were raised. But these are the outstanding season one issues we’d still like to like to learn more about:

“Where” Does the Place Beyond the Void Exist?

Marvel

“Past the end of time” isn’t definitive. Especially now that we know that time isn’t one single loop and it might never actually end. With Kang’s upcoming battle with Ant-Man and the Wasp in a movie called Quantumania, we’re not ruling out the possibility the Citadel resides in the Quantum Realm. But we’re not ruling out any other possibility either.

What Was Sylvie’s Nexus Event?

Marvel

Maybe this will always remain a mystery. But the moment in the elevator, when Sylvie asked Renslayer about her nexus event, had major Checkhov’s Origin Story vibes. The answer might end up being more important than anyone realizes yet.

What Will Happen to All the Variants If the TVA Is Destroyed?

Marvel

The TVA still exists in the new timeline. What would actually happen without the agency though? And what will happen to the Variants who work there? Hopefully something less awful than the death and chaos that He Who Remains promised.

Will Mobius Get to Ride His Jet Ski?

Marvel

Kang. Time. Existence. Multiversal War. Variants. The past, present, and future of the MCU. Not a single one those things matters as much as our favorite analyst finally—FINALLY—getting to ride his beloved jet ski once again. How sacred can any timeline be if that doesn’t happen?

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