Warning: Full spoilers for all six Season 1 episodes of Marvel's Loki follow...
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
Now that the dust has settled on the mind-bending Season 1 Loki finale, which signals a major shift for the entire MCU, we've got a handful of questions. That's right, the theories aren't exactly flowing as freely following Episode 6, but in true TV cliffhanger fashion, we have a ton of stuff we want answered. Yes, the questions have been flying fast and furiously in the IGN Loki Slack channel. Especially since the events of Loki directly affect a long-running mega-movie franchise you may have heard of called the MCU.
"For All Time. Always." ended with Sylvie, not heeding a pretty big warning about evil Variant Kangs arriving to kick off a new Multiversal War, sending Loki through a time portal and killing He Who Remains. Instead of taking He Who Remains up on his offer to dual-rule the TVA with Loki, she opted for revenge and now the entire timeline has been thrown into chaos. With MCU movies on the horizon featuring the multiverse, like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of you know what and Spider-Man: No Way Home, and also a second season of Loki, here are some big looming questions we have about the toppling of the Sacred Timeline.
And if you have your own questions, answers, or tangential theories, hit us up on the board below and let everyone know your ideas! And be sure to vote in our poll at the bottom of the page...
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/07/14/loki-episode-6-review"]
With the timeline splintering and a new multiverse sprouting up, of course countless alternative universes now exist to explore. But where did Loki land exactly?
Sylvie sent Loki through a TemPad timedoor before she stabbed He Who Remains. The only thing is, Loki seems to have landed in a timeline other than what was previously referred to as the Sacred Timeline -- one where the Mobius native to that universe doesn't know about all the adventures the Mobius we've been following all season just had. Sure, there are elements here meant to trick the viewer so that it's a surprise when Mobius doesn't know who Loki is, but does it all line up time-wise? How fast are these new timelines created and why would that TemPad send Loki to a new one?
We could be overthinking this, since Sylvie did use He Who Remains' special TemPad, and that could be locked into a different set of space/time rules, but it's certainly noticeably that the Time Variance Authority reality that Loki winds up in is in the midst of dealing with the same multiversal crisis that was happening out at the Edge of Time. Mobius and Hunter B-15 are dealing with the massive calamity, so it connects to the rest of the show. The big difference is that Mobius and B-15 don't know who Loki is and the big boss statue is now that of Kang himself.
[caption]
Kang the Conqueror and... Kang the Conqueror?[/caption]
So was this timeline the Sacred one at one point and then it got like a "new timeline" wash-over? One that happened even while Loki was there and searching for people? Or did Loki somehow get sent to a totally different TVA timeline?
Also, what is the rule with the TVA and the multiverse? Are there now millions of TVAs or is the TVA, by nature, exempt from this? The basics of the switcheroo make sense, and Mobius not remembering Loki was a great beat, but digging into the details, as nerdlings are wont to do, there are questions.
Okay, so this one is actually meant to be a full-fledged answered-later mystery, but it's still got us stumped.
What were the new files that He Who Remains sent to Renslayer? The ones Miss Minutes remarked would be more useful to her. And then following that, where did Renslayer escape to? She told Mobius that she was off "in search of free will" even though she actually was kind of against the idea of free will. Sure, she wanted to know who was behind the TVA but she also fell in line with all of it. She convinced herself that it all had to mean something and that their work was both important and necessary.
We assume that her destination was in the files and that it was a place Kang wanted her to explore. So where is that, and what did that Kang Variant want her to find there?
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="slug=doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-cast&captions=true"]
He Who Remains is gone, as loopy as he was being a guy who'd lived millions of lifetimes and was alone and secluded at the End of All Things. Now come different versions of him. More power-hungry versions of him that seek ultimate authority and dominion over the multiverse. Kangs that might fall more in line with the Kangs (and there are many versions) we know from the comics. So will we see all those different styles of Kang or will we focus mostly on one main evil Kang (maybe the one now running the TVA)?
Also, from an MCU standpoint, where else will Kang touch down outside of Loki: Season 2 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? Will he be a part of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? Will he show up in other big MCU films? Or will he be mostly a streaming series villain who then goes into Ant-Man? We're not used to the Ant-Man movies being big game-changers for the MCU, but maybe Quantumania will be the next Civil War/Avengers-type ensemble?
This is sort of similar to the last question, but it also goes with "When will we see Loki: Season 2?" As in, when will this specific story continue, with the Kang and Sylvie of it all, and how will it slot in with the MCU films? If they filmed Season 2 at the same time as Season 1, which is just a bouncy rumor, then maybe Season 2 will pop up at the beginning of next year, after Spider-Man: No Way Home and Miss Marvel but before Multiverse of Madness? Tom Hiddleston hasn't been confirmed to be in any of the upcoming Marvel movies, including Thor: Love and Thunder, but at the same time it does seem weird for there to be a Thor movie and not have Loki in it...
Basically, we're headed into huge movies in a few months that will feature the multiverse but we haven't sorted out the Loki story yet. Will we see the symptoms before we see the actual ailment or will Loki's arc get delivered before we dive into the movie madness of the multiverse?
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/07/09/loki-ep-5-do-these-clues-reveal-the-secret-villain-behind-the-tva-mcu-canon-fodder"]
Perhaps the most important question of all: What kind of Kangs will we see? Will we get a Crocodile Kang and then get to watch the Alligator Loki battle we've always dreamed of? Or will Kang take on a different animal form (a Kang-garoo is currently an online favorite)?
Either way, a Season 2 just means more opportunity for Kid Loki and Alligator Loki to return. And now that Loki will need to scramble to find allies more than ever (unless he decides to just 50 First Dates Mobius over and over) he may have to head back into the Void for help.
Fans have also been noticing a few parallels between Jonathan Majors' He Who Remains, a man who knows all and sees all, up to a point, and Marvel's Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige. For one thing, there's the guy who's been in charge forever, overseeing a very specific order, now looking for someone to replace him. Nothing's official, obviously, but some wonder if this is a signal that Feige is looking to pass the torch.
Secondly, as far as the MCU itself goes, He Who Remains not knowing what happens yet makes it seem like the biggest hint, following Phases 1 through 3, that the MCU is now wild and free and ready to go to truly outlandish places. Everything was strictly wrangled and meticulously planned out up until now. He Who Remains getting killed off felt like the moment the MCU itself was "freed" and now anything can happen.
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
What are some of your questions or theories following the Loki finale? Let us know down below! And be sure to vote in our poll too:
[poilib element="poll" parameters="id=9027ee6d-ef0c-4a9d-b0f1-bc9b518f6cc9"]
Continue reading...
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
Now that the dust has settled on the mind-bending Season 1 Loki finale, which signals a major shift for the entire MCU, we've got a handful of questions. That's right, the theories aren't exactly flowing as freely following Episode 6, but in true TV cliffhanger fashion, we have a ton of stuff we want answered. Yes, the questions have been flying fast and furiously in the IGN Loki Slack channel. Especially since the events of Loki directly affect a long-running mega-movie franchise you may have heard of called the MCU.
"For All Time. Always." ended with Sylvie, not heeding a pretty big warning about evil Variant Kangs arriving to kick off a new Multiversal War, sending Loki through a time portal and killing He Who Remains. Instead of taking He Who Remains up on his offer to dual-rule the TVA with Loki, she opted for revenge and now the entire timeline has been thrown into chaos. With MCU movies on the horizon featuring the multiverse, like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of you know what and Spider-Man: No Way Home, and also a second season of Loki, here are some big looming questions we have about the toppling of the Sacred Timeline.
And if you have your own questions, answers, or tangential theories, hit us up on the board below and let everyone know your ideas! And be sure to vote in our poll at the bottom of the page...
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/07/14/loki-episode-6-review"]
Question: Why Didn't Mobius Know Who Loki Was?
With the timeline splintering and a new multiverse sprouting up, of course countless alternative universes now exist to explore. But where did Loki land exactly?
Sylvie sent Loki through a TemPad timedoor before she stabbed He Who Remains. The only thing is, Loki seems to have landed in a timeline other than what was previously referred to as the Sacred Timeline -- one where the Mobius native to that universe doesn't know about all the adventures the Mobius we've been following all season just had. Sure, there are elements here meant to trick the viewer so that it's a surprise when Mobius doesn't know who Loki is, but does it all line up time-wise? How fast are these new timelines created and why would that TemPad send Loki to a new one?
We could be overthinking this, since Sylvie did use He Who Remains' special TemPad, and that could be locked into a different set of space/time rules, but it's certainly noticeably that the Time Variance Authority reality that Loki winds up in is in the midst of dealing with the same multiversal crisis that was happening out at the Edge of Time. Mobius and Hunter B-15 are dealing with the massive calamity, so it connects to the rest of the show. The big difference is that Mobius and B-15 don't know who Loki is and the big boss statue is now that of Kang himself.
[caption]
Kang the Conqueror and... Kang the Conqueror?[/caption]So was this timeline the Sacred one at one point and then it got like a "new timeline" wash-over? One that happened even while Loki was there and searching for people? Or did Loki somehow get sent to a totally different TVA timeline?
Also, what is the rule with the TVA and the multiverse? Are there now millions of TVAs or is the TVA, by nature, exempt from this? The basics of the switcheroo make sense, and Mobius not remembering Loki was a great beat, but digging into the details, as nerdlings are wont to do, there are questions.
Question: What Were the Files He Who Remains Gave Ravonna Renslayer?
Okay, so this one is actually meant to be a full-fledged answered-later mystery, but it's still got us stumped.
What were the new files that He Who Remains sent to Renslayer? The ones Miss Minutes remarked would be more useful to her. And then following that, where did Renslayer escape to? She told Mobius that she was off "in search of free will" even though she actually was kind of against the idea of free will. Sure, she wanted to know who was behind the TVA but she also fell in line with all of it. She convinced herself that it all had to mean something and that their work was both important and necessary.
We assume that her destination was in the files and that it was a place Kang wanted her to explore. So where is that, and what did that Kang Variant want her to find there?
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="slug=doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-cast&captions=true"]
Question: How Many Kang Variants Will We See Going Forward, and How Big a Villain Will Kang Be?
He Who Remains is gone, as loopy as he was being a guy who'd lived millions of lifetimes and was alone and secluded at the End of All Things. Now come different versions of him. More power-hungry versions of him that seek ultimate authority and dominion over the multiverse. Kangs that might fall more in line with the Kangs (and there are many versions) we know from the comics. So will we see all those different styles of Kang or will we focus mostly on one main evil Kang (maybe the one now running the TVA)?
Also, from an MCU standpoint, where else will Kang touch down outside of Loki: Season 2 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? Will he be a part of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? Will he show up in other big MCU films? Or will he be mostly a streaming series villain who then goes into Ant-Man? We're not used to the Ant-Man movies being big game-changers for the MCU, but maybe Quantumania will be the next Civil War/Avengers-type ensemble?
Question: Will Loki Be in Doctor Strange 2 or Thor: Love and Thunder or...
This is sort of similar to the last question, but it also goes with "When will we see Loki: Season 2?" As in, when will this specific story continue, with the Kang and Sylvie of it all, and how will it slot in with the MCU films? If they filmed Season 2 at the same time as Season 1, which is just a bouncy rumor, then maybe Season 2 will pop up at the beginning of next year, after Spider-Man: No Way Home and Miss Marvel but before Multiverse of Madness? Tom Hiddleston hasn't been confirmed to be in any of the upcoming Marvel movies, including Thor: Love and Thunder, but at the same time it does seem weird for there to be a Thor movie and not have Loki in it...
Basically, we're headed into huge movies in a few months that will feature the multiverse but we haven't sorted out the Loki story yet. Will we see the symptoms before we see the actual ailment or will Loki's arc get delivered before we dive into the movie madness of the multiverse?
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/07/09/loki-ep-5-do-these-clues-reveal-the-secret-villain-behind-the-tva-mcu-canon-fodder"]
Question: Is There a Crocodile Kang?
Perhaps the most important question of all: What kind of Kangs will we see? Will we get a Crocodile Kang and then get to watch the Alligator Loki battle we've always dreamed of? Or will Kang take on a different animal form (a Kang-garoo is currently an online favorite)?
Either way, a Season 2 just means more opportunity for Kid Loki and Alligator Loki to return. And now that Loki will need to scramble to find allies more than ever (unless he decides to just 50 First Dates Mobius over and over) he may have to head back into the Void for help.
Question: Was He Who Remains Meant to Embody MCU Head Kevin Feige?
Fans have also been noticing a few parallels between Jonathan Majors' He Who Remains, a man who knows all and sees all, up to a point, and Marvel's Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige. For one thing, there's the guy who's been in charge forever, overseeing a very specific order, now looking for someone to replace him. Nothing's official, obviously, but some wonder if this is a signal that Feige is looking to pass the torch.
Secondly, as far as the MCU itself goes, He Who Remains not knowing what happens yet makes it seem like the biggest hint, following Phases 1 through 3, that the MCU is now wild and free and ready to go to truly outlandish places. Everything was strictly wrangled and meticulously planned out up until now. He Who Remains getting killed off felt like the moment the MCU itself was "freed" and now anything can happen.
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
What are some of your questions or theories following the Loki finale? Let us know down below! And be sure to vote in our poll too:
[poilib element="poll" parameters="id=9027ee6d-ef0c-4a9d-b0f1-bc9b518f6cc9"]
Continue reading...