Spoiler Warning: Loki Season OneThe first season of Loki came to an end with ramifications that altered the course of the MCU. The series follows the variant of Loki, who, in Avengers: Endgame, escaped with the Tesseract. He is then captured by the Time Variance Authority (TVA). There, both Loki and the audience learn the rules of the Marvel Cinematic Universe multiverse rules. Audiences also met other characters like TVA agent Mobius (Owen Wilson), TVA Judge Reyvona Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), TVA Agent Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku), Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) and Sylvie (Sophia di Martino), a female variant of Loki.
Update September 29, 2023: Loki season 2 is so close, and this article has been updated ahead of the premiere of season 2 to see how much the season 1 finale of the series impacted the MCU.
Season 1 ended with a major cliffhanger, one that had major ramifications for the MCU that rippled out into other series. With Loki season 2 about to air on Disney+, here is how the season 1 finale had a major impact on the MCU since it aired, as well as how it will impact season 2 and leave implications for the wider MCU moving forward.
Finale Recap
In the show's finale, Loki and Sylvie arrive at the citadel at the end of time to confront the person who is running the TVA and overthrow it. There, they meet with Miss Minutes, who tells the two that they can be reinserted back into the timeline together, with Sylvie having a lifetime of happy memories and Loki winning the battle of New York and achieving all the glory he ever wanted. Sylvie and Loki reject Miss Minutes' last attempt to save He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), choosing to pave their own destiny.
After meeting with He Who Remains, he tells Loki and Sylvie that he planned for them to come to the citadel, having "paved" the road for their journey. It turns out that He Who Remains is a benevolent Kang variant who created the TVA to protect the multiverse from other variants of himself. The benevolent Kang had used Alioth to destroy the alternate timelines where the Kang variants waged war on one another's universes in hopes of power and conquest. If He Who Remains dies, the universes will converge again, releasing the dangerous Kang variants and causing a multiversal war.
Loki and Sylvie are given a difficult choice. If He Who Remains dies, there will be countless versions of himself that converge, "infinite devils over one," so, in that sense, He Who Remains stands as the lesser of many evils. What the choice boils down to is anarchy/free will or a benevolent dictator who keeps order, preventing society or the multiverse from tearing itself apart as a result of no central power keeping it in line. Philosopher Thomas Hobbes proposed this idea in Leviathan, suggesting humans are naturally beasts. Thus, giving them freedom promotes chaos and self-destruction. Like Kang, Hobbes proposed that an Absolute Monarchy or a benevolent dictator was the answer to protecting society from itself. In theory, Kang's argument is logical, but the problem is that Loki and Sylvie would have to rule the same as him.
While the duo might be more humane than He Who Remains, they'd still have to follow the rules of the sacred timeline, pruning all variants and providing the illusion of free will. The carnage is known with a benevolent dictator, and one can tell themselves that a certain amount of death is required to keep a greater amount occurring from the chaos stemming from free will, the known carnage versus the unknown. Sylvie chooses the unknown and attempts to kill He Who Remains, but Loki stops her, and the two fight over the critical decision.
Sylvie believes that, in typical Loki fashion, Loki wants the throne of the TVA for himself. However, in showing how his character has changed over the course of the show, Loki tells her he doesn't want it, desiring to do the right thing for the universe over any of his own selfish inclinations. With Sylvie, Loki found the love he'd always been chasing. Above all else, Loki wants Sylvie to be okay and not let rage, resentment, and distrust fuel her actions as they had previously. Loki's plea seems to succeed with the two kissing, but Sylvie tricks Loki and uses the TemPad to send him away, killing He Who Remains and fracturing the sacred timeline.
In Loki's final scene, he arrives back at the TVA headquarters to tell Mobius and Hunter B-15 about the destruction of the sacred timeline and the coming of the Kang variants. Running out of breath, Loki tries to tell Mobius about what happened, but neither he nor Hunter B-15 knows who Loki is. Loki looks up and sees a statue of Kang in place of the Time-Keepers, suggesting that Kang now rules the TVA directly without the illusion of the TVA's divine origins. This is most likely a different universe than the one Loki met Mobius in because before Loki arrives, the audience sees Mobius and Hunter B-15 witnessing the destruction of the sacred timeline with Mobius stating, "there's no turning back now," in reference to their choice to abandon their TVA mission.
He Who Remains and the Threat of Kang the Conqueror
The biggest ramification of Loki was the introduction of He Who Remains, played by Jonathan Majors. Majors was previously announced as playing Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania prior to the series, but few suspected he would make his debut in Loki. Yet when she showed up in the Disney+ series, it was clear this would be an important part of the franchise moving forward.
A year following He Who Remains introduction in Loki, it was confirmed the title of the next Avengers movie would be Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Phases 4 through 6 would be collectively known as The Multiverse Saga, making Kang the Conqueror the major villain for the entire franchise. Kang the Conqueror would later make his cinematic debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quanatumania in 2023, with the film's post-credit scene featuring a scene from Loki season 2 with a Kang variant named Victor Timely. It also teased the many variants of Kang, including Immortus, Rama-Tut, and the Scarlet Centurion.
That final scene shows an entire colosseum of Kang's. While Ant-Man, Wasp, and the rest of the team defeated one version of Kang in the film, it is clear there is an infinite amount of them they will have to deal with. The film's post-credit scene gave new meaning to the subtitle The Kang Dynasty, and the threat He Who Remains teased when he said his variants are more dangerous.
The Multiverse Saga is Born
Sylvie stabbing He Who Remains also results in the sacred timeline being split and resulting in the birth of the Multiverse. The series that followed Loki season 1 was What If...?, an animated anthology series that explored different areas of the Marvel Multiverse. While these series are outside of the main storyline for now it is clear they will somewhat factor into Marvel's Multiverse Saga.
Later that year, Spider-Man: No Way Home was released, which featured various characters from other cinematic Spider-Man films arriving in the MCU. The film saw the MCU Peter Parker (Tom Holland) team up with variants of himself played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. With He Who Remains dead, Doctor Strange's spell was able to break down the realms of the Multiverse and bring various people into the MCU.
Speaking of Doctor Strange, his next appearance was Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. That film established incursion events that would destroy different realities. A threat that Kang the Conqueror later teases in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. While many say that the MCU films don't feel as connected anymore, Loki is a very important aspect to the franchise as it connects storylines in four separate MCU projects (What If...?, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) and will also build up to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
Sylvie's Choice
While Sylvie's choice seems rash, it makes sense for her character. Sylvie was taken from Asgard as a child by the TVA, with the root of her variance, although not completely confirmed, having stemmed from being that she was born as the Goddess of Mischief instead of the God of Mischief. Sylvie was on the run her whole life, jumping from catastrophic event to catastrophic event to hide her variance. Distrust, fear, and resentment were all Sylvie ever knew, whereas Loki had lived a full life before being captured by the TVA.
Unlike Loki, Sylvie's variance wasn't from a choice she made. It was simply due to her being born. Sylvie's persecution is rooted differently than Loki's, as he was born into the right clothes but made the wrong choices, leading to his being at odds with the TVA, whereas Sylvie was an enemy from birth, not due to choices but due to simply existing as she was. Loki could never have understood Sylvie's perspective because, as she says, he's not her. She never lived the life of the Loki, never completely growing up in Asgard. Sylvie became a different person, and her chosen name is, in a way, a protest against how the establishment or TVA sees her. She's not just another Loki or another variant. She's her own person.
This leads to an interesting development for season 2. As she now completes her goal of killing He Who Remains, what does this mean for her future? What does someone who has been on the run her whole life do now? She is hiding out in a McDonald's, which raises even more questions.
Sylvie's choice also will have a major implication for the MCU heroes. If the Kang variants start altering timelines, this will present a threat never before seen in the MCU. The Avengers only needed to defeat one Thanos to save their universe, but to defeat Kang; they'll need even more heroes than ever before. Chaos is coming to the MCU due to Sylvie choice's in Loki, and hopefully, it'll be Sylvie who is proven right, with a free multiverse proving to be the key to victory.
Renslayer: A New Threat?
One of the biggest dangling threads from season 1 is Ravonna Renslayer. She was last seen taking a TemPad to discover the truth behind the TVA, using the information given to her by He Who Remains. In the comics, Ravonna is a princess and often a love interest of Kang, so perhaps He Who Remains chose her specifically to be a part of the TVA due to his love for her. While at this moment it seems unlikely that this Ravonna will fall in love with Kang given all the lying he has done to her belief system, she still might become an ally of his.
Currently, it is unknown exactly what Kang's overall MCU plan is. Unlike Thanos, who, based on the comics, fans knew he was after the Infinity Stones even if his motivation changed, Kang is different. While he may want to conqueror, that is one variant of him that was defeated already. What is the Council of Kang's end goal? Will Ravonna factor into that, as the love of his life that motivates a variant of Kang to become the major villain we've already met? Season 2 might explain this and reveal the characters are caught in a time loop, and this is all Kang's origin story.
Season 2
While the exact plot of Season 2 of Loki is unknown at this point, the trailer suggests that Loki will be teaming up with his old friends again while also making some new ones. What seems to be a key component in the storyline is a concept called "time slipping." In the trailer, Loki glitches and stretches, a rare phenomenon known in the TVA that indicates there is a problem with time itself. Will Loki have to literally save time, and if so, what role could Kang play in that mission?
Overall, there doesn't seem to be much of the MCU that Loki hasn't changed. At the moment, it is hard to know exactly how this will pan out. However, as the multiverse is explored in new projects, the possibilities seem endless. There are plenty of interesting worlds in the Marvel multiverse, like film-noir-style universes or alternate realities where Hydra won. After Sylvie presumably sets the next big bad free, it seems likely that the next step is to play around with the different worlds and character variants. This could make up for one criticism of both Loki season 1 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is they were not as creative with their Multiverse as they could have been.
While Season 2 of Loki may be the next project to reveal new information about Kang and his future role, every new project has the potential to add something to the story. The season one finale was only the first domino in a much bigger plot.
Season 2 of Loki is set to premiere on October 5, 2023.