Season 2 of Loki has finally arrived on Disney+, and fans are happy to see the god of mischief return. When Michael Waldron created the series, he introduced us to fan-favorite characters like Mobius and changed our entire perspective on Loki. But he also gave us one of the most important players in the Marvel Cinematic Universe storyline: Sylvie.

When Sylvie killed He Who Remains, she set off a chain of events not even Kevin Feige could foresee. Now, this newcomer to the MCU has quickly gone from curious Loki variant to arbiter of the timeline, although right now, she's just working at McDonald's. For a moment, Sylvie held the fate of the multiverse in her hands, and she still might. Sylvie's action kicked off many storylines in the MCU, including Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, What If..?, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. These are pieces of the multiversal puzzle, but we're still waiting for Marvel to put them together.

Think of all the unanswered questions that Loki poses, like: what's that thing Sylvie took from He Who Remains? And how will the TVA stave off an army of Kangs? Sylvie killed Kang once, but will she do it again? Right now, she has all the power. Here's why we think Sylvie will be the focus of Marvel's Phase 5.

Update October 18, 2023: This article has been updated in honor of Loki season 2, which is currently running on Disney+, as well as future information regarding the future of the MCU.

Before the Beginning of Time

It was only after Loki premiered that Kevin Feige announced the Multiverse Saga. When Jonathon Majors first appeared on screen as He Who Remains, we had no idea who he was. Michael Waldron couldn’t use the name Kang the Conqueror because the MCU was still uncertain about which direction it was going. But after Loki was such a huge success, Marvel started plumbing the depths of the timeline and started to pull threads from other stories to connect them.

This is when we got Sylvie. According to Loki’s story, Kang wasn’t a threat until Sylvie killed him. Now, we have an infinite number of Kangs looking to conquer the timeline, what Into the Spider-Verse calls Earth-199999, and what Multiverse of Madness calls Earth-616. But Sylvie’s goal when she killed He Who Remains was simply to free the timeline. In Loki season 2, episode 2, she agreed with Loki when he questioned her choice to just give everyone free will and then walk away. Except she hasn’t entirely walked away.

Sylvie still has one trophy from when she slayed He Who Remains, a small circular rock cracked with glowing orange energy. She’s held on to it despite her devil-may-care attitude towards Kang or the chaos she’s unleashed from killing him. What is it? No one is quite sure. The prevailing fan theory is that it is Kang’s TemPad.

If that’s true, it would give her more than just the ability to travel through time. She might be able to control rogue timelines or imprison other Kangs. It could be the linchpin to controlling all of the TVA’s technology. It’s probably the biggest McGuffin in the Marvel Universe right now.

Sylvie is still connected to this multiversal war despite wanting nothing to do with it. It makes her a centerpiece for Phase 5, whether she wants to be or not. It’s why Loki is trying to get Sylvie to help the TVA (plus his confusing feelings for her), and it’s all while the TVA is attempting to rein in a serious amount of chaos. If she gets involved, many of the Marvel heroes could start looking to the TVA for help.

The TVA is in a War with Kang

We already know that Loki’s biggest fear is every other Kang coming to wage war on the timeline. He’s doing everything he can to prevent it, that and the temporal loom exploding. But he needs Sylvie to help him. Aside from being one of the only people to ever see Kang, she’s the only person to kill him. We saw Scott Lang prevent Kang from escaping the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, but people aren’t certain he’s dead. Yet the end credits of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania showed that there are many variants of Kang that are now looking to fight back at the heroes as they begin to grasp the multiverse. The TVA is at the forefront of that battle. Aside from the Ant-Man crew, they’re the only people that know he’s coming.

Right now, Sylvie is their best chance at defeating Kang. She’s the only person with any information beyond “a man with the power to control the multiverse is coming.” And she has something that might help the TVA in their fight. If she ends up helping Loki, which she probably will, she’ll be the most important person in the MCU. If you follow this conflict down the line, she’ll probably end up fighting in Avengers: Kang Dynasty. Sylvie will be a big focus of Phase 5, and even if she isn’t, she probably should be.

Team of Multiversal Heroes

Episode 2 of Loki season 2 showed TVA Agents blowing up various timelines. While Loki, Sylvie, and Mobius stopped more damage from happening, it is clear that many timelines and realities were destroyed. This may set up Deadpool 3, which will see the 20th Century Fox universe of Marvel characters universe in waste. The TVA is rumored to be heavily involved with that. That film will center on Deadpool and Wolverine, and those characters could continue on after that film throughout the Multiverse Saga.

Combine them with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Peter Parkers with Loki and Sylvie, you have a team of variant superheroes from the multiverse. They could team up and be the MCU version of the Exiles, who in the comics are various characters from different Marvel multiverses that save their timelines. Slvyie is about the liberation of the timeline so that she could be this hero leader.

In addition, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness established that Doctor Strange's actions in his film have impacted other realities. He was recruited by Clea, and they are last seen going off to save other dimensions. If his third film adapts the "Time Runs Out" storyline from New Avengers, which was a lead-up to the Secret Wars crossover event Marvel is adapting, Sylvie could be a part of that film. She could meet Doctor Strange and Clea and work with them to preserve the multiverse. She could become the flip version of He Who Remains. Instead of destroying realities to maintain control, she becomes the one allowing the growth of various universes.

Sylvie has the potential to drastically alter the MCU moving forward. Not just in Phase 5 but the entire Multiverse Saga.