Spoilers for Loki season 1 ahead.
Loki variants might be survivors above all else, but they’re also frustratingly pitfall-prone. Case in point: Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has died numerous times throughout the multiple phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, usually due to a two-pronged overestimation of himself and underestimation of his enemies. And in the Loki season 1 finale, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), continually overzealous in her quest for vengeance, plunged a dagger into the heart of He Who Remains—and, by proxy, plunged the universe into madness.
As He Who Remains (a version of Kang the Conqueror, as played by the delightful Jonathan Majors) explains, the character is the arbiter of the one Sacred Timeline, a construct he created in order to protect the universe from multiple versions of his own (less “benevolent”) self. If the timeline were to branch out, a “Multiversal War” would bend the arc of reality into chaos. But in order to keep the Sacred Timeline aligned, He Who Remains has had to “prune” and kill untold numbers of variants such as Hiddleston’s Loki and Di Martino’s Sylvie—characters who strayed from their set-upon path and tested the waters of free will. He sees these eliminations as a necessary evil. Loki doesn’t necessarily agree, and Sylvie is too furious to register anything other than her own revenge.
He Who Remains then presents them, rather gleefully, with a choice: They can become the arbiters of the Sacred Timeline themselves, or they can kill him, allowing the Multiversal War to begin—only for a He Who Remains variant to rise up and create the Sacred Timeline anyway—bringing the whole saga full circle. He seems equally titillated and soothed by the idea of placing this choice in hands that are not his own. For once, he doesn’t know what will happen next.
But Sylvie does not give herself or Loki much time to think. The two of them fight as she tries to reach He Who Remains with her weapon, and Loki attempts convincing her that—perhaps, maybe, this time!—they have it all wrong. She refuses to listen, kissing him into submission before tossing him back through a TemPad portal into the TVA headquarters. Finally alone with the dictator, she kills him; Loki, back at the TVA, realizes almost immediately that the horror is done. A He Who Remains statue has replaced the Timekeepers’ likeness on the wall. The Multiversal War is here.
And so we’re all wondering: Now that everything has changed, what comes next? Here’s everything we know about season 2 of Loki—and the remainder of Marvel’s Phase 4.
Will there be a season 2 of Loki?
Thankfully, yes. Disney+ has officially renewed Loki for a second season. The streaming service revealed the exciting news during the finale’s end credits, when a case file was marked with a stamp saying, “Loki will return in season 2.”
Who will be in the cast?
Based on season 2 set pictures, we now know we’ll see villain-turned-hero Loki and Sylvie again, as well as Owen Wilson’s Mobius. Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ravonna Renslayer and Wunmi Mosaku’s Hunter B-15 are likely to return as well. Majors certainly could reprise his role as He Who Remains/Kang the Conqueror, but given his confirmed appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, his fate remains unclear.
Deadline also confirmed Blindspotting’s Rafael Casal will enter season 2 in an undisclosed but major role.
Loki season 1 director Kate Herron will not return to lead the second season, she has revealed. In an interview with ELLE, she said, “I’m really proud to have been part of Loki’s story. I gave it everything in my heart and my soul. I’m excited to see what fresh eyes will bring.”
Still, Herron teased that fans can likely expect an even bigger storyline for Di Martino’s Sylvie in the next chapter: “We leave her in the Citadel, and she looks shell-shocked and full of pain, and she’s on a much earlier part of her journey [than Loki] in terms of self-healing, so I think it’ll be really fun to see where she ends up going.”
In a November interview with Di Martino, the actress revealed to ELLE that she wasn’t even sure which version of Sylvie we’d meet in season 2. For all we know, she could be playing a different Loki variant. “I assume she’ll fundamentally still be the same character, but the multiverse makes even [that] a little bit complicated. We can meet anyone,” she says.
When will season 2 be released?
In a sizzle reel of projects arriving in 2023, Disney+ unveiled the first look at Loki season 2, confirming the upcoming installment would arrive next year. The seconds-long footage shows Hiddleston and Wilson dressed up in tuxes, with Wilson’s Mobius asking Loki, “A little over the top, don’t you think?”
However, the show still doesn’t have an official release date.
With so much yet to come in the MCU, it’s difficult to parse out an exact timeline for Loki‘s return. Since Majors is slated to star in Quantumania in February 2023, it’s likely that the next season of Loki would come out around or after that time.
The second season is currently in production, with DiMartino, Wilson and Hiddleston recently spotted in costume at a McDonalds.
What does the Loki season 1 finale mean for the future of the MCU?
Loki head writer Michael Waldron spoke to Marvel.com about Majors’s earth-shattering appearance. “Knowing that Kang was probably going to be the next big cross-movie villain, and because he is a time-traveling, multiversal adversary, it just always made so much sense,” he said. “I came up with that big multiversal war mythology and pitched it out in the room one day to our producers. And they said, ‘Yeah, let’s go for it.’ We knew we were going to end up meeting the man behind the curtain. And then it was just on us to make sure that that meeting really delivered.”
Buckle up, Marvel fans. The universe is at stake again, and this time Steve Rogers isn’t around to set everything back in order. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Associate Editor
Lauren Puckett-Pope is an associate editor at ELLE, where she covers film, TV, books and fashion.
Starr Savoy is a fellow at ELLE.com, where she writes about celebrity, culture, beauty, and fashion. When she is not working, you will find her pumping iron at the gym, watching Netflix’s latest phenomenon, and indulging in retail therapy.
