What the 'Loki' Finale Means for the Future of the MCU
This article contains major spoilers for Loki, WandaVision, and future projects in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
What a whirlwind of a finale — and we expected nothing less from our favourite God of Mischief. Unlike the “safe” conclusions to the Emmy nominated Marvel shows ‘WandaVision’ and ‘The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’, ‘Loki’ took that trope and stomped all over it with the last five minutes of the show, paving a scary yet exciting new chapter for the MCU to continue its stories.
Loki Finale: Explained
Yes, Loki, we too have several thousand questions to address. But before we throw ourselves into a loop at the cliffhanger and possibilities presented to the future of the MCU, let’s recap what happens in Episode 6, “For All Time. Always.”
Episode 6 Recap
Loki and Sylvie enter the Citadel at the End of Time, where they are greeted by Miss Minutes — who, by the way, gave us the fight of our lives with her little jumpscare. There, she offers the duo a deal by the creator of the TVA, He Who Remains (otherwise known as Kang the Conqueror): To be put back on a timeline where both of them can exist together, rule Asgard, kill Thanos, defeat the Avengers, and create happy memories, or continue their journey into the castle to meet their fate.
Loki and Sylvie decline the deal, calling it “fiction”, and proceed to meet the good variant of He Who Remains, who greets them with an apple in his mouth. After He Who Remains reveals that he cannot be killed because he knows everything that’s going to happen in time, he gives the duo another proposition: To take over the TVA on the same timeline and have free will whilst continuing to take away others’ or to kill He Who Remains and risk unleashing an infinite number of his dangerous counterparts (Kangs) to start another multiversal war.
Swayed by He Who Remains’ reasoning purely out of fear of what could happen, Loki tries to persuade Sylvie from killing him. However, Sylvie isn’t buying it and still seeks revenge against the man who took away her childhood — which, given how her whole life had been ripped out from under her, we understand why killing He Who Remains is such a priority for Sylvie.
This disagreement then leads to the duo fighting each other — Loki to prevent Sylvie from risking the peace of the universe and Sylvie to fight her way through Loki to kill He Who Remains. After some reasoning and a passionate kiss between the two, Sylvie pushes Loki through a Time Door using He Who Remains’ TemPad to safety in the TVA. She then kills He Who Remains and begins the multiverse of madness.
Elsewhere, Loki finds himself in an alternate universe’s TVA ruled by Kang the Conqueror. To make matters worse, this universe’s Mobius and Hunter B-15 variants do not recognise him.
What this means for the future of the characters
After dissecting the events of the episode, we can see that although they mutually care for each other, Loki and Sylvie are not on the same page yet. As Loki said to Sylvie before their kiss: “I’ve been where you are. I’ve felt what you feel. Don’t ask me how I know. All I know is I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want a throne. I just want you to be OK.”
Loki is a God who was allowed to grow and learn from his mistakes through multiple failures over the years. He knows what it feels like to lose and recognises the emptiness that comes with it. He wants to rule alongside Sylvie to protect her from the risky possibilities of Kang variants and to shield her from ever feeling as miserable as he did before.
However, Sylvie is a Goddess who has not yet had the same experiences as Loki and has never had anyone else to trust in. Her need to gain revenge over the man who took away every happy memory from her overpowered her feelings for Loki.
Actress Sophia Di Martino, who plays Sylvie, explains in an interview with Marvel: “The anger that she had as a little girl has just been growing and growing and growing her whole life, to this point, where the guy who caused it, in her eyes, is standing right in front of her. She thinks that killing him is going to make her feel better. That feeling in that moment is stronger than any feelings she has for Loki.” Of course, after she kills He Who Remains, Sylvie experiences the feeling of emptiness that Loki warned her about and falls to the floor crying.
As Loki finds himself alone in another universe’s TVA, Judge Renslayer’s fate has still not yet been shown. Before He Who Remains got killed, he gave Renslayer information for her eyes only. What her mission is now is up in the air. It’s a good thing ‘Loki’ will be returning with a second season because there is still so much left unanswered.
The correlation with 'WandaVision"
With everything that’s happened in the ‘Loki’ finale, the end of ‘WandaVision’ starts to finally make sense. After destroying her ‘fake’ universe, Vision, and sons, Wanda resides in a cabin and starts to harness her powers. As she practices her newfound magic, she hears her children calling in the distance.
Now that the multiverse has opened up because of Sylvie, chances are — those are her sons of an alternate universe calling out to her for help.
What This Means for the MCU's Multiverse
With Marvel announcing their plans for Phase Four, you can expect bigger and greater things from our favourite MCU characters in new shows and films.
What If...?
Premiering in August, the next Marvel show to take the spotlight is ‘What If...?’, an animated series that reimagines events of the MCU. Imagine a world where Peggy Carter got the super-soldier serum. Or a world where Yondu abducted T’challa instead of Star Lord. With the multiverse all messed up now, some scenarios in this show may become canon in the future MCU.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Premiering in December 2021, Spider-Man takes on a new mentor — potentially Doctor Strange — and deals with having his identity being revealed at the end of ‘Far From Home’. The movie also teased the appearance of Tobey Maguire and Andre Garfield's Spider-Men.
With multiple universes opening up, it seems like we’re going to see all three Spideys interact, work together, or perhaps battle it out in this film.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
If you’re a big Loki fan, you’re probably most looking forward to the ‘Multiverse of Madness’ in March 2022. Tom Hiddleston’s Loki will reportedly return to fight alongside Doctor Strange and Wanda, as depicted in the comics. There’s no telling if this will be the same Loki we see at the end of the ‘Loki’ series or if he’s an alternate universe Loki.
One thing’s for sure, though; Doctor Strange has his work cut out for him.
Villian to Look Out For
As we’ve predicted in our previous article, Kang the Conqueror was the big bad behind ‘Loki’ and will be taking over the reins from Thanos as the next major villain in Marvel.
With Jonathan Majors officially joining the MCU, the multiversal war between the Kangs is bound to happen in either ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ or ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’, before his confirmed character arc in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’.
With Kang’s powers and control over time travel, and his buddy, Alioth, his villainous wrath is not to be underestimated. This is a man who will fight himself to gain power over the multiverse, no matter the cost. It is clear that Kang is more powerful than Thanos ever was, with his ability to see everything that happens in the future and use that to his advantage.
It’s safe to say that Phase Four has just gotten interesting.
