Summary

The second season of Loki has been highly praised and brought hope back to the faltering Marvel Cinematic Universe, with new faces and familiar characters joining the adventure. Loki’s creation of a mystical structure resembling Norse-based mythology’s Yggdrasil in the season finale hints at a potential clash with a powerful variant of Doctor Doom who seeks to control it. With Loki’s newfound powers and his priority being time, he may take extreme measures like breaking off branches of the timeline to stop Kang’s conquest, leading to Battleworld and potentially appearing in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.

In a world where the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to be slowly and unfortunately faltering (take the recent releases and reception to The Marvels and Secret Invasion for two examples), the God of Mischief, on the other hand, seems to have riled crowds up again in the best of ways. Premiering on October 5, 2023, and releasing one episode every week until November 9, the second season of Loki brought hope back to the MCU with high praise from those who watched it.

What’s there not to like? We have uncontrollable time warping, a new variant of He Who Remains, and a timeline-constraining device called the Temporal Loom threatening to destroy everything in existence. Along with some new faces, some familiar characters are along for the ride, like Mobius, Sylvie, Ravonna Renslayer, Miss Minutes, and Hunter B-15.

When all is said and done, though, Loki sacrifices his entire livelihood to become the sole guardian at the End of Time. He now sits by himself on a throne in the middle of a spacial nothingness, watching over the timelines and his friends. Tom Hiddleston (the English actor who plays Loki) recently fueled fan speculation by saying that the ending of this series was a conclusion for the last fourteen years.

With these comments later clarified as his feelings for only the Disney+ series, people were left with simple questions. Is Loki stuck being a servant to the many different branches of time? Will he ever be able to fight alongside (or against) his brother again? While we may not know the answers anytime soon, we can look at Marvel Comics for some hints as to where the new God of Time may end up in the MCU.

Epic Stories For an Epic God
Disney / Marvel Comics

A major detail in the season finale is when Loki intertwines the many strands of time into a giant mystical construction similar to a tree. Hardcore Thor fans would realize that this is actually a manifestation of Yggdrasil, a world tree from Norse-based mythology that connects ten different realms.

Loki’s creation of such a structure from his memory makes sense since the very essence of his character comes from that era. If we look a bit deeper into how Yggrasil connects to Marvel Comics, though, this multiverse connector was the literal foundational structure for the capital domain of God Emperor Doom’s Battleworld in 2015’s Secret Wars, a highly popular Marvel comic series. Does this mean that a powerful variant of Doom will be trying to snatch Yggrasil away from Loki in order to use it for nefarious reasons? Will Loki be forced to abandon his position so he can fight against Doctor Doom’s most powerful form? Only time will tell.

Related: The Marvels Teases Cameos & Connection With Avengers: Secret Wars

Let’s look into something a little extreme. To push the characters that weren’t selling at the time, Marvel commissioned artists Jim Lee and Robert Liefeld to create a new crossover arc revolving around The Fantastic Four and The Avengers. Titled Heroes Reborn, these classic heroes would not only end up fighting against Onslaught (an X-Men villain) but also Kang The Conqueror.

To make matters more exciting, Kang is absorbed by Loki, who is trying to take over the Earth. While admittedly, a lot of this has to be switched around and reformatted story-wise, Loki besting The Conqueror in a pocket dimension with both the FF and The Avengers trying to return to our Earth sounds like a nifty idea for the heavily rumored Avengers movie that will star the original cast. These super teams and treacherous villains will inevitably be time-traveling and multiverse-hopping, so why not?

Loki Release Date June 9, 2021 Cast Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Richard E. Grant Main Genre Superhero Seasons 2 Studio Disney+, Marvel Studios
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Becoming Something Of An Alien?
Marvel Comics

Since Loki now has powers that can bend time and space to his liking, he is inching more and more towards the same mold as The Beyonders. Not only do these omnipotent beings maintain the Multiverse, but other traits are shared between the two, like shape-shifting. God Loki is by no means an antagonist, so unfortunately, the 1980s version of the singular Beyonder cannot be looked at for inspiration.

Related: Loki: Has Marvel Gone Too Far With the Multiverse Concept?

The more updated species in the 2015 version of Secret Wars is a much more fitting outcome. Looking at the incursions as a process that must not be stopped, the alien species destroyed anyone who got in the way. Considering Loki is a god right now whose biggest priority is time, don’t put it past him to do what needs to be done to regulate the various timelines.

As an emotional last resort, he could break off various branches to stop Kang’s ongoing conquest, ultimately leaving only one branch where the fight could be finished. The destruction of the sacred timeline could lead to Battleworld, where Loki has to manage travel for our new heroes as well. For those looking for the character’s next appearance, God Loki may appear in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, which premieres in theaters on May 1, 2026.

Stream Loki on Disney+