The Multiversal War is one of the biggest and most consequential events in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and, interestingly, it happened off-screen. Aside from the cartoon depiction of the Multiversal War at the TVA (which turned out to be more of a propaganda piece as the Time-Keepers turned out to be fake), and He Who Remains’ description of the event at the end of the first season of Loki, little is known about the Multiversal War. What was this explosive conflict, and how did it change the MCU as we know it? These are just a couple of questions fans have as Loki Season 2 unravels more of this seemingly cataclysmic event.

Indeed, per Screen Rant, Loki season 2 executive producer Kevin Wright revealed that the “Multiversal War in the MCU will be on a far larger scale than any battle seen before.” This is an exciting prospect, as Avengers: Endgame had such a climactic, epic battle for the fate of only one universe. As a second Multiversal War potentially looms on the horizon, let’s go back to that first event. Here’s what we know about the MCU’s past Multiversal war.

What Set the Stage for The Multiversal War?
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The Multiversal War was an all-out conflict across the Multiverse between variants of Nathaniel Richards, a 31st-Century scientist who discovered that there were universes stacked on top of one another. The war began when other versions of Richards, aka Kang, were learning the same thing, and they made contact. For a while, there was peace, but eventually, two opposing factions of Kangs emerged. There were Variants who saw new worlds and timelines as new places to conquer, and those who wanted to preserve it. The conflict drew the attention of Avengers from multiple timelines, and in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, Kang the Conqueror, a Kang variant who had been banished to the Quantum Realm, told Ant-Man that he’s killed so many Avengers that he’s lost track.

The Mystery Surrounding The Multiversal War
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One of the reasons The MCU’s Multiversal War is so mysterious is because most of the participants are dead, and many of the survivors had their memories erased. Everything we know about the Multiversal War comes from He Who Remains, his Variants, and Miss Minutes. The only depiction that we’ve had of the War has been a cartoon produced by the TVA, as we saw in Loki Season 1, which serves as a propaganda tool to make everyone at the TVA believe that it was The Time-Keepers that ended the Multiversal War rather than He Who Remains. That narrative is shattered when Sylvie beheads one of the Time-Keepers, revealing them to be nothing but robots meant to serve as a figurehead.

The first mention of what really took place during The Multiversal War came from He Who Remains during his monologue in the Season 1 finale of Loki (as seen in this clip on YouTube). He explained the story of Nathaniel Richards and the “multiversal meet and greets” that ultimately led to an all-out war for supremacy of the Multiverse and the Sacred Timeline.

Related: Loki Season 2 Trailer Teases the Final Episodes

It was He Who Remains who weaponized a creature formed from tears in reality that consumes matter known as Alioth (seen in the penultimate episode of Loki Season 1). With the help of Ravonna Renslayer and his army, He Who Remains defeated his Variants, ended the Multiversal War, created the Sacred Timeline, and created the TVA in order to prune any branching timelines that would result in the return of more Kang variants and another Multiversal War.

The Battle for Multiversal Supremacy
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The Multiversal War was an attack on every fiber of reality across its entire existence. This is not an understatement: this was a battle that put every person in existence (from Asgard to Knowhere) at risk. It wasn’t just an army approaching in the way that we’ve seen in past MCU films. By killing He Who Remains, Sylvie caused the Sacred Timeline to begin to fracture, resulting in branched timelines. This sets the stage for the second Multiversal War.

The magnitude of the Multiversal War means that the Avengers will face their greatest mission ever, pushing them harder than ever before and testing the limits of their strength and abilities — fighting not only to save a city, or a planet, or even a single universe, but for everything that is, was, and ever will be. They will likely not be dealing with just one foe, but rather a seemingly unending number of Kang variants from different timelines across the Multiverse. The very fabric of reality will be at stake. The war affects every moment in the entire MCU timeline and takes place everywhere and all at once.

Related: Loki Succeeds Where Other MCU Shows Fail by Doing a Few Things Right

What Lies Ahead for the Multiverse
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As Loki warns Mobius in the Season 1 finale of Loki, “Someone is coming.” Countless different versions of a very dangerous person. And they’re all set on war.” In other words, another Multiversal War is coming to the MCU. Season 2 of Loki shows some of the repercussions of Sylvie removing the dictator. The Temporal Loom, which helps bind together each branch (or timeline) together into a tightly wound cord, cannot handle all the branching timelines.

The penultimate episode of Loki season two shows branched timelines spagettifying. The loom is what keeps the TVA and by extension reality functioning and able to exist. The destruction of branching timelines is only a precursor of the chaos to come. Many of those branching timelines could have spawned more Kang variants.

The post-credit scene of Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania reveals the council of Kangs. Their leaders decide that humanity is beginning to get to close to the multiverse, and could destroy everything they’ve built. This council appears to be gearing up for a full on assault on the multiverse and the Sacred Timeline. We will likely see this come to fruition in Avengers: Kang Dynasty.