Summary
- The Loki Season 2 trailer reveals that Loki and Mobius will travel through time and alternate realities to fix the now-broken sacred timeline.
- The show may explore the concept of timeslipping and its implications for the MCU timeline, potentially revealing multiple alternate realities and how they are interconnected.
- The inclusion of characters like Zaniac and Victor Timely can also provide further context for Loki's continuity.
The Loki Season 2 trailer brought interesting revelations -- and not just about Loki's fate after the murder of He Who Remains by Sylvie. The clip revealed that upcoming episodes will feature Loki and Mobius going through multiple time periods and potentially alternate realities to fix the "sacred timeline."
As per Screen Rant, Marvel Studios screened a clip from the series during the D23 Expo, which confirmed that Loki Season 2 will continue right after Season 1's cliffhanger. The aforementioned footage reportedly established that the timeline has now branched into an alternate reality. Similarly, the Season 2 trailer showcased Loki's "timeslipping." These two facts may explain why the season will go through the different time periods of Loki's past, presence and undefined future in the now-broken sacred timeline -- and give Marvel Cinematic Universe fans some much-needed clarity.
Loki Season 2 Will Feature a 1960s/1970s Timeline, But Have Sylvie in 1982
The Season 2 trailer showed the Loki and Mobius duo after Zaniac, who had possibly possessed actor Brad Wolfe in what appeared to be either the 1960s or 1970s. Introduced in 1982's Thor Vol 1 #319 (by Doug Moench and Keith Pollard), Zaniac is a demonic being from the dark dimension. Individuals possessed by Zaniac become more powerful than mere mortals. However, the entity is no match for Loki, which is why it is unlikely that he will waste his time pursuing Zaniac whilst dealing with timeslips. He would be chasing the parasitic entity for some other reason. Thus it is plausible that Zaniac -- through his connection to the MCU's dark dimension -- has a solution for Loki's timeslipping problem or the location of Sylvie.
Season 2 is expected to start with Sylvie initially hiding in 1982. Almost all the promotional footage of Loki Season 2 has included glimpses of Sylvie working in an old-school McDonald's somewhere, with a press event remaking a McDonald's into its 1982 counterpart. This suggests that Loki and Mobius would have to visit this time period in order to enlist Sylvie's help restoring the sacred timeline.
Where Victor Timely's Timeline Possibly Fits Into Loki Season 2
The Loki Season 2 teaser and trailer clips also featured Victor Timely. Though Timely is a Kang the Conqueror variant based in the past, the clips did not reveal what time period he is based out of. In the Citizen Kang crossover event storyline of 1992 (consolidated in 2011 by Roy Thomas and Larry Alexander), Richards went back in time to 1901 Wisconsin and founded a town called Timely. Fans are wondering if this variant of Kang is supposed to be the primary antagonist of Loki Season 2.
However, the teaser included a glimpse of Victor Timely apparently helping Mobius and Loki. That means it's possible that the TVA agent and the God of Mischief seek out Timely for additional help with the timeline restoration. If that's the case, the question becomes does he remain an ally to the show's main characters -- or does he eventually double-cross them or find a way to use them for his own ends? He could still be a villainous presence, or the trio could form an unlikely alliance.
Loki's Timeslipping May Finally Explain the Series' Place in the MCU Timeline
The God of Mischief claimed in the Loki Season 2 trailer that he was being pulled "between the past and present." His timeslipping may also include him being randomly pushed to his future thanks to the now-broken timeline. The concept of timeslipping appears to be somewhat similar to "glitching," as showcased in Sony's popular Spider-Verse animated films. But timeslipping appears to be bound to the space-time continuum linearly. Loki's timeslipping raises a few questions about the show's timelines and the overarching multiverse.
Sylvie did not go through the phenomenon of timeslipping in the trailer, so it appears to be exclusive to Loki. It is likely that by teleporting himself from the 2012 timeline of Avengers: Endgame, Loki created an alternate timeline. And following Loki's shenanigans at the TVA -- which supposedly exists out of the space-time continuum -- he was put back into the freshly reset timeline at the end of Season 1. Loki's timeslipping could therefore be attributed to the currently unraveled timeline being an alternate version of the Season 1 timeline.
However, the Loki Season 1 timeline was itself a branched timeline of the original 2012 one. So Loki may currently exist in a branched timeline off an already branched timeline, which is likely why the frost giant-turned-Asgardian is slipping through time. If this theory is true, it could mean that the sacred timeline actually consists of multiple alternate realities. It would require explaining how the sacred timeline's branched realities are different from the various universes of the multiverse (if at all). But that could be explained in Deadpool 3, since the TVA and the Void from Loki Season 1 are rumored to be in that film.
While the timeline is in flux, Loki Season 2 can finally answer the mystery of the TVA's functioning and existence after the death of He Who Remains. If any of the aforementioned possibilities regarding time's flow in the MCU-based multiverse are true, Loki Season 2 may also answer how alternate realities, dimensions, timelines and universes are interconnected. These potential revelations may finally shed some light on the theory of whether the MCU is actually an omniverse: consisting of multiple multiverses, each having their own universes, realities and dimensions.
The second season can also provide clarity on how Kang the Conqueror variants manipulate the multiverse and the aforementioned alternate realities in the MCU, and whether the sacred timeline of Earth-19999 affects different universes like Earth-838 and the multitude presented in Sony's Spider-Verse. While resolving Season 1's cliffhanger is obviously first on the list, Loki Season 2 has the opportunity to provide Marvel enthusiasts even bigger answers about how time works in the MCU through Loki's next adventures.
Loki Season 2 premieres Oct. 5 on Disney+,