And Loki also greets us with the end of this season, which we know for sure is the first of a series: it has in fact been confirmed that Loki will return for a second season, and the finale of this one lets us understand what it will be about. The series, which stars Tom Hiddleston as the God of Deception , picks up the story immediately after the theft of the Tesseract.

Loki finds himself summoned before the Time Variance Authority , a bureaucratic organization that exists outside of time and space, forced to answer for his crimes against chronology and faced with a choice : erase him from reality or help the agency to capture an even greater threat. So let’s start with talking about the ending, the revelations made and what awaits the future of Loki Laufeyson now.

Warning: from here on there will be spoilers related to the series, as we will talk about the ending. For this reason we suggest that you do not continue reading until the end of the series.

Kang the Conqueror

Yes, at the end of time we find Nathaniel Richards, known as Kang the Conqueror , or rather a decidedly peaceful version of him. The revelation that in fact awaits the viewer at the end of Loki’s journey is that the person at the end of time is the best version of himself: his greatest fear are in fact his own variants , many of which have played a role in the first war of the Multiverse. For this reason Kang has decided to eradicate all timelines , leaving only one, the one where he can control everything and write a future without branches, which would lead to other variants of himself and to possible wars.

For those unfamiliar with Nathaniel Richards, he has had many roles within the Marvel comic universe, and his inclusion – not so much with what we saw during the episode but with those that could come – opens up endless possibilities that will not remain relegated alone. to the Loki series . In fact, if we are now certain, given the series finale, that there will be one or more Kangs ready to give war to the other universes, we also have confirmation that Kang the Conqueror will appear in Ant-Man & The Wask: Quantumania .

Uncertain future for Loki

At the end of the last episode Sylvie sends Loki back to TVA, betraying him and eventually killing Nathaniel Richards . Once her task is finished, she sits exhausted and meanwhile the timeline begins to branch out in a way that is impossible to control. What we see at the end of Loki is the birth of the multiverse , so coveted since the previous films and now finally ready and served, along with an avalanche of dangers.

Obviously these dangers will not be so visible: in the comics we have always been taught that these multiverses are very isolated. In fact, we were able to see the Ultimate universe (an alternative and modern version of Marvel superheroes), the Noir universe (in the 30s version) and many others. The difference between all the supervillains that could be created (including villain versions of known heroes) and Kang is that the latter has learned to move between the various multiverses, which is why his worst version could come to break eggs in the basket of our heroes.

Another little-valued dynamic is the fact that one of the Kangs could actually kill all the others , becoming the only survivor and therefore regent: it would be nothing strange, just as it would not be equally strange that some of them formed a coalition (which already happened in the comics ).

A new TVA

What we see at the end of the episode concerns Loki who is in front of Mobius and B-15 , who, however, cannot recognize him: the God of Deception, in fact, once launched into the portal opened by the TemPad, as there are now infinite ramifications, is arrived in one of these where at the head of the TVA there is no longer Nathaniel Richards, a man who only wanted the survival of the universe, but the version called Kang the Conqueror . We can understand this from the dress on the statue, which we can also recognize in this image below.

As you can see, the shape around the shoulders and neck is the same, and the TVA in this case may be concerned with having to destroy the other timelines – i.e. multiverses – to make that the one ruler over everything else. We don’t know how they will develop the character, but he has seen a fantastic interpretation by Jonathan Majors.

The Multiverse

If the risk of the multiverse is mainly linked to too many dynamics to cover – which, however, Marvel could relegate only to the Loki series (which will return with a second season) in order to avoid confusion for those who follow only the films in the cinema – the potential concerns variants and returns . If the former would allow you to see some differences on well-known characters, perhaps being able to finally propose some heroes already known in a Villain version(Superior Iron-Man, Captain Hydra), the latter would be linked to the “repechage” made on removed actors who, however, would like to return in the future (Tony Stark, Nathasha Romanoff). A well-known dynamic in the multiverse is also that of “rewriting” characters: in fact, when some heroes or villains are badly managed, the possibility of having other versions would allow to fix errors .

Regardless, Marvel now also has the option to bring Fox heroes (X-Men, Deadpool) into the MCU, as some ramifications may have led to their birth. Also interesting is the theory linked to the fact that this very event has opened the doors to many innovations already seen in series such as Wandavision . However, remember that as in comics, even the MCU could isolate some dynamics so as to make some films and series more isolated from this concept.

The next Villain of Phase 4?

Kang the Conqueror will therefore most likely be the next villain in Phase 4 . In fact, if Black Widow as a film only told us a story linked to Nat, we could say that the real opening of the Phase took place today with Loki . In fact, going to see the next upcoming films, we immediately find interesting connections with Kang . By removing some films from the equation, we have:

• Spider-Man: No Way Home – Actors from previous films (Raimi Trilogy and Amazing Spider-Man ) ready to return, as well as other characters seen on the Netflix series that may arrive ( Daredevil )
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – The title is already clear on its own
• Thor: Love and Thunder – It could be disconnected from the whole, or maybe see some interesting development related to the cosmic battle against Kang.
• Black Panther II – The appearance of Latveria and Doctor Doom has been voiced, perhaps not existing until today due to the lack of branching
• Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania – Confirmed the appearance of Kang, not to mention that the Quantum Realm could play a role in the multiverse
• Fantastic Four – In the comics Nathaniel Richards and Reed Richards share a kind of kinship

In short, Kang the Conqueror could be the worthy replacement for Thanos , in this new phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Or is it just one of the little villains who will then lead us to discover the “Big Bad” of these new films? In the meantime, if you are interested, we invite you to read a new theory on the powers of Scarlet Witch deriving from the ending of Loki .