With Loki season 2 in full swing, it’s truly hard to predict where the plot of the show might take the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward. However, we must admit that Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief has a somewhat similar character arc to someone who also starred in a groundbreaking Disney Plus series; WandaVision‘s Scarlet Witch. This prompts us to ask the question: Is Loki being presented as a Marvel protagonist in his own series all an elaborate bait and switch for a role reversal to come?
In case you missed WandaVision, it had many similarities to Loki. Elizabeth Olsen’s Emmy-nominated performance as Wanda Maximoff featured different versions of the character, reimagined as TV sitcom riffs of the character. It turned out Wanda was holding the town of Westview hostage due to her grief-filled mind creating the Hex, an alternate reality of sorts where she conjured her surrounding environment in the style of her favorite sitcoms growing up.
Back to her old ways
Anyway, despite the predicament that left innocent people trapped in a state of forced role-playing, we were still rooting for Wanda the entire time, especially when we found out she’d been manipulated by Katherine Hahn’s Agatha Harkness. However, Wanda then embraces her role as a full-blown antagonist for the follow-up movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, thanks in part to the evil influence of the Darkhold. So the question is: Will the same thing happen with Loki?
Like Loki, Wanda was initially introduced in the MCU as a villain. However, partway through Avengers: Age of Ultron, she decided to switch sides and work alongside Earth’s defenders rather than for the evil robot of the film’s namesake for which she was previously aligned. In summary, Wanda went from villain, to hero, to villain again.
Now let’s take a look at Loki’s arc: he went from being a villain in The Avengers to being a hero in Avengers: Infinity War and his self-titled series. Could it be that his pendulum will swing back into villain territory, just like what happened with Wanda? In our view, it could easily happen.
Loki’s the problem
Like Wanda, we as the audience could simply be lulled into a false sense of security with Loki as our protagonist, only for him to show up in the next MCU movie as the villain once again. How could this happen?
For one, let’s not forget Loki tried to stop Sophie Di Martino’s Sylvie from killing He Who Remains in season 1. In the same way Loki was seduced by Thanos’ promises of power, so too could the trickster god possibly be convinced by an evil variant of Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror that they must make harsh decisions about branched-off timelines in order to keep the multiverse in check. After all, Loki was fairly convinced by He Who Remains by the end of his monologue in season 1. Therefore, if a slightly more sinister variant was equally as eloquent at getting Loki on his side, the long-haired brother of Thor might just be duped into being a big bad’s henchman once again.
We also have the X-factor of Loki season 2 introducing Rafael Casal’s Brad Wolfe into the mix. Since Wolfe has channeled the demonic spirit known as Zaniac in the comics, and indeed that name has already been referenced in Loki season 2 episode 2, it stands to reason the evil entity who possesses its hosts and inspires them to kill could enter Loki’s body at some point. A Zaniac-possessed Loki? Now that’s a villain to be reckoned with.
We can’t be certain this will happen, and if it does, it seems like Loki’s return to villainy probably won’t unfold until perhaps the next Avengers movie, the earliest of which won’t be seen until 2026’s The Kang Dynasty. However, we’ll be keeping our eyes glued to the screen for any upcoming Loki season 2 episodes that might hold clues to his potential return to the dark side.