Is ‘Loki’ season 2 resorting to dusting off a rejected twist from season 1 to deal with its Jonathan Majors drama?

The Marvel Cinematic Universe we’re currently in is not the same MCU from Loki season 1.

All the lackluster films of Phases Four and Five (you don’t need me to tell you which ones) were nothing but a nightmare we could write off as irrational; the Jonathan Majors fiasco was not on anyone’s bingo card; and the concept of the multiverse was still an exciting playground with endless possibilities. Yet here we are wondering if Loki season 2 will factor all of this mayhem into its conclusive season finale or shuttle the MCU further down its descent to rock bottom.

Loki season 1 set the tone for the Multiverse Saga so it’s within reason to assume season 2 will have equal implications. Keeping that in mind, it’s hard not to view Loki’s current predicament — i.e. wrangling his friends back together to save the TVA — as a setup to instate him as the new He Who Remains, a plot which just so happens to have crossed co-executive producer Kevin Wright’s mind during the shows’ initial inception, according to Den of Geek.

Being He Who Remains was initially in the cards for Loki

“In the writers’ room, all ideas are on the table, and there were conversations about what if Loki was He Who Remains,” said Wright, but admitted the idea felt too constricting for their liking. 

In the first season’s finale, Loki and Sylvie make it to the end of time where they come face to face He Who Remains, a variant of Kang the Conquerer (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) and Victor Timely (Loki season 2), all played by Majors.

“Those conversations didn’t get very far; I don’t think it even got to Tom [Hiddleston] because while there is something fun about that, and there are compelling aspects to it, it makes the universe feel small. So, it was always going to be He Who Remains, always a version of Kang.”

That was when Majors’ future within the MCU was still exciting, however, and Avengers: The Kang Dynasty still felt like a showdown to rival Avengers: Infinity Wars. Nowadays, both the actor and his character’s troubled status dim any former fond notions of grandeur. Every variant we’ve seen of Kang has been either killed by a god, killed by ants, or killed by temporal radiation. And as for Majors — reception to his big-screen debut in Quantumania made Marvel reportedly consider veering away from the character long before Majors’ domestic abuse scandal tarnished his reputation.

The door is open — Marvel just needs to step through it

All that to say, if Marvel went back to the drawing board to dust off that Loki season 1 plot twist to accommodate for everything that’s happened since then, it would make sense. Season 2 was filmed before Majors’ legal woes clashed with his character woes, but if the show is headed in the direction it’s alluding to — i.e. positioning Loki as the new He Who Remains and creator of the TVA — Marvel may have stumbled into its own solution, courtesy of a show that has continually impressed fans and critics.

Season 2 began with a past version of Loki stepping in to assist his future self. Even then, the foreshadowing was written on the wall. This new He Who Remains could be a future version of Loki pulling the strings all along, silently stepping in to make sure the story plays out as he sees fit. As WGTC’s very own Christian Bone so sharply articulated, “Making Hiddleston the new central figure, “villain,” of the season would allow [Loki] to sidestep Majors within its own narrative.”

It’s just as likely that Marvel is setting Loki up to embrace his comic-accurate title of God of Stories, but even still, there’s wiggle room to expand that title to encompass more than the creators of Loki intended when they set out to develop season 2. Essentially, Loki could be Marvel’s saving grace, as if we didn’t know that already.