Loki spoilers follow – including episode 6 and the finale.
Let's be real – not much happened at the end of Loki. That is, unless you count the confirmation of a season two and the introduction of a brand-new character, with Jonathan Majors' mysterious and hella creepy 'He Who Remains'.
We have known for quite a while that the Lovecraft Country star would be introduced to the MCU, having landed his first Marvel role in the third Ant-Man movie. But Majors' special guest appearance in the Disney+ series was kept under wraps, and marks the first time that we've had official confirmation of which villainous character he would be playing.
Rumours had long been swirling that he had been cast as infamous comic book villain Kang the Conqueror. Although he was referred to in the show only as 'He Who Remains' (by Miss Minutes) and a list of unsavoury nouns (by himself), Loki has confirmed that Kang will play a huge part in the future of the franchise.
Speaking to Marvel.com about the decision to incorporate this into the Tom Hiddleston-led series, head writer Michael Waldron explained: "We knew that we wanted this show to be huge, and we wanted it to really end with a bang and have a huge impact on the MCU moving forward.
"Knowing that Kang was probably going to be the next big cross-movie villain, and because he is a time-traveling, multiversal adversary, it just always made so much sense. I came up with that big multiversal war mythology and pitched it out in the room one day to our producers. And they said, yeah, let's go for it. We knew we were going to end up meeting the man behind the curtain. And then it was just on us to make sure that that meeting really delivered."
The version that was introduced to us in Loki was – as you may expect – a variant of said villain. The origin story that was described in episode six has basically been lifted directly from the source material. Before Kang became 'Kang the Conquerer', he was Nathaniel Richards – a scholar on a version of Earth studying robotics and other technologies. He discovered time travel, which lead to a number of visits to past and future, a run-in with the Avengers and the acquisition of advanced technology and weapons.
As He Who Remains explained to a quivering Loki and one mightily pissed-off Sylvie at the end of episode six, he managed to come out on top from a nasty multiversal war with his other selves. As a result, and to keep order in the universe, he created the TVA to restore peace. Or so he claimed.
Without him in that all-powerful position, or without someone else taking his place on the throne to continue that work, the multiverse would break free and chaos would ensue. This would unleash his other variants, set on reigniting the war across time and dimensions once again. Probably not great that Sylvie then went ahead with her big vengeance plan, shoving a sword through his chest...
With the so-called Sacred Timeline now well and truly broken, and multiple universes (with all manner of variants) let loose, we're set to encounter an even more frightening and dangerous version of Kang – as teased by that ominous statue at the very end of the show's finale.
"You had to leave a lot of meat on the bone in terms of how evil he could be, because that's He Who Remains' whole thing, that it's not me who you should be afraid of," Waldron added. "'It's the other versions of me that are going to come.' It was trying to really hint at that terrifying evil within without going all the way there."
And we thought things couldn't get any worse than Thanos. We guess it's time to strap in...
Loki season 1 is streaming exclusively on Disney+.
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