The Marvel Cinematic Universe has returned to the big and small screen in a huge way in 2021 after taking 2020 off due to the pandemic. Fans have been treated to incredible shows on Disney+ and July will mark the return of the MCU to the big screen with four incredible films slated for 2021 — Black Widow, Shang Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings, The Eternals, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Fans have also been treated to WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the latest product to drop, Loki. This column is designed to be everything you need to know about Loki going forward.
Let’s first start with our titular character. Loki saw a return to his old form as the variant of Loki the show starts with is the one that literally just tried to take over the world in the first Avengers film. Due to the events of Endgame, Loki was able to get his hands on the Space Stone (Tesseract) and transported himself out of the main continuity rather than going back to Asgard with Thor, facing justice. We all know what happened to Loki following the events of Avengers, but this version of Loki was forced to grow up and change in a matter of one episode because the Time Variance Authority showed him his fate.
While we don’t know much about the MCU version of the TVA, we do know that they seem to be led by Mobius M. Mobius, played by Owen Wilson. The reason Loki was forced to face his fate is because he discovered that the Infinity Stones don’t work inside the TVA. So, instead of being able to escape, he was shown how his actions led to the death of not only his adopted mother Frigga, but also his adopted father Odin. At the very end, he was also shown his own death at the hands of Thanos as he wiped out Asgard and nearly killed Thor. Seeing all of these events had a remarkable impact on this version of Loki but the big question remains: Will it last?
For those who don’t know, the Time Variance Authority are the keepers of time. They’re there to ensure the proper flow of time and to reset any deviations from the proper flow of time. The problem the TVA is having is that someone is going around killing TVA agents and taking their reset chargers. We’re not told or shown who it is at the end of the first episode, but the show did tease it by showing someone hidden in the shadows. So, who is the individual going around killing TVA agents? If you believe the rumors it could be God Butcher Loki.
When it comes to the comics, Loki has been rather fluid as a character. He’s been a god killer, a woman, a child, a man, a king, a raven and a trickster. In fact, explaining all the variations would take about nine articles. Let’s just say that Loki has been just about every being you can imagine, so when the show Loki inevitably makes an appearance as a child, woman, or other being, it happened in the comics. It isn’t Marvel trying to be PC. It’s happened, it’s canon, and his variations are a ton of fun.
In the comics, Loki led the charge against Asgard in Ragnarok. Obviously that was changed for the film and it saw Hela lead the charge, but in the comics, it was Loki leading the charge with Fenris and others leading to Ragnarok, which saw the end of Asgard and the death of Thor. He’s an incredibly capable villain who has also been a hero at times. But let’s quickly go over what we may see from Loki during its run.
God Butcher Loki is a version of Loki that grabbed the necro sword that was used to slaughter gods by Gorr the God Butcher. We’ll see Gorr in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, played by the great Christian Bale. The Necro Sword is capable of slaying extremely powerful beings and it damn near killed Thor. Eventually Thor was able to beat Gorr with the help of two other versions of himself and his grandchildren.
Kid Loki managed to pull a fast one on Hela and he was reborn as a child. This version of Loki tried to be a hero, but he wasn’t really received all that well because of his past versions. He also had no memory of his previous self. Out of all the Loki’s, this version is probably my favorite. Loki It was a thoroughly entertaining version of Loki and provided us with a fresh, warm, interesting version.
The last version of Loki I am going to bring up in this column is female Loki. In this version, Loki became a female because he stole a body meant for Lady Sif. We have some idea of who may be playing female Loki given Tom Hiddleston’s comments about the show being very gender fluid and seeing Sophia Di Martino dressed in Loki’s green and golden outfit in set photos. These are just a few possibilities for the show, never mind stuff like King Loki or human Loki.
Loki is sure to set up future endeavors for the character and plot points. We’re going to see a plethora of ideas set out in the show. It’s also sure to tie into films like Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man: No Way Home. With the timeline officially being messed with, Loki is likely to lead the way when it comes to other worlds. It’s going to be eventful and I can’t wait. Keep it plugged in here to Black Sports Online as I will be breaking down each episode and explanations for future films.