The Multiverse is coming to the MCU, and it appears Loki will be the introduction to the audience for it. Loki is currently set to premiere on June 9, 2021, and is the third installment of MCU Phase 4 following WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Loki will follow the trickster god teaming up with the TVA to clean up issues with the timeline caused by Loki surviving the events of The Avengers in an alternate timeline.
The multiverse is a major factor in many MCU projects. The concept was first name-dropped in Doctor Strange, and was teased in Spider-Man: Far From Home, which all turned out to be a con pulled by Mysterio. The multiverse is set to be a major factor in Phase 4 with Spider-Man: No Way Home rumored to be a multiverse adventure featuring returning villains from past non-MCU Spider-Man films like Alfred Molina's Doc Ock and Jamie Foxx as Electro. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as the title suggests, will play with the concept and be a follow-up to WandaVision. The animated series, What If...?, will show viewers different takes on popular MCU stories, and now it appears Loki will kick off everything.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Loki head writer and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness screenwriter, Michael Waldron, discussed working in the MCU with fellow Rick and Morty alumni, Jeff Loverness. Loverness is penning the script for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Waldron said, “Jeff’s dealing with the Quantum Realm and I was dealing with time travel and the multi-verse." While in an interview with EW, Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige, said of Loki and the multiverse:
He's been around for thousands of years. He had all sorts of adventures. Wanting to fill in the blanks and see much more of Loki's story [was] the initial desire [for the series].
Part of the fun of the multiverse and playing with time is seeing other versions of characters. And other versions of the titular character in particular.
What is interesting, is how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the MCU release schedule and the question of if Loki was always the intended first introduction to the multiverse. When Marvel first announced their Phase 4 slate at Comic-Con, Loki was slated for 2021 but so was Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, then set for release on May 7, 2021. The release date for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was delayed when director Scott Derrickson dropped out and Sam Raimi took over. The addition of Spider-Man: No Way Home also to the release schedule shook things up, which is now arriving six months after Loki airs.
The multiverse will introduce many exciting possibilities for the MCU. As Phase 4 begins a new uncharted course, fans are starting to get a glimpse of the various threads that unite the films. WandaVision, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness form a loose trilogy, and it appears Loki and the animated series What If...? are also connected in this multiverse saga. Warner Bros. and DC Comics are hoping fans accept the concept of a multiverse like having multiple Batman actors in one film, now it seems that Marvel is about to dive deep into the concept.
Source: Vanity Fair/Entertainment Weekly