Is The Real Kang Going To Be Loki Season 2's Villain Now?

In hindsight, Loki season 1 was the true beginning of Marvel’s Multiverse Saga, and there are enough setups for Kang The Conqueror to be season 2’s main villain before opposing the Avengers. While Doctor Strange introduced the concept of a multiverse in 2016, it was only after Loki season 1 that the MCU started to use the multiverse as a synonym for alternate universes and infinite possibilities. Loki season 1's multiverse dive was followed by other multiverse-related Marvel's Phase 4 movies and shows, and now everything is set to be paid off with Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars at the end of Phase 6.

In the MCU, the concepts of time travel, alternate timelines, and alternate universes have been combined to make it easier for the franchise to translate Marvel’s multiverse to the big screen. Time travel played a huge part in Avengers: Endgame, and it made it possible for Tom Hiddleston’s Loki to be revisited after the character’s death in Avengers: Infinity War. Loki escaping the Avengers and changing history created a branch in the timeline, which set the events of Loki season 1 in motion. Loki was removed from the Thor and Avengers-related storylines and placed inside the ominous TVA, but what seemed like a self-contained story ended up having major implications for the MCU.

Through Loki’s eyes, audiences learned more about the MCU’s multiverse rules – at least partially. How exactly Marvel’s multiverse will play out on screen is still not set in stone, as shows like What If…? and movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness feature slightly different interpretations of how all it works. That said, Marvel is clearly making Kang a multiversal villain rather than just a time-traveling one. The Kang Dynasty will lead straight into Secret Wars, which could see Kang replacing Doom as the saga’s main villain. Before The Kang Dynasty, Jonathan Major’s Kang will appear in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, but it was really in Loki season 1 that the character’s story started. Loki season 1 ended on a major cliffhanger involving Kang The Conqueror, and Loki season 2 will have to pick up that storyline once it releases during Summer 2023 – months after Quantumania and two years before The Kang Dynasty.

Loki Season 1 Secretly Set Up Marvel’s Multiverse Saga

The fact that a show about Loki, the God of Mischief, was made into a sci-fi time-travel story focused on alternate timelines should have been the biggest indication that the multiverse was the MCU’s next major saga. After Avengers: Endgame concluded the Infinity Saga with a massive battle and a record-breaking box office, there were not many options for how the MCU could grow bigger other than the multiverse. Loki season 1 set the stage for what is now known as the Multiverse Saga, and it introduced concepts like sacred timeline, variants, and most importantly, Kang The Conqueror. Kang was never name-dropped in Loki, but Loki and Sylvie got to have a long conversation with He Who Remains – a Kang variant responsible for protecting a sacred timeline from the dangers of the other Kangs. He Who Remain’s death at the hands of Sylvie exposed the MCU’s multiverse to many threats, which made the Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stories possible.

Will Kang Be Loki’s Season 2 Villain?

Kang's TVA statue and Tom Hiddleston as Loki

At the end of Loki season 1, Loki goes back to what seemed like a regular TVA – except for one big change. Instead of three statues for the fake Time-Keepers, there was now a statue of a more classic Kang The Conqueror. As He Who Remains warned, his death changed the rules of the multiverse, and now the TVA belonged to another Kang variant – one, who at least visually, is closer to the Avengers villain Kang The Conqueror. Loki will have to deal with that change, especially given that no one at the TVA, including Mobius, remembers him anymore. Another strong hint that Loki season 2 will see the “real” Kang as the main villain is that Ravonna Renslayer’s story is confirmed to continue. In the comics, Ravonna has a long history with Kang, and now Loki has all of the necessary setups to translate that relationship to the MCU.

How Loki Season 2 Can Lead Into Avengers: The Kang Dynasty

Kang and the Citadel at the end of Time in Loki

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will be responsible to debut Jonathan Major’s Kang on the big screen before Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. That said, after all the setup at the end of Loki season 1, it is difficult to picture a season 2 that does not involve at least one of the main Kang variants. Loki season 2 is expected to premiere after Quantumania as part of Marvel’s Phase 5, and it could serve as a bridge between the events of the movie and The Kang Dynasty. During San Diego Comic-Con 2022, Kevin Feige highlighted that one of the most interesting things about Kang is the possibilities that his many variants offer. Even if Loki season 2's Kang is not the exact same as Quantumania and The Kang Dynasty, it can still serve as an important piece of the puzzle leading up to Marvel’s Secret Wars. Kang could remain as a behind-the-scenes villain in Loki season 2, and even if Loki "saves" the TVA once again, Kang The Conqueror could still come out as victorious in the long game, setting the stage for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.