Loki Makes What If…? The Real First MCU Multiverse of Madness

Avengers: Endgame, and thanks to the events of the latter, the main focus in this new phase is the multiverse and the madness it can bring. Loki turned out to be a key player in the MCU’s multiverse, as it was the trigger of the aforementioned madness.

Loki saw the God of Mischief being brought to the Time Variance Authority (TVA), an organization that oversees the timeline and makes sure things happen as planned – and Loki’s escape wasn’t part of the plan. The TVA recruited Loki to catch one of his variants – Sylvie, played by Sophia Di Martino – but both Lokis ed forces to uncover the truth about the TVA, and they eventually got to the mastermind behind it all. The real villain in Loki turned out to be He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), one of Kang’s variants, and even though Loki tried to stop Sylvie, she ended up killing him and making way to the true multiverse of madness, as taking He Who Remains out would only make way for another Kang variant to take over, and now Kang the Conqueror is looking over the Sacred Timeline.

This makes way for the multiversal madness Miss Minutes warned the audience about in Loki episode 1 and which will be the central theme in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but before that, the MCU will deal with this in a TV show. The next Marvel TV show to be released on Disney+ is What If…?, an animated anthology series that will explore what would happen if some of the biggest moments in the MCU happened differently, bringing together characters that haven’t met in the main MCU timeline or that had a different role at the time of those events. What If…? is bringing back many MCU actors to voice their characters, as are Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter), Josh Brolin (Thanos), Tom Hiddleston, and more, and while the series was originally believed to be just a taste of hypothetical situations, they might actually be a result of the multiverse.

Whaty If...? features Peggy Carter taking the Super Soldier Serum

At the end of Loki season 1, the title character was sent back to the TVA so Sylvie could kill He Who Remains, but the consequences of that murder were almost immediate, as the final scene of the season showed Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) not knowing who Loki is and the TVA headquarters having a giant statue of none other than Kang the Conqueror, so there surely have already been other changes across the multiverse. What If…?, then, won’t be one-shot stories of what could have happened if this or that character had done things differently, and will instead show how the multiverse of madness has affected different timelines as a consequence of the events in Loki. It’s to be seen if these events will directly impact those of the TV shows and movies, mostly Doctor Strange 2 and Spider-Man: No Way Home, but they will at least show the audience what has been happening in other timelines.

Loki turned out to be a lot more important to the MCU than initially believed, and its villain twist and obscure finale set up many scenarios and villains for the near future and make What If…? a proper part of the MCU. Fans will still have to wait a couple of months to see how the multiverse madness will affect the movies, but in the meantime, they will visit other timelines in animated format and see how the events from the main timeline have developed there.

Next: What If...? Trailer Breakdown: All MCU Character Changes & Alt Timelines