The MCU series is expected to return to Disney+ in the summer of 2023.
Following an acclaimed first season, which earned six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, fans have been eagerly awaiting the return of Loki with season 2. The series, starring Tom Hiddleston as the God of Mischief, details what happened when the character created a divergent timeline following his escape with the Tesseract during the events of Avengers: Endgame.
Season 1 then followed Loki as he found himself in trouble with the Time Variance Authority, which monitors all the timelines in the universe and sees its employees painstakingly maintaining the Scared Timeline. After a twist-filled run of six episodes, the season ended with the introduction of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) and confirmation that "Loki will return in season 2," marking the first live-action MCU Disney+ show to get a second installment.
Here's everything we know about what's to come as Loki's adventures continue, and how Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania helps set up the new episodes.
How Season 1 Ended
After a thrilling adventure through space and time as Loki chased down Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), the two find themselves at The Citadel at the End of Time, where they eventually meet a variant of He Who Remains.
In a very forthcoming conversation, it's revealed that Kang discovered the multiverse and used it to connect with other variants before sparking a multiversal war between all the Kangs after one variant decided he wanted to conquer all the other realities. This led the present Kang to harness the power of Alioth to manage the flow of time, thereby creating the Sacred Timeline as well as the TVA.
After learning all of this, Sylvie decides she wants Kang's spot at the center of the multiverse and stabs him in the chest, creating a Nexus Event, which bursts the multiverse wide open and creating chaos that was later seen in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Loki, meanwhile, was sent back to the TVA by Sylvie, only to realize that he's not in the same timeline as before. The Mobius (Owen Wilson) and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) he once knew don't seem to recognize him and the massive Time-Keeper statues in the lobby have been replaced by a statue of Kang.
What Season 2 Is About
According to Hiddleston, "season 2 picks up where season 1 left off," with Loki back in the TVA trying to deal with the ramifications of what Sylvie has done. Very few specific details about the plot itself have been released, but it's safe to say audiences will see the titular character exploring an "ever-expanding and infinitely more dangerous multiverse," especially as the MCU moves into Phase Five, which kicks off with the third Ant-Man film starring Paul Rudd as Scott Lang.
Not only that, but Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who plays Ravonna Renslayer, told ET that fans "are gonna be in for a real treat because the show is bolder and more surreal. And, in many ways, goes to some bigger, bolder places than season 1, which is really exciting."
Creator Michael Waldron, meanwhile, teased that season 2 is "a continued evolution of the character. That’s what was always important to Tom and that’s what was important to me." He added that "if we’re going to continue [the first season story] in a second season, we have to cover new emotional ground. And the great news is that that character keeps revealing new layers of texture and complexity."
'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' End Credit Scene
Released in theaters on Feb. 17, the latest installment in the MCU is the first official chapter in Phase Five and formally established Kang as the multiverse's big bad and a character expected to loom large overall the remaining film and TV projects not only in Phase Five but also Phase Six, which will presumably unite many of the existing heroes (and storylines) with Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
Before then, a variant of Kang will next be seen in Loki season 2, something confirmed with Quantumania's second end credit scene, which sees Loki and Mobius watching him give a presentation on stage, in what appears to be the early or mid 1800s. However, Loki and Mobius' reaction upon discovering this variant is not a happy one, hinting at the dangers to come in season 2 and beyond.
"So, you know, that's obviously Victor Timely," director Peyton Reed said, referring to the variant who traveled back in time in order to start his conquest from the beginning of the modern age. "I was whisked by the set when they were shooting that and I just loved his Frederick Douglass hair and his whole sort of period, the intonation of his voice and everything."
He added, "It really was to sort of tease the audience with the idea of like, 'In Phase Five, you're going to meet a lot of different variants.'"
Not only that, but the scene helps tie everything back together. "As the MCU has been steering towards these multiversal stories… it made sense to sort of adapt [Kang] for that. And it worked with what was going to go on in Loki, so very early on as they were developing Loki and we were developing this movie, it just made sense," Reed noted.
New and Returning Faces
Written by Eric Martin and mostly directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, season 2 will consist of six episodes. The confirmed returning cast includes Hiddleston, Wilson, Di Martino, Mbatha-Raw as well as Tara Strong as Miss Minutes and Eugene Cordero as Hunter K-5E.
When it comes to Renslayer, Mbatha-Raw teased what's in store for her character after it was revealed that she is also a variant, which prompted her to leave the TVA in search of free will. "In Loki, Ravonna is a powerful presence," she said, adding in season 2, "selfishly, Renslayer makes it out of the TVA, which I'm really excited about."
Joining this season are Ke Huy Quan as a TVA archivist while Rafael Casal and Kate Dickie have been added in undisclosed roles. When asked about the upcoming episodes, Quan told ET that fans "are in for a treat."
Still unconfirmed is whether Mosaku will return despite Hiddleston's comments that season 2 picks up after the season 1 finale moment with Loki coming upon Mobius and B-15.
Premiere Date and First Look at New Episodes
While no official release date has been announced, season 2 is expected to premiere on Disney+ sometime during the summer.
At the beginning of 2023, the streaming platform released an expanded teaser for all the new and returning original series coming out this year with new footage of Loki season 2.
In the clip, narrated by Hiddleston (as Loki), viewers were promised "new stories, definitely new faces and some familiar ones too, including this handsome fellow" as the montage shared the first official look at the show's new episodes.
Since then, Disney+ has shared a few more snippets of upcoming episodes in another platform-wide preview. This time, Loki is heard saying, "This is about everything," before the ad flashes clips of him fighting with magic and standing in front of a mosaic of the original Time-Keepers in what may be a previously unseen space in the TVA.
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