Within a few short hours of each other, Marvel Studios released the Loki season 2 finale and The Marvels. Both projects set the stage for the Multiverse Saga's future, albeit in vastly different ways.
The God of Mischief's solo series explored the creation of a new, infinite Multiverse and left the door open to war erupting between Kang and his many Variants. As for Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and Photon's team-up, it teased interdimensional travel and delivered a game-changing post-credits scene.
However, there are ways they both laid the groundwork for what comes next in ways you may not have realised or noticed on a first viewing. In this feature, we take a deep dive into all of that and more, and trust us when we say this Saga could be bigger, and more epic, than what we've seen so far suggests.
To take a look through this breakdown, all you need to do is click on the "Next" button below.
7. The Multiverse Is Reborn
He Who Remains made it so that Loki would gain his new time-slipping abilities, and the villain's endgame was for the God of Mischief to kill Sylvie and rule over the Sacred Timeline in his place. What he doesn't account for is the impact Loki's new friends have had on him.
After travelling back to key moments in time to speak to Mobius and Sylvie, Loki realised he could destroy the Time Loom and free everyone from the destinies written for them. Now, they have free will, and while not everyone is going to survive the Multiversal War that's coming, they at least have the choice to die fighting rather than live in a gilded cage.
Loki reignited the dying branches and currently sits at the Citadel at the End of Time, watching over the Multiverse for eternity. It will ultimately fall, whether it be at the hands of Kang or those incursions, and in the meantime, the Asgardian's actions have opened the door to all the Multiverse-relevant stories seen in this Saga (and those yet to come).
As for what this means for Loki, we'll get to that later.
6. Photon May Be More Powerful Than We First Imagined
After Dar-Benn's abuse of Jump Points tears a hole between realities, Monica Rambeau powers up and uses her abilities to fix that. Needless to say, this is quite the power move on Photon's part and suggests she's stronger than first imagined.
If she can fix something like that, it stands to reason she might be able to open a doorway as well. Now, her powers are likely to be key when Earth's Mightiest Heroes assemble to stop the incursions which are now happening across the Multiverse. They're said to be the result of prolonged Multiversal travel, so Monica being in a different universe must surely put her new "home" at risk.
However, if she's mastered the ability to close the sort of tears we saw in The Marvels and Spider-Man: No Way Home, she may well be a central figure in the Multiverse Saga who ultimately helps turn the tide.
5. Reality-Hopping Potential
Kamala Khan travelled back in time in Ms. Marvel thanks to a bangle we can now identify as a Quantum Band. When Dar-Benn uses both at the same time, she opens the door to a different universe which starts bleeding into the one Earth-616 calls home, seemingly confirming theories the Kree artefacts are capable of interdimensional travel.
There have been hints that Kang has scattered many items like those across reality, including Shang-Chi's Ten Rings. How and why all these will link up is still a mystery to us, with both Shang-Chi and Ms. Marvel potentially key to Multiversal travel (the same applies to America Chavez once she masters her powers).
The point is, there are now several beings on Earth-616 who can reality-hop in some form or another. What we saw in The Marvels was an uncontrollable mess, but if she figures out how to make the Quantum Bands obey her, Ms. Marvel may soon rank among the MCU's strongest superheroes. Doctor Strange, Clea, and the Scarlet Witch could also be crucial in this respect.
4. God Loki
Is Loki now the most powerful being in existence? An argument could be made for that, especially as he's powering the new Multiverse and able to watch over every and any timeline on his Yggdrasil-inspired infinite Multiverse. The knowledge he has arguably can't be matched, even by The Watcher.
Branches can now grow and flourish without dying, but that means all those Kang Variants will soon start emerging. We've already seen it happen in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania when one of them, the Conqueror, was banished to the Quantum Realm. His doppelgangers, meanwhile, assembled the Council of Kangs to decide what to do about the Multiverse's heroes interfering in their plans.
He Who Remains is gone, so they don't know about the TVA; that presumably means they also have zero clue that Loki powers this Multiverse. While history is destined to repeat itself to some extent (Kang appears to be a constant who will just keep returning), remember that this is a new Multiverse and the war on the horizon isn't necessarily going to play out the same way.
The game-changer in this equation is Loki; freed from his exile when the Multiverse falls, he can eventually return and turn the tide against Kang. The TVA, meanwhile, already exists and so won't be created by Nathaniel Richards. Instead, they've been teed up by Loki to prepare for the war to come, not be pawns in it.
3. The TVA's New Mission
Talking of the Time Variance Authority, the Loki finale establishes that they're on the lookout for He Who Remains' Variants and, honestly, they don't seem overly concerned. That or both Mobius and Hunter B-15 are playing it surprisingly cool while discussing Kang the Conqueror's apparent defeat in the Earth-616-adjacent Quantum Realm.
The TVA is up to something, though, and this is a plot thread we expect to see continue in Deadpool 3.
Rumour has it the group is still keeping an eye on problematic timelines, bringing the Merc with the Mouth to their attention when he starts toying with time travel. However, they're also assembling an army of "Prime" heroes powerful enough to defend the Multiverse in the war that's yet to come. We're guessing this is where Wolverine comes in, and it makes sense for both heroes to eventually be stranded on Earth-616.
We're guessing things escalate after Loki and the Council of Kangs likely have something to do with it. That's surely what prompts the TVA to assemble an army of Variants, taking its cues from what He Who Remains once did (but, in place of regular people, they're using superheroes).
2. Enter, The X-Men
When Monica wakes up, she comes face-to-face with her mother, Maria Rambeau. She died of cancer while her daughter was blipped on Earth-616, and this Variant appears to be a new take on the mutant Binary. Unsurprisingly, Maria doesn't recognise her "daughter" but is this the same Captain Marvel Variant who was a member of the Illuminati on Earth-838?
We don't think so. It's possible she survived that clash with the Scarlet Witch and powered up to become Binary; however, this scene feels a lot like Marvel Studios' attempt to move on from that iteration (while still showing just how many different versions of these characters exist across the Multiverse).
The fact she's a card-carrying member of the X-Men is a huge deal, as is the fact we get to see a comic-accurate Beast! He mentions Charles - as in, Charles Xavier/Professor X - and the surroundings are based on 20th Century Fox's X-Men franchise. If that's the case, though, why does Beast look so different?
Remember, we're talking about the Multiverse here. This could just be a version of their world which is slightly different; alternatively, it's feasible that both Beast and the X-Men have simply evolved since we last saw them, a regular occurrence from film to film. Either way, their Earth-616 Variants have now entered the MCU!
1. Young Avengers Assemble
In a final sequence that feels like it was once supposed to be a post-credits scene, Kamala Khan approaches Kate Bishop and suggests they put a team together. The MCU's new Hawkeye scoffs at the idea of being a Young Avenger - she's 23 - but seems keen to join Ms. Marvel's group of new superheroes.
Kamala already knows Ant-Man has a daughter and it's going to be very interesting to keep an eye on how this group continues to develop. The MCU is home to plenty of new-generation superheroes, so will this be the main Avengers team or just one of a few teams who assemble later in the Multiverse Saga when Kang's Multiversal War is unleashed upon every reality?
That remains to be seen, though we'd be shocked if Kamala doesn't suddenly have a recurring presence in future MCU projects putting her team together. She could appear in Agatha to recruit Wiccan, for example, but we'd be prepared for the group to assemble off-screen.
It's also not outside the realm of possibility that Captain Marvel will lead them, especially now she's back on Earth and seemingly serving as Ms. Marvel's mentor...