As most readers know, Kang was intended to be the Thanos-esque big bad of Phases Four through Six of the MCU, making Loki‘s first season the kick-off to that arc. However, when Majors’s off-screen behavior got him dropped by Disney, Kevin Feige used to break to rethink the company’s plans, leading to the decision to bring back the Russo Brothers to direct Doomsday and to make Doctor Doom the new overarching threat.
However, those decisions came after Loki‘s second season was shot. Rather than rendering the season superfluous, it instead gave the show its own quiet corner of the MCU to work in. The season does indeed deal with the fallout of Sylvie’s decision, as the multiverse is now spinning out of control without He Who Remains or a functioning TVA to stop it. Part of the episode is spent with Loki recruiting former TVA workers, who have gone on to new lives or have tried to return to the lives they led before He Who Remains plucked them out and remade them into his employees. The other part involves trying to deal with the threat of Kang by recruiting a younger, more peaceful variant called Victor Timely, played by Majors.
Despite all of the high-stakes storytelling, the second season managed to keep focused on the characters. Without He Who Remains there to control them, the characters get glimpses of the lives they had and contrast them to the lives they currently live. For Mobius, that means realizing he was once a kindly jet ski salesman named Don, who enjoyed a quiet life in suburbia. For Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), that means she was both a well-liked vice principal and potentially an interplanatery conqueror in service of He Who Remains.
The possibilities strike Loki hardest of all. While the first season convinced him that the “glorious purpose” he thought he deserved would never come to be, the second season leaves him wondering who he could be if not the God of Lies. His slow realization builds to a beautiful and tragic end, perhaps the most satisfying character arcs in the entire MCU.
We won’t spoil it here, but the end is so perfect that one wonders how it will play into Doomsday. But even if the movie doesn’t touch on Loki’s personal development, the added scene in Avengers Encore demonstrates that the plot points of the show will carry on into the new movie. So whether you want more lore or satisfying character development, Loki season two is the perfect way to prepare for Doomsday.
