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3 'Loki' Season 2 Theories Surrounding "Kang" From the Drama-Filled Episode 1

Will Kang return in season 2 of Loki?

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Published Oct 6, 2023

Our favorite shit-starter is back in action! Season 2 of Loki premiered last night, and boy did it leave us with some questions and theories. A jam-packed episode that might require a second watch to digest fully, Loki stars Tom Hiddleston, as the titular character who has quickly become one of the most beloved in the MCU (and one of the best villains in the MCU, we might add). The season premiere has arrived via Disney+, and we're going to cut straight to the chase here—we've got a couple of theories from episode 1, and it involves Kang the Conqueror and our potential expectations of him and his variants in season 2.

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We already know Loki's predicament—he's in a Time Variance Authority (TVA) jam where he's been pruned. We don't know who exactly pruned him yet, but we're assuming we'll get the answer to that question in episode 2 maybe? Perhaps? Not sure, but that's a topic of discussion for a different day. We're wondering what's really going on with Kang the Conqueror aka Kang. Here are three theories we got from watching episode 1. Ready?

Spoilers from Loki Season 2, Episode 1 are below.

1. He Who Remains Will Be Making Another Appearance

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Yes, we know He Who Remains was killed off in season 1 and is still presumed to be dead. That means technically speaking he can't make any more appearances. However, you can get over that technicality if you time-travel back to the past, which already appears to be happening in episode 1. So you can't get He Who Remains in the present but you can deal with him if you have to back into the past...right? See where we're going with this?

2. More Kang Variants Will Appear

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This is why keeping up with the MCU can be so tricky—if you need a guide to catching up, we got you. If you watched all the way through the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania end scenes/post-credit, then you already know that Victor Timely and Rama Tut were introduced with what appeared to be hundreds of different Kang variants. While we've gotten some answers through season 1 about some of those variants, don't forget there's more out there if we're going based on the Ant-Man 3 ending. We've got a theory that there's going to be some new (or old depending on how you want to look at it) Kang that's introduced into the lineup and that he's going to play a pretty big role in what's happening with Loki and the TVA, which leads us to our next point.

3. A Kang Variant is Responsible for Pruning Loki

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It's Kang that's responsible for pruning Loki. We strongly suspect that Kang is the one behind this because behind all the "good" variants is a very evil, dangerous, and powerful villain who's the originator. We already know from Loki producer Kevin Wright that Victor Timely will play a huge role this season as per his interview with Uproxx where he told the publication: "What I can say is the show that is on-screen, that will be, going out, is the show that we wanted to make. Victor Timely was always a big part of that. The story that is there is what was written, what was shot. This is maybe the first Marvel movie or show with zero additional photography. So I think we feel strongly about what the story is, what the performances are. And we’re happy with it, and it’s what the show is."

It wouldn't be unreasonable for there to be a plot twist involving Victor Timely now would it? It also wouldn't be impossible for something to have gone "wrong," which ultimately resulted in the prune. We'll have to see!