We're only two episodes deep into Loki's TV show, but the internet is ablaze with lots of fan theories concerning the Disney Plus series.
While Loki episode 2 confirmed a longstanding rumor about one Marvel character's introduction, fans are still convinced that a prominent villain – someone who's set to appear in an MCU Phase 4 movie – will also make their debut in Loki.
That individual is Kang the Conqueror – and, if a recent Reddit fan theory can be taken at face value, we could see Kang make their inaugural MCU appearance in Loki.
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Discussing their theory in the Marvel Studios Spoiler sub-Reddit, user experiM3NTALcase suggested that Kang's MCU introduction hinged on the TVA.
Of course, rumors of that nature emerged after Loki episode 1. In the series premiere, fans appeared convinced that one of the Time Keepers (that we saw in Ms. Minutes' explanation of the sacred timeline) was Kang. That's because one of the trio bears an uncanny resemblance to the scientific genius.
However, experiM3NTALcase takes this theory even further. They suggest that the TVA is the Quantum Realm based city that audiences caught a brief glimpse of in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Confused? Allow us to explain. Near the movie's end, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his wife Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) are reunited in the Quantum Realm. As they leave in Pym's sub-atomic ship, we can make out a city, encased in a bubble, in the background of the shot.
Comic book fans will have seen this and thought of Chronopolis. For the uninitiated, Chronopolis is the city headquarters of Kang, which is located on the outskirts of the timeless dimension known as Limbo.
How does this all tie into Kang's potential appearance in Loki? It's plausible that, instead of Chronopolis, the bubble city in the Quantum Realm is the TVA's headquarters – and Kang may be in charge of it.
As Owen Wilson's Agent Mobius tells Loki in episode 1: "Time passes differently here in the TVA". We already know that time passes much more slowly in the Quantum Realm, as Janet Van Dyne hasn't aged much (due to the effect of quantum particles) since she last saw Hank Pym in 1987.
If the TVA is the bubble city in the Quantum Realm, time would pass slowly here, too. That's what Mobius may be referring to, and the theory only gets stronger when you take another Reddit user's thoughts into consideration.
Discussing a similar theory in another thread, user KrishnasFlute added further fuel to the fire. According to them, we've been shown that time travel is possible through the Quantum Realm (thanks to Avengers: Endgame), so the TVA could be using this dimension to travel to different points in time to search for time variants.
Add in the fact that Kang the Conqueror is a time-traveling supervillain in Marvel Comics, and TVA leader Ravonna Renslayer's comic ties to Kang, and things really do seem to add up.
Analysis: will Kang make his MCU debut in Loki?
While the above fan theory seems a lot more plausible than other ones we've seen in the past, it may just be a wild coincidence that these puzzle pieces seem to fit.
For one, the TVA looks massive compared to the bubble city in Ant-Man and the Wasp. As Loki episode 1 showed, the TVA spans across a huge area (Loki was in awe when he first glimpsed it) of an unknown dimension. Unless the TVA looks much larger on the inside than it does outside (similar to Doctor Who's TARDIS) it may be too big to fit inside one of the Quantum Realm's bubbles.
Then there's recent comments by Jonathan Majors, who will portray Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Speaking to Variety about whether he'll turn up as Kang in Loki, Majors simply said: “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Of course, this could be Majors throwing readers off the scent. Marvel Studios are notoriously secretive about their projects, and Majors wouldn't want to reveal a major Loki spoiler if he is set to feature in some capacity.
Finally, Ravonna Renslayer actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw recently told Screen Rant that Loki would serve as an "origin story" for her character. That suggests that Ravonna Renslayer hasn't pledged her allegiance to Kang just yet, so she shouldn't have any idea about who he is.
As intriguing as this latest Kang fan theory is, we have to err on the side of caution and say that, while highly plausible, we don't think it's true.
It fits well together but fans shouldn't be able to work out a character reveal so easily. We expect more from Marvel regarding how it'll weave its characters into the MCU, and this seems a tad too simple to work out for us.
Thankfully, we won't have long to wait to see if Kang does make his MCU debut in Loki. There are only four more episodes to go, so we'll know by July 14 if this fan theory is actually true or not.
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