Avengers:
Doomsday is fast approaching the theatres. And ahead of its big release, Marvel Studios has made one thing clear. Out of all its movies and web shows, Disney+ series Loki may be the most important watch ahead of its next tentpole. Marvel recently released the first look trailer of Avengers: Doomsday and the footage shows the return of Tom Hiddleston as the God of Mischief in his first MCU appearance ever since Loki Season 2 marked its finale in 2023. The trailer may be heavy on Robert Downey Jr's Doctor Doom and the assembling of the biggest superhero teams, but the return of Loki could be one of the film's most emotionally resonant moments.
Why is Loki's return important?
Loki was killed by Thanos in
Avengers: Infinity War, but
Avengers: Endgame created an alternate timeline where the 2012 version of the character escaped with the Tesseract. That event, which conflicted with the designated events of the sacred timeline, was the foundation for the Disney+ series, which saw Loki getting captured by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) and forced to confront the consequences of his past actions.
Over two seasons, Loki went from one of Marvel's most unpredictable anti-heroes to one of its most selfless characters. He gave up his own freedom willingly, becoming the God of Time, newly crowned to protect the multiverse by holding together a multitude of branching timelines.
Upcoming emotional reunion
For those who didn't catch the Disney+ series, Loki's appearance in
Avengers: Doomsday may come as a surprise. Thor still believes that his brother died during Infinity War. He has no clue what Loki experienced after escaping in
Endgame or the huge sacrifice he ultimately made to save reality itself. That means the reunion of the two brothers in
Avengers: Doomsday could turn out to be one of the most emotional scenes in the MCU.For viewers who have been following Loki's journey on the web show, the moment is the culmination of years of character development coming full circle.
More than another Marvel show
When Loki debuted, many viewers assumed that Marvel's Disney+ shows were optional companions to the movies. But over the years, one of the most important projects of the franchise turned out to be
Loki. The series not only developed its title character, but introduced the ideas of the Sacred Timeline, multiversal branches and the TVA, which continue to shape the MCU's ongoing Multiverse Saga. Those ideas are probably going to be big in
Avengers: Doomsday and the lead-up to
Avengers: Secret Wars.
Post-Secret Wars era
Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, gave new insight into where the franchise is going beyond the next two
Avengers movies. He also hinted that Secret Wars would act as a new beginning for the franchise as well as a conclusion of the Multiverse saga.
During a recent tour of Shanghai, the Marvel boss said, "We want to do two things. First, to bring some storylines to a close, those that started long before Iron Man, including the original X-Men characters. Second, to simultaneously set the stage for the future.
Avengers: Endgame was truly an end, and since then, we've tried and experimented with many new things. But [Secret Wars] is a beginning. It will establish a streamlined, simplified, single universe that audiences can keep up with. Some things will be familiar, but many, many things will be entirely new."
Future is X-Men
Instead of building on the increasingly tangled multiverse, Marvel will focus on a more straightforward shared universe going forward. Feige also confirmed that the "X-Men will be at its core" of that future, calling the mutant franchise the foundation of Marvel's next big saga. According to him, X-Men are far more than an original team. "It's a universe, a multi-stage saga. Much of that is what we're working towards."
Marvel plans till 2042
Kevin Feige also revealed that Marvel's plans go up till 2042. "There are a lot of those projects that are still years away from being officially announced, but Marvel has already begun to map out stories all the way through 2042," he said.With Doctor Doom now Marvel's latest main villain, and several superhero teams gearing up to join forces in
Avengers: Doomsday, it's all the makings of one of the MCU's biggest crossover events since
Endgame.
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