Loki Season 2 Trailer Breakdown: Time Is Running Out On The God(s) Of Mischief

If time travel were truly possible and fans today could travel back 15 years to tell their younger selves that Loki, the God of Mischief, would end up becoming one of the most popular characters in all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — big enough to merit two seasons (and counting) of his own show — well, they'd probably get laughed back into their regular timeline again. But with the benefit of hindsight, the recipe for success behind "Loki" is easy to see. Take one of the most talented and charismatic actors currently working in Tom Hiddleston, add in a buddy comedy dynamic with Owen Wilson's Time Variance Authority agent Mobius, and wrap it all up in a "Doctor Who"-inspired romp through different timelines in a setup for Marvel's newest and baddest villain, and it's no wonder why "Loki" took off like it did.

Amid all the hijinks of season 1 of "Loki," the spin-off from "Avengers: Endgame" introduced another instant fan-favorite in Sophia Di Martino's Sylvie, a Loki variant with an immensely tragic backstory who finds herself caught up in a much bigger adventure than she ever could've anticipated. Between hints of a very quirky romance between the two Lokis, the discovery of a conspiracy embedded deep within the core of the TVA, and a finale that ended on the cliffhanger involving our first look at Jonathan Majors' Kang, viewers have had to wait over two years to find out how the irreparably fractured timeline could possibly be resolved. With the release of the first trailer for "Loki" season 2 this morning, the answers are finally starting to come ... along with a whole lot more questions, naturally.

The footage teases all sorts of unexpected plot developments, new characters, and, above all, the looming threat of Kang.

"We have a little bit of a situation we wanted to run by you," Mobius somberly states to a TVA figure we see lowered from the ceiling in some neat little contraption. In absolutely no time at all, the trailer puts its best and most exciting addition to the season front and center: "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "The Goonies," and "Everything Everywhere All at Once" star Ke Hey Quan. The casting was first announced at last year's D23 to great secrecy, but now it's been made clear that he plays a TVA agent named OB working out of the "Repairs & Advancement" division. After playing several different versions of himself in the similarly multiverse-themed "Everything Everywhere All at Once," it's easy to see why Marvel would want to strike while the iron was hot and cast him in a supporting role for what's sure to be an even more complicated second season of "Loki."

No, that's not Loki doing his best impression of one of those inflatable tube men from Jordan Peele's "Nope." The new set of problems to kick off this new season are made apparent right away, as the "situation" Mobius refers to ends up rearing its head right in front of OB. Loki is apparently suffering from some "time-slipping" shenanigans, which keeps throwing him from location to location at the most inopportune moments. Is this a nasty side effect of Loki and Sylvie breaking the "Sacred Timeline" in the season 1 finale by killing that variant of Kang? Is this Marvel's answer to the multiverse "glitching" featured in Sony's "Spider-Verse" movies? Or is this something else entirely? Either way, OB makes it clear that this is not supposed to be possible within the confines of the TVA, which means this isn't something he's equipped to fix.

The biggest consequence of this time-slipping isn't just the inconvenience of it all, however. It also appears to take Loki from the present to the past and back again, as hinted at when Loki is thrown back into what sure looks like a scene from season 1 when Loki first landed in the TVA. Left unchecked, this could potentially cause even more "incursions" in the timeline (as explained in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness") and hasten the destruction of reality as they know it. So, yeah, it's easy to understand Mobius and Loki would want to get this settled as soon as possible. But even that issue might pale in comparison to the encroaching threat of a major villain.

What is a god of mischief to a conqueror of worlds? Season 1 left audiences on the cliffhanger that, as a result of Sylvie killing the mysterious Kang variant known as He Who Remains and throwing the multiverse into chaos, the very fabric of reality itself has changed for the worse. In the TVA, a massive statue of Kang the Conqueror has come out of nowhere to replace that of the Time-Keepers, the godlike beings that the TVA previously thought to be in charge of everything. Season 1 revealed that these were nothing more than android creations, of course, but Kang obviously poses a much greater threat. Here, Loki revisits that moment when he stabs a mural depicting the Time-Keepers (complete with one of the decapitated android heads lying in the foreground, cut off by Sylvie in episode 4) and magically reveals more Kang statues, further hinting at his impending arrival — one that means there will be "nothing to stand between this world and utter destruction."

Some of the best moments of "Loki" season 1 came when Mobius recruited Loki into traveling across multiple timelines in order to hunt down one of his own troublemaking variants, which turned out to be Sylvie. Naturally, it seems like season 2 will try to recreate that time-traveling gimmick by having Loki and Morbius travel back in time with their fancy TVA gadgets to a very specific and intriguing moment in history — the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the Midway Plaisance, an extensive mile-long carnival adjoining the fair that served as a secondary attraction. This town fair consisted of all sorts of shops, attractions, and rides (including, yes, the world's first Ferris wheel shown in the trailer), providing a colorful backdrop to whatever Loki and Morbius are doing here. The pair soon find themselves into a tricky spot, as Loki is forced to blast green magical energy at an unknown assailant in some sort of fight taking place at the base of the Ferris wheel. According to a highly-spirited voiceover by Mobius, this is all just a result of "good ol' fashioned legwork" to get to the bottom of whatever mysteries lie at the heart of season 2.

As the footage shows an oddly out-of-context shot of theatergoers lining up outside a showing of something called "The Zaniac" (diehard fans may have an idea of what that's about), there's also a glimpse of a returning Hunter B-15 in a yellow dressing gown, the former TVA soldier played by Wunmi Mosaku who later reformed her ways and helped our heroes once the truth behind the TVA was exposed at the end of season 1.

Oh, things are about to get weird, folks. After seeing Sylvie looking real pensive while dressed up in a McDonald's outfit, one of the bigger laughs in the trailer is provided by Ke Huy Quan, when Mobius worriedly notices a huge crack in the helmet of his bulky spacesuit. After slapping some duct tape on it, OB confidently remarks, "You're good!" and sends him out on some sort of dangerous-looking mission that might very well involve a more hands-on effort to fix the out-of-control timeline. Season 1 made a big deal out of the TVA's purpose to "prune" wayward alternate universes that cause further instability, so could that glowing object in the background possibly be a more literal representation of the timeline splitting apart?

Either way, strange things are clearly afoot at the TVA as we see Loki interrogating a TVA prisoner, narrowly avoiding a falling television screen, and Sylvie expressing concern over the fact that they're "playing god." "We are gods," Loki replies before we see the two teaming up to subdue another mysterious character — or, rather, we see their shadows (complete with the distinctive silhouette of their horned helmets) somehow pinning a man against a wall before a shot of a returning Judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) hefting a pretty gnarly-looking weapon. Last we saw of her, she was on a mission to find "free will" after her faith in the TVA was shaken.

Someone over at Marvel must be a real big fan of Christopher Nolan. In a shot that looks heavily indebted to "The Prestige," the trailer returns to the post-credits tease from "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," which revealed Loki and Morbius attending some sort of magician's show starring none other than a variant of Kang. As Majors' voiceover describes the dilemma to "Make the hard choice," his face reveal in 1800s clothing — obviously taking place at that World's Fair — finally addresses the elephant in the room. Majors is currently dealing with multiple allegations of workplace misconduct, domestic violence, and abuse, which has had the secondary concern of putting Marvel in a real bind considering that Kang stands to play a Thanos-level role for years to come. The trailer avoids any real look at Kang for as long as it can, but it's difficult to imagine that the actor won't play a significant role in the season. While "Loki" had completed filming too early for any major restructuring, it remains to be seen how Marvel makes the "hard choice" to address Majors' presence moving forward.

It remains unclear how exactly all these various loose threads will all come together, but one thing seems obvious: Nothing good has come out of Loki and Sylvie's meddling with the timeline. "War is on its way," according to Loki as he points to another mural depicting all the Kang variants fighting one another, as He Who Remains described to Loki and Sylvie in the season 1 finale. This is intercut with images of the villainous hologram Miss Minutes (voiced by Tara Strong) terrorizing a group of people at the World's Fair, destruction and war arriving at the TVA itself, and Loki and Sylvie battling more TVA agents before unleashing a blast of their combined magical powers. Whatever season 2 of "Loki" has in store, audiences can safely expect this to have long-term ramifications on the rest of the shared universe. 

"Loki" season 2 will premiere on Disney+ on October 6, 2023.