Loki Just Introduced Some Classic Marvel Villains to the MCU

Loki‘s season 1 finale was a true mind-blower for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as we finally learned who the true master of the Time Variance Authority was. The 2012 Loki variant (Tom Hiddleston) and his female variant Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) successfully battled their way out of the void at the end of time and into the citadel of He Who Remains. There they learn what the puppeteer of the TVA has been up to – and why there is even greater threat waiting beyond him. In the midst of some big origin story monologuing and twist reveals, Marvel Studios introduced these classic Marvel Comics villains to the MCU:

Warning: Loki Finale SPOILERS Follow!

Loki’s finale not only sets up Kang The Conqueror as the next MCU big bad villain, it also establishes an entire army of Kangs lurking out there – a group known in the comics as the “Council of Kangs” or more recently the “Kang Collective.”

It turns out He Who Remains (aka Immortus) is a 31st-century scientist who discovered the multiverse and formed a sort of union with his variant selves, based on the idea of sharing knowledge for mutual advancement. However, when some of those variants turned towards conquering other realities, the scientist and his variants waged the Multiverse War that threatened to destroy all of reality. Ultimately, He Who Remains emerged victorious in the war and pruned all realities down to the one timeline where he alone remains.

However, as soon as Sylvie makes the decision to kill He Who Remains the Sacred Timeline once again fractures into a wild multiverse. Before he dies, He Who Remains warns Sylvie and Loki that with the return of a multiverse will come the combined forces of his evil variants – in other words, the Kang Collective.

In the comics, elements of Kang The Conqueror’s origin are the same as the MCU version. Immortus (and an older variant of Kang) manipulates the formation of the Council of Kangs, a strike force meant to hunt down and eliminate Kang variants that threaten Immortus’ grand plans for the timelines. However, later Marvel Comics introduced variations on the idea: There was the Council of Cross-Time Kangs, which saw various beings take on the mantle and armor of Kang after killing other variant and/or Android versions of the villain; more recently the Kang Collective was introduced as a diverse gang of Kang variants, that come in all kinds of crazy forms.

Like so many things in the MCU, It’s expected that the crazy Marvel Comics lore will be streamlined into something more basic for the MCU. There’s an army of Kangs out there (presumably led by the classic “Prime Kang” like the comics), and they are now coming.

Loki is streaming on Disney+.