Loki Nearly Included Many Other Timelines in MCU History

Loki Season 1 opened the doorway to an entire Marvel Cinematic Multiverse, by introducing the TVA (Time Variance Authority) and the entire concept of alternate universes and timelines. The bulk of Loki’s six episodes saw the Trickster God following the TVA (and his own female variant, Sylvie) into wild new realities or places in time. We got to see historical events like the destruction of Pompeii (79 AD), dystopian futures like 2050 Alabama, alien worlds (Lamentis-1), and even a realm between realities that the TVA uses as a temporal dumping ground (The Void). 

However, it seems like all of those alternate realities that Loki brought us was just a small sampling of what was planned! 

The new book “Marvel Studios’ Loki: The Art of the Series” reveals panels of artwork that were done to illustrate the various timelines that Loki might visit in the series. These include a saloon visit in an Old West; a steampunk visit of a locomotive in the Industrial Revolution; a 1970s city set piece; a visit to New Asgard; debate in the Ancient Roman Senate; a visit to the pyramids and pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, and a sword-swinging clash with feudal warriors (samurai) of ancient Japan. 

While these were all just concept art prior to Loki’s actual production, they are pretty stunning, visually. These particular artistic concepts also clearly show why these ideas weren’t brought into the finished show: each one look like it would’ve added significant cost to the overall production budget, if not forcing additional exterior shoots at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. One could hope that some of them (all?) get used in Loki Season 2 – but right now, it’s looking like the sophomore season could actually focus more on giving us remixed versions of the TVA and the entire premise of Loki, as Season 1 ended with Loki stranded in a new reality where Kang has seemingly conquered and rules supreme. While that’s a wilder premise for the series, it’s actually easier, production-wise, to simply redress the previous sets in Kang-themed decor. 

That said, a lot of Marvel fans are now looking at Loki Season 2 as a much more pivotal chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Multiverse Saga. That’s especially true of projects like Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, which could see the villain literally cutting a swath across realities on the way to ultimately conquering the Multiverse. 

Loki Season 2 is in production. It will stream on Disney+ in 2023.