Major Loki Season 2 Connection in What If..? Was a “Miracle” (Exclusive)

What If..? was the first Marvel Studios series to follow Loki on Disney+, making the fact that the two connected their finales all that much more impressive. The Season 2 finale of What If..? connected its final frames to the closing moments of Loki Season 2 with a major visual reveal, something the team behind What If..? is chalking up as a “miracle” while talking on the Phase Zero podcast. Spoilers for Loki Season 2 and What If..? Season 2 follow. 

The Loki Season 2 finale saw the God of Mischief finally accept his true burden and purpose, essentially becoming the World Tree and God of Time. It was the only way he could save his friends and multiple timelines which we created when He Who Remains was killed by Sylvie in the show’s Season 1 finale. In quick succession, What If..? Season 2 saw The Watcher promise Captain Carter there is plenty to see in the mutliverse, before opening her eyes to that World Tree where Loki is now residing. “That is a miracle of things coming together,” What If..? Season 2 executive producer and writer A.C. Bradley said.

Director and executive producer Bryan Andrews had more insights to offer about how the Loki Season 2 connection came to be in the recent What If..? finale. “At first, it was never going to be the tree, because when we were doing that, there was no tree,” Andrews said. “There was no Loki Season 2, so there was no knowledge of any of this stuff. So, at some point it was going to be like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to show you some cool stuff.’ I’m just going to show you an image that really shows the multiverse. But we got kind of that at the end of season one of Loki, and we’re like, ‘Oh!’ So that’s the thing with live-action being so fast, sometimes we’re shooting for something, planning for something, and occasionally they hit it before we even had a chance to show that off, so therefore we follow suit. So in this particular example, they were doing that stuff and the studio was just like, ‘Hey guys!’ And they’re like, ‘We think we should do this instead of the other painting you guys did.’”

That new painting lined up with the Loki Season 2 finale. “It was an amazing, beautiful painting of some version of what the multiverse could look like, a big and insane, throwing in [Jack] Kirby influences and stuff and just making it be the biggest cosmic thing you’ve seen,” Andrews added. “But then they had the tree, so we had to do our version of the tree. The crazy thing was they were still trying to design that shot in live-action while they asked us to do it. And we had a deadline, too. It was one of those situations where those deadlines were actually kind of matching and ours was more rock solid, like, ‘We’ve got to get this to the vendor pronto,’ and the live action guys are kind of hemming and hawing, ‘Is this the thing? Is this the thing?’ So, our team was painting up some stuff that was really awesome. So I think we were informing each other and that was really interesting. That rarely gets to happen. So, they’d give us something that’s pretty cool, and our team would go nuts and do something really rad and send it back, and they’re like, ‘Ooh!’ And meanwhile, Kevin’s probably in the background going, ‘Heh, heh, heh, heh,’ just loving it. But it all turned out great. Yeah. And then threw it in at the last possible moments at least, and it made it. Really worked out.”

Did you enjoy the What If..? connection to Loki? Share your thoughts in the comment section! The full interview with Bradley, Andrews, and writer and executive producer Matthew Chauncey is available now on the Phase Zero channel and all major podcast platforms. The next Phase Zero Spotlight episode will feature Captain Carter herself Hayley Atwell.