We’ll have to wait until October 6th to see Marvel’s Loki season 2 on Disney Plus, but the first trailer for the new MCU adventure is here. I already explained how the trailer seems to confirm a few big Loki 2 plot leaks, but that’s not all it does. The trailer also answers questions about how the MCU multiverse works. Before you read on, know that spoilers might follow.
What is the Sacred Timeline?
Loki season 1 never made it clear what the Sacred Timeline was. Is it a single reality with events and time following a certain script or multiple timelines running side-by-side? The latter makes more sense, as it allows for the existence of other realities.
After all, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) lived an entire life in a different reality that the TVA never pruned. Either that or the death of He Who Remains in Loki coincided with Rogers breaking that reality into a new branch by marrying Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell).
The Loki season 1 finale showed us what the Sacred Timeline looks like from Kang’s perspective, as he’s sitting out of time in his citadel. And we saw the Sacred Timeline branching all over — to the past, present, and future. I’ve previously explained how, from Kang’s perspective, all those actions happened simultaneously. While he was alive, he had control over everything.
Regardless of the many realities in the Sacred Timeline, once He Who Remains dies, we witness multiple branches coming out of it.
I’ll point out that everything we saw in Loki season 1 gives us the Sacred Timeline flowing from left to right, whether it’s on the TVA screens or out there in the not-space area around Kang’s citadel.
For simplicity, I’ll say that we witness the move from order (left) to chaos (right) from the point of view of Kang or the TVA.
The big reveal in the Loki season 2 trailer
That flow of time visualization is very important for the second season. If you’ve been paying attention to the small details in the trailer, you might have realized that the TVA is trying to somehow contain the multiple reality branches and respin them into a single, manageable Sacred Timeline that includes different realities.
Did the trailer just show us the Time Loom concept that Loki season 2 will introduce? I can’t be certain, but I know that what we see on the screen moves in the same direction, from left to right.
But we now have the chaos on the left being turned into order on the right without any pruning. The image below showing Mobius (Owen Wilson) in a not-space suit is pretty telling. It’s as if the TVA is taking all those chaotic branches and bringing them to order. Without pruning any of them.
Conversely, the Loki season 2 plot leaks say that’s what Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is after. He’s looking to prevent an older variant of Sylvie from destroying the branched realities. The Time Loom might be the device that makes it possible. And I’d bet that OB (Ke Huy Quan) would come up with that invention.
I’ll also point out that we witness the same lateral movement of time in a different scene, one featuring two Lokis. Check out the monitor in the image below, and you’ll see the same chaos-to-order arrangement of realities within a Sacred Timeline.
What’s the purpose of all of this?
Whatever happens in Loki season 2, we’ll witness consequences during the entire Multiverse Saga. Loki, Mobius, Sylvie, and OB might stabilize the timeline. But that happens from the perspective of the TVA, where time passes differently.
Who knows how long it’ll take in Earth-616 years to get to the restoration of the Sacred Timeline? If that’s even what the TVA wants. But the moment Loki & Co. fix the timeline might coincide with the end of Avengers: Secret Invasion when Kang should be defeated.
I’m speculating here, but I can’t wait to see what happens in Loki season 2 and how it’ll impact the MCU.
