‘Loki’ Recap: Everything To Remember Before ‘Avengers: Doomsday’
Disney+’s Loki (2021) remains one of the best and most important shows for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It followed one of the franchise’s most beloved characters on a journey of development. That evolution extends to the shared universe. Loki explores so much that has become integral to the MCU’s latest phases. Whether it’s time travel, the multiverse, or variants, Loki defines and unravels concepts that could become boring or convoluted. The show makes those larger moving pieces into something quite interesting by putting Loki at the center.
Sometimes (oftentimes), the stakes of an MCU project can feel too big. Therefore, any emotional resonance with the fallout can, well, fall short. That could have happened with Loki, but the series is clever enough to know that none of it matters if the characters don’t. Therefore, it’s fascinating that ahead of Avengers: Doomsday (2026), a movie with the MCU’s largest stakes yet, will rely so heavily on a show that succeeded because of its characters—not only its heightened concepts and shocking twists. In anticipation of whatever awaits Loki and the other characters in Avengers: Doomsday, here’s why both seasons of Loki are a must-watch.
How Does the Loki-led Series Impact ‘Avengers: Doomsday’?
Loki is interesting in that it’s always been connected to Avengers properties. The first season starts directly after Loki, the character, breaks away with the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame (2019). The show introduces He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), eventually revealed to be a variant of Kang the Conqueror, who is tasked with holding the multiverse together. Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), a variant of Loki, destabilizes the multiverse when she kills He Who Remains in an act of free will and revenge against the Time Variance Authority (TVA).
The actual Kang would be introduced in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)—the same year that Loki wrapped up with its second and final season. It completely sets Kang up as the franchise’s next Big Bad. He is meant to be even more threatening than Thanos (Josh Brolin) and spearhead the events of what was meant to be Avengers: Kang Dynasty. Over the years, the franchise’s story has shifted to make Victor von Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) the prominent villain. Doing so transformed the next Avengers movie into what we know to be Avengers: Doomsday. Interestingly, though, either way, Avengers: Secret Wars (2027) still follows.
Even with that villain swap and plot change, Loki remains relevant to the next Avengers movie. After racing through time and across timelines, grappling with his free will and place in the multiverse, the second season gives Loki’s story an ending. The God of Mischief becomes The God of Stories. The show ends with Loki sacrificing himself to sit at the End of Time and protect the multiverse. He holds all the timelines together, meaning that he can never leave that spot. Five years later, Avengers: Doomsday puts that ending to the test.
Why Does Tom Hiddleston Return as Loki in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’?
The now infamous and tedious chair livestream from last year confirmed that Tom Hiddleston would reprise his role in Avengers: Doomsday. I’ll be honest, when I saw that, I just assumed it would be in a flashback from Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) perspective. It’d probably happen during a time when Thor’s fate was uncertain, and he was thinking about loved ones. Any alternative felt like it would disrupt an ending that I had come to quite love for Loki, a character I’d watched evolve on screen for more than a decade since Thor (2011). I knew that him sitting at the End of Time would mean that we wouldn’t see Loki again in the same way, and I made peace with that. It’s a truly bittersweet ending for a character that has gone on this incredible journey.
Now, it seems like the plan was to always jeopardize that ending for this character. Thankfully, Tom Hiddleston told The Hollywood Reporter, “Loki felt like a closure. And when Marvel called about Avengers: Doomsday, it was going to be starting from that end point. So there was no sense of unstitching or undoing all of that development. That development still stands as a place to begin.” It is a relief to know the movie won’t ignore or erase what Loki does for its titular character. After investing so much into this character, it’s important to know that his arc won’t be erased to the benefit of whatever Avengers: Doomsday plans to do with him. That said, there’s no denying that the movie will threaten Loki’s spot at the End of Time. It’s almost necessary.
Avengers: Doomsday is about characters from different universes—X-Men (2000), The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), and the MCU’s Earth 616–crossing paths and facing off against Doom. That alone sets up a multiversal story that suggests the timelines are, in fact, not protected or stabilized. For that to be true, Loki is no longer at the End of Time. The trailers show as much in a shot of Hiddleston as Loki in the trailers that suggests (from the set dressing and lighting) he could be in Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter’s house. The context of that scene remains to be seen, but I do not doubt that Loki will do everything he can to create some sense of normalcy. He sacrificed any freedom and life he would have had to protect the timelines. There’s no version of Avengers: Doomsday where he sits idly by. He’s a hero now, and he's a part of this fight.
