Loki season 2 was the perfect ending for the story that the MCU series had set out to tell, but season 3 is coming in an unexpected way.

Despite what its latest season 2 finale revealed, Loki season 3 is set to happen in the future, though not by traditional means. Tom Hiddleston went through quite the journey with Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. From debuting in 2011’s Thor as a villain to shedding his God of Mischief image and dying for his brother Thor in Avengers: Infinity War, the original Loki changed a lot. That was then passed on to the Loki variant that would star Disney+’s successful Loki series. Loki season 2’s ending concluded one of the MCU’s best character arcs, with Hiddleston’s character becoming a powerful entity.

The God of Mischief title is no longer the best fit for Loki. The character went from selfish to selfless in a remarkable way, condemning himself to a life of solitude as he watches over the different strands of the multiverse all alone. That sacrifice led to Loki becoming the MCU’s God of Stories, and given his predicament at the end of the series, the possibility of Loki’s MCU return is up in the air. That said, even if its lead character does not return, a kind of Loki season 3 will be making its way into the MCU in the coming years through a major project.

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty Is The MCU’s Loki Season 3 Replacement

The Council Of Kangs Is Coming

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty‘s story will serve as the spiritual successor to Disney+’s Loki, allowing the upcoming movie return of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to serve as Loki season 3. While Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror — the Multiverse Saga’s main villain — debuted in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the actor first played a version of the character — He Who Remains — in Loki season 1. The second season of the MCU series saw Majors return as He Who Remains and play another Kang variant, Victor Timely, which helped expand the mythos around the MCU’s Big Bad.

Through the presence of Kang and/or the multiversal Council of Kangs — a team of Kang variants that was introduced in the third Ant-Man movie — Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will pick up on a major plot thread from Loki. The upcoming Avengers movie will see the Multiversal War that He Who Remains told Loki and Sylvie about back in Loki season 1, and which utterly terrified Hiddleston’s character, come to pass. The Council of Kangs was shown to have thousands of Kang variants in its ranks, and that, added to the reveal of multiple incursions in recent MCU projects, will lead to the Multiversal War that was foretold in Loki.

What Loki Season 2 Storylines The MCU Still Needs To Address

Loki Season 2 Left A Few Hanging Threads

While Loki season 2 did a masterful job of closing the major plot points of the series, as well as giving the perfect ending to Hiddleston’s Loki if the actor feels like he is done playing the character, there were some loose ends that the MCU could explain in future projects. Sylvie’s story was left wide open at the end of the series. As one of the series’ most important characters, the MCU needs to follow up on that ending and show what kind of life Sylve has chosen for herself now that Loki gave her the power to be free.

Another major loose end left by Loki season 2 is the fate of Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ravonna Renslayer. The character was sent to the Void, which is the place where everything the TVA pruned was sent to. Renslayer had an important role in Loki season 2, but as the series neared its end, the character was mostly cast aside. Renslayer’s fate in the Void was given nothing more than a quick scene to show where she was. The MCU could explore her new situation by including the character in Deadpool 3, as set photos and videos from the movie seem to reveal that Wolverine and Deadpool will be visiting the Void.

Will Loki Season 3 Actually Happen?

A Return Of The Disney+ Series Is Unlikely

While Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will see Loki‘s prophesied Multiversal War happen, an actual return for Loki is unlikely. Speaking with Phase Zero, Loki producer Kevin Wright said that he would “love to continue to work with this team that made these two seasons of this show.” The producer then revealed that rather than make Loki season 3, he would like to do a spinoff series, saying, “I would love to find a way of… if this was our Breaking Bad, what’s our Better Call Saul?” As it stands, an actual Loki season 3 seems to be off the cards.