The Loki Season Finale Launches Marvel's Cinematic Multiverse with a Magnetic New Villain

Readers beware, spoilers ahead.

Well, it finally happened. Loki closed up shop last night with a monologue-driven season one finale that's bringing a much-needed framework to the fourth phase of the MCU. And it's all anchored by the inevitable reveal of a magnetic new cross-title villain in Jonothan Majors, who made his debut as He Who Remains AKA Kang the Conqueror.

While Marvel's chief, Kevin Feige, made the official announcement of Majors being cast as the time-jumping baddie at the beginning of the year, it seemed like we were going to have to wait a while longer to see Kang in action. But Majors arrived as the ominous and twisted timelord at the very top of the season one closer, establishing the long arc and origins of his character, as well as the central conflict of phase four, which revolves around the dissolving of "the sacred timeline" (thanks, Sylvie,)  and a rapidly expanding multiverse that will likely facilitate the inclusion of the broadest swath of Marvel heroes and villains yet. In fact, just hours after the season finale's premiere, the first promotional poster for Spider Man: No Way Home was unveiled (see below,) seemingly confirming all prior big-screen iterations of the high-flying web-slinger will be featured alongside Tom Holland's whimpering take in the upcoming sequel.

So yeah, three shows and two movies after the conclusion of its last phase, Marvel's new chapter is officially underway. And if the Loki curtain call is any indication of what we can expect, the Lovecraft Country star will be heavily factoring into the splintering timelines of phase four well before he lands as the main bad guy in Antman and The Wasp: Quantumania come 2023. So much more that Victor von Doom theory.

You can watch last night's Loki finale on Disney Plus today. Hold tight for updates on the remaining shows and films on Marvel's docket. Next up: another animated jaunt in What If?, which premieres on August 11th.