Tom Hiddleston Exits Marvel Cinematic Universe? 'Loki' Season 2 Ending Explained

“Loki” Season 2 just concluded. If you paused to think on the way up, you're as cruel as Loki (Tom Hiddleston_ was when we first met him on the sacred timeline. Back then, the God of Mischief was hellbent on living up to his name by tricking Thor (Chris Hemsworth) into initiating a battle with the Frost Giants so he could take the throne.

The errant divinity has come a long way. Dare we say, even longer than Loki, who gave his life to save the universe (and his brother) from Thanos. This Loki is now tasked with an even more difficult mission. He bears not only the load of half the universe's living species (a burden that the previous Loki shared with the Avengers) but also the burden of the entire multiverse.

Now that “Loki” Season 2 is over, there have been speculations that this could also be the last appearance of Tom Hiddleston in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While there has been no confirmation of any sort as of this writing, here is everything we know so far.

Tom Hiddleston To Quit MCU After ‘Loki’ Season 2?

Tom Hiddleston has not confirmed whether this will be his final appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, per Digital Spy. However, while we adore the God of Mischief, it would be a shame to destroy such a lovely conclusion to his story arc by reintroducing him.

It would be like Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) or Chris Evans reprising their roles as Captain America. Know when to put the horned helmet away. The montage of his career in the MCU at the start suggests that the designers did intend for this to be Hiddleston's final appearance as Loki. It had a sense of closure to it.

However, Loki's sacrifice implies that there are several Lokis roaming the timeline. Let's only hope Marvel sticks with this amazing, memorable ending.

‘Loki’ Season 2 Ending Explained

The “Loki” Season 2 finale episode ended with Loki discovering that he could manage his time-slipping, which is a useful ability, per Cosmopolitan. Loki had an epiphany after repairing the loom only to learn that it would never be enough to contain the fresh strands of time. He realized what he needed to do was travel even further back in time and prevent Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) from killing He Who Remains, ensuring that the sacred timeline and the TVA remained intact. All other branches (and the lives on them) would, however, continue to be clipped.

He went back in time to the point where Sylvie was about to kill He Who Remains at the end of time and tried to reason with her, but she's also a Loki, which translates to being stubborn and determined, so she didn't relent. He Who Remains eventually froze Sylvie and sent her away briefly so that he could have Loki's full attention when he revealed that not only did he know about Loki's time-slipping, but he also paved the way for it to happen.

He Who Remains then determined that Loki needed more time to process everything he had just learned, so he summoned Sylvie and encouraged Loki to run through the loop a "couple hundred" more times before returning when he was ready to speak. Loki, on the other hand, is no novice, and just froze Sylvie again. He, in reality, had been through this cycle far too many times before, had this conversation with He Who Remains, and had learned how to pause time in that time.

Loki time-hopped back to the moment everything began to come apart, when all of the timelines began to vanish, to when it was just him and Sylvie. It wasn't long before she realized he had to kill her in order to save the holy chronology, and in classic Sylvie fashion, she scoffed and declared she wouldn't give him her blessing.

She refused to accept that her death was the only option and that the sacred timeline was the only one that mattered, especially if it meant robbing people of their ability to choose what type of outcome they desired for themselves. Loki realized at that point that destroying something (i.e. the temporal loom, the TVA) is acceptable if there's a chance you can replace that thing with something better. So he went to replace the loom with something more superior.

Photo: Marvel Entertainment/YouTube Screenshot