Marvel Time Travelers Loki Can Meet In His MCU Show

Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief could cross paths with other Marvel Comics time-travelers in Loki. Working with the Time Variance Authority could lead to encounters with all sorts of heroes and villains capable of traversing the timestream, especially as Marvel has indicated that the Disney+ series has the potential to blow the doors wide open on multiple stories, characters, and timelines.

The concept of time travel, which was officially introduced into the MCU in Avengers: Endgame through the Quantum Realm, is about to become a lot more important in the MCU Phase 4. In fact, it’ll be the central theme of the MCU’s third Disney+ series, Loki. Centering on the 2012 Loki from Endgame’s divergent timeline, the series will see the character become involved with the TVA, an organization of time cops devoted to policing the timestream. Led by Owen Wilson’s Mobius M. Mobius, the TVA will capture the Loki variant and force them to take part in their efforts to keep the timestream safe.

Based on what the marketing for Loki has revealed, the show’s six-episode first season will be taking viewers to numerous different corners and time periods of the MCU. It looks like Loki’s experiences with the TVA will take him far and wide, which makes it possible for him to meet several new characters from the comics Marvel hasn’t had a chance to use yet. Some of these characters could turn out to be fellow time-travelers, who are either working with or independently of the TVA. This does seem quite plausible, as it would make sense for the conflicts in the show to stem from the actions of people who are interfering with history. Here are some of the time-traveling heroes and villains that could fit nicely into the upcoming series.

Kang the Conqueror

Kang the Conqueror, a time-traveler from the 30^th century, is without question one of the greatest villains the Avengers have ever faced. Played by Jonathan Majors, the character is confirmed to appear in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, presumably as the film’s main antagonist. As someone who could turn out to be the MCU’s next big bad, Kang could have a long arc that extends into Avengers 5 where he could go up against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Given the level of importance Kang is almost guaranteed to have in the MCU’s future, it wouldn’t be too surprising if Marvel started setting him up ahead of Ant-Man 3, particularly since Loki would be an appropriate time for that to happen. If Loki ends up defeating the TVA, a Kang cameo could occur at the end of the season. If the organization best-suited to stopping him from changing time gets brought down, the door would be open for Ant-Man 3’s villain to make his grand entrance.

Iron Lad

The introduction of Scarlet Witch’s twins in WandaVision and Kate Bishop in Hawkeye indicates that Marvel is laying the groundwork for the Young Avengers in the MCU. Other characters who could be recruits for the team are Ms. Marvel and Ironheart, who are both getting their own Disney+ shows. Another member Marvel might be looking at for its Young Avengers roster is their leader from the comics, Iron Lad, a teenage version of Kang the Conqueror who tries to avert his fate by embarking on a heroic journey. Through Iron Lad, Loki can further build toward the Young Avengers and Kang the Conqueror at the same time.

Killraven

In Marvel’s take on H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, Killraven was a sword-wielding vigilante who stood up to the Earth’s alien conquerors. In the comics, his enemies were the Martians, but in the MCU, it could be the Chitauri instead. The Loki trailer showed New York City in ruins, which suggests that the series might show a timeline where the Chitauri invasion in The Avengers was a success. This sort of post-apocalyptic setting could be the perfect story for the MCU’s Killraven. Similar to the hero from the comics who had time-travel team-ups with the Avengers and Spider-Man, he could leave his timeline and become a recurring MCU guest star.

Two-Gun Kid

In the Silver Age, Marvel published a number of titles about Western gunfighters from the 19^th century, one of which focused on Matthew Hawk, a.k.a. Two-Gun Kid. In the 1970s, Marvel used time travel to pair its Western heroes with the Avengers. After a team-up against Kang, Two-Gun Kid traveled to the present and developed a close friendship with Hawkeye. Since then, the Western cowboy has been spotlighted in several time travel stories and has even grabbed the attention of the TVA, who believed that the knowledge he had acquired from his experiences in the timestream made him a threat to history. It could be that Loki will adapt a version of Two-Gun Kid’s comics story by either bringing Loki to the American Wild West or revealing him to be one of the TVA’s prisoners.

Vance Astro

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 featured fun cameos from the original Guardians of the Galaxy team from the comics, but curiously left out their leader, Vance Astro. In the comic books, Vance was depicted as an astronaut who left present-day Earth on a mission to scout out a potential new home for Earth’s people. After waking up from the cryogenic pod on his ship a thousand years later, he discovered that in the time he was asleep, Earth had already colonized the planet, meaning that his efforts were completely wasted. Later, Vance helped form the Guardians and became the team’s answer to Steve Rogers through his outdated ideals and the “man out of time” aspect of the character. He even carried the now-ancient shield of Captain America and made several visits to 20^th-century Earth.

Since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 already used his team, Marvel may have to find something else to do with him in the MCU (assuming it wants to use him at all). It could be that he’ll run into Loki during one of his missions for the TVA. An appearance from him could be an interesting way of showing how Captain America’s legacy is being carried on in the MCU’s distant future.

Iron Man 2020

Arno Stark is an Iron Man successor from an alternate future with a history of being both an antihero and a villain. Thanks to time travel, Arno has had multiple encounters with Marvel Comics heroes such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the Avengers. Like Two-Gun Kid, his actions have resulted in him becoming a target of the Timekeepers of the Time Variance Authority in the past. If Arno Stark exists somewhere in the MCU, it makes sense that he would also be on the TVA’s radar in its continuity. Considering that he uses Iron Man’s technology to cause trouble in the present, it’s not hard to see why the TVA would regard him as a threat.

Deathlok

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1 introduced Mike Peterson as its modern-day take on Deathlok, but never did anything with the original incarnation of the cyborg superhero, Luther Manning. Born in a post-apocalyptic future, Manning possesses cybernetic upgrades that have molded him into a force to be reckoned with. As Deathlok, the character has been battling powerful enemies in both his own time and the present alongside a variety of well-known superheroes. Manning, who was at the height of his popularity in the 1970s, is a character Marvel might have its eye on for Phase 4 or Phase 5. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showrunner Malcolm Spellman, for example, has expressed an interest in rebooting Deathlok for the MCU. If Marvel wants to give him his own show somewhere down the line, Loki could be the right project to set that up.