Spider-Man: No Way Home has shown the world just how much the Marvel multiverse has to offer. Yet, before the web-slinger swung into cinemas, Loki premiered on Disney Plus, introducing the concept of multiple variants of the same character. That series also ends with Loki, along with the female variant Sylvie, reaching the end of time and slaying He Who Remains.
There have been many questions about how the two fit together. Now, Spider-Man: No Way Home writers Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna have spoken about the multiverse and addressed the Loki question.
"We were already going down [the multiverse] road, we were already down this road when that Loki finale happened," Sommers told The Wrap. "I felt like we all felt like that would really, this really helps, this is great because it shows that there’s trouble in the multiverse."
McKenna added that they were originally writing No Way Home for after the events of Doctor Strange 2, which will also deal with the multiverse. The duo had to adjust to where Doctor Strange's character would be, and saw that No Way Home could act as the moment Strange becomes interested in the multiverse, rather than him and Spider-Man dealing with the aftermath of Doctor Strange 2.
"We’re always going, 'How…?' It’s such a huge sandbox, how can we play with all this stuff?" McKenna continued. "Whether certain things that were happening in Loki line up in terms of the timeline exploding, and is that the same time that Doctor Strange is casting this spell? I don’t know. There are, I’m sure, the Marvel talking points to that. But we were aware of a lot of the different things that were going on and we could draw on those, how would it be affected by this thing? But, ultimately, we had our own story, giant story bear to wrestle with."
While the specifics of the Marvel timeline and how Loki and Spider-Man: No Way Home have to be bashed out by some higher power at Marvel (here's looking at you, Kevin Feige), No Way Home certainly shows the multiverse is in trouble, and we can't wait to find out who's ultimately responsible. Will it be Kang the Conqueror, who will appear in Ant-Man 3? Or perhaps an evil Doctor Strange variant? We'll have to wait and see. Keep up to date with everything coming soon to the Marvel universe with our guide to Marvel Phase 4.
