Loki Season 2 had a perfect ending to Tom Hiddleston's MCU journey, but Marvel Studios walked back on that finality by putting the God of Stories back in active duty in the plot of its next MCU crossover. Following his death in Avengers: Infinity War's emotional opening sequence, 2019's Avengers: Endgame set the stage for Loki's return in the Multiverse Saga after he stole the Tesseract during the Time Heist and ended up being imprisoned by the Time Variance Authority (TVA). Across two seasons of his Disney+ series, Loki's growth gradually turned the God of Mischief into someone willing to stop running, turning him from an anti-hero to a full-fledged hero willing to risk everything for the Multiverse.
Loki Season 2 ended with Loki mastering his time slipping, destroying the Temporal Loom, reviving the dying branches with his own magic, and taking the Loom's place at the end of time. This sacrifice turned him into the God of Stories, with him sitting at the center of a living Multiversal tree and holding every timeline so the others can have free will.
Loki Season 2 made it clear that what Loki did has a tragic cost, emphasizing that he does not get to leave. The TVA's old purpose of pruning gave way to watching a Multiverse that is finally allowed to grow under Loki's watch. If anything, the glorious purpose he spent two seasons chasing was no longer a mission. Instead, it turned into the life he agreed to live alone with solitude.
Loki Season 2's perfect ending was completely obliterated by the basic premise of Avengers: Doomsday of worlds colliding, leading to the Multiverse's collapse. Avengers: Endgame Encore's altered ending featured a prelude to Phase 6's Doomsday, showing the return of Tom Hiddleston's Loki (the TVA's Employee of All Time) at a branched timeline, offering assistance to Chris Evans' Steve Rogers and Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter to seemingly relocate them into a different universe to possibly prevent an incursion.
The fact that he appeared in his old TVA suit rather than the God of Stories outfit is already an intriguing detail that recontextualizes what Loki's Season 2 ending provided to the audience.
Avengers: Endgame Encore's altered ending retconned the end of Loki Season 2 by confirming that the throne was never a cage, contrary to what the finale sold. It was strongly implied that Loki would have to stay at the end of time to watch over the Multiverse as the God of Stories on his own, but it seems that staying there has an escape based on what was shown.
As God of Stories, it's entirely possible that he can project an avatar of himself into a timeline that is in danger, doing everything on his own to ensure the Multiverse's safety. By showing that he, or at least a projection of himself, can leave the post, Avengers: Endgame Encore treated the permanence shown in Loki Season 2's ending as negotiable.
Speaking with Empire, Avengers: Doomsday co-director Anthony Russo teased that the MCU Phase 6 crossover will feature "a new incarnation" of Loki:
"I mean, look, the God of Mischief proves to be the God of Mischief. Loki's one of the most fascinating characters, and he's had so many incarnations. One of the delights of Doomsday is, you're going to get a new incarnation of that character."
Russo's statement carries weight because it leads to several theories about what Loki's role in Doomsday truly means. It could mean that the Loki at Peggy's door is not the anchor at all, meaning that it could be a Variant who was sent by the actual God of Stories to do his bidding, and someone who walked a similar TVA path.
Still, the most plausible theory is that the Loki seen at the end of Avengers: Endgame Encore is the real God of Stories projecting himself to save, not only Steve and Peggy, but the entire Multiverse (for now).
Why Loki Is Still In Danger In Avengers: Doomsday
Avengers: Endgame Encore's TVA post-credits scene provided the most concrete tease that Tom Hiddleston's Loki is in danger in Avengers: Doomsday, and his actions protecting Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter kick-started his own doomsday clock, which could lead to his potential demise in Phase 6.
The TVA post-credits scene showed incursions unfolding in real time, with worlds being destroyed (and destroying one another in the process). The Yggdrasil-shaped Multiversal tree turned red, with O.B. declaring that the Multiverse is collapsing. Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom is the sole culprit behind all of this.
The prevailing theory behind the Multiverse's real-time collapse is that Doctor Doom might already be present at the end of time, attacking Loki directly to destabilize the Multiverse and potentially seize power for himself.
This could explain why Doctor Doom is so powerful in Avengers: Doomsday, given that he might have been imbued with Loki's Multiversal power, which turns him into an unstoppable threat that the combined might of the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and the X-Men couldn't withstand. It's clear that Loki is Doom's greatest obstacle, and he needs to kill or depower him to achieve his ultimate goal of Multiversal conquest. Sadly, this means that another death is in the cards for Tom Hiddleston's Loki.
