Loki Season 2 brought back one of Season 1's best characters, only for them to have very little to do. The Disney+ series starring Tom Hiddleston's trickster god is to this day one of the most acclaimed of the MCU's streaming shows. In part, that is due to the introduction of some of the MCU's breakout characters, including Sophia Di Martino's Sylvie.
Sylvie was introduced in Loki Season 1 as a female variant of Loki. Sylvie's tragic backstory led her to renounce her status as a Loki, choose her own name, and become intent on destroying the Time Variance Authority (TVA) and granting the Multiverse free will. She seemed to have achieved this in the Season 1 finale, after turning on Loki, killing He Who Remains, and leaving the Sacred Timeline without its guardian. While Sylvie achieved her goal, it put her burgeoning romance with Loki on ice, and set the stage for an interesting dynamic in Season 2.
However, when Sylvie returned in Loki Season 2, it was to follow an inconsistent character arc that failed to deliver on her potential.
In the opening few episodes of Loki, Sylvie is shown working in an alternate timeline where she is a cashier at McDonald's. The life, while mundane, is one she is determined to fight for, and she refuses to help Loki when he locates her. However, there is very little showing why Sylvie is so attached to this simple life and why she would choose to forsake the Multiverse and her connection to Loki for it.
In the following episodes, as the consequences of her actions in Season 1 are revealed and the Multiverse is destroyed, Sylvie maintains a very similar motivation to her Season 1 self. Despite the destruction of her new beloved McDonald's universe, Sylvie remains steadfast to her ambitions to destroy the TVA and Victor Timely, even if it means sacrificing the entire Multiverse (and herself with it).
This puts her in direct opposition with Loki and makes her something of a villain in the series, which disappointed many fans, particularly those hoping for a rekindling of Loki and Sylvie's romance.
In several episodes, Sylvie is very passive, serving only to follow Loki on his Multiversal adventure or to be the object of his motivation. Even when Sylvie is given moments of agency, her character arc becomes difficult to follow, particularly as the series continues to reset the timeline and regress to different versions of characters as Loki uses his time-slipping powers.
Overall, it became clear that while Sylvie remained an important character in Loki Season 2, she felt sidelined compared to her role in Season 1. This left the spotlight firmly on the titular Loki, who did receive a satisfying character arc, but it left little room for Sylvie to receive the same.
In the end, Sylvie and Loki's romance remained unresolved. The finale saw Sylvie meet Mobius (Owen Wilson) one last time before disappearing into a time door, with her whereabouts and intentions unknown.
While Di Martino had a recurring regular role in Season 2 of Loki as Syvie, it felt like much of the breakout magic her character brought in Season 1 was neglected. However, this doesn't preclude Sylvie from gaining redemption somewhere else in the MCU.
What Is Sylvie's MCU Future After 'Loki'?
While Loki on Disney+ has officially ended after Season 2, the interconnected nature of the MCU means characters can appear at any time in other projects.
One place fans already suspect Sylvie may appear is in Avengers: Doomsday. The new MCU crossover film is already confirmed to feature Hiddleston's return as Loki, which could open the door to continue Loki and Sylvie's story in the next Avengers film.
Additionally, Avengers 5 is heavily focused on the Multiverse, and is expected to have several ties to the plot of Loki (one of the MCU's most Multiverse-plot-centric shows). Given Sylvie's expertise in the TVA and the Multiverse, she may be a needed resource in Avengers: Doomsday, which could open the door for Di Martino to return.
While nothing is confirmed at this point, Avengers: Doomsday is still hiding the returns of several cast members, and it's not out of the realm of possibility that Di Martino's Sylvie is one of them.
