The Disney+ launch on November 12 won’t include any MCU TV series, but those should start arriving at rapid pace in Year Two, and one had better believe that these shows will be timed alongside Phase Four movies. Naturally, all of this interconnected storytelling will equate to nerd paradise (while theme-park criticism will probably continue to little effect). One of the more intriguing-sounding series, Loki, will (of course) revolve around Tom Hiddleston’s gloriously-burdened trickster of the MCU.
Details haven’t been too forthcoming on the series, which is no surprise, although it was revealed earlier this year through a first-look image that time travel is definitely a factor. Now, Kevin Feige has revealed to Bloomberg (as part of their profile of the streaming service) that Loki’s first season will specifically tie into a Phase Four sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Feige drops this tidbit while dodging budget-related questions:
He does drop one little morsel, though. If you want to understand everything in future Marvel movies, he says, you’ll probably need a Disney+ subscription, because events from the new shows will factor into forthcoming films such as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The Scarlet Witch will be a key character in that movie, and Feige points out that the Loki series will tie in, too. “I’m not sure we’ve actually acknowledged that before,” he says. “But it does.”
As Slashfilm points out, Loki’s appearance is definitely a newly known wrinkle in the equation in addition to the already-known detail of Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch also lending her powers to the Doctor Strange followup. Scarlet Witch, of course, will also appear as one leading half of the WandaVision series that will also unfurl like a 1950s-style sitcom and include cast members from Thor, Ant-Man And The Wasp, and Captain Marvel. All of this interconnectedness is what flowcharts were made for, but if there’s anything that Marvel Studios has proven itself adept at doing, it’s the adept construction of a cinematic universe, which shall only grow more layered with each passing year.
Other detail that arrives in the Bloomberg piece: Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye character was originally headed toward his own movie, but Feige decided that a Disney+ series would work out better. Feige says that Renner was completely onboard with the switch, but Bloomberg couldn’t reach the Arctic Dogs star for comment. It’s been an overwhelmingly bad week for the Hurt Locker actor, so I think we’ll all be alright moving right along and hoping that a new round of Tesseract-Multiverse speculation will begin.
