The topic “Is He Who Remains Dead After Loki Season 2 Finale?” has two versions, a written version, and a video version below the written version.
At the end of Disney+’s Loki Season 2, the fate of Jonathan Majors’ He Who Remains was left ambiguous. Fans are left wondering whether the Kang the Conqueror variant is dead or will make a return to the MCU in the future. Throughout the six episodes, Season 2 of Loki explored the concept of time and the Multiverse and featured time loops and paradoxes. However, the finale left many questions regarding the fate of He Who Remains unanswered.
Is He Who Remains Dead?
In the Season 1 finale of Loki, Sylvie killed He Who Remains in the Citadel at the End of Time. As a result, various timelines began to branch and undo all of He Who Remains’ dedicated work.
Despite being killed in Season 1, He Who Remains appeared in Season 2 of Loki. In the Season 2 finale, Loki time-slipped to the moment when Sylvie was attempting to kill He Who Remains at the End of Time. Whenever Loki tried to stop her, Sylvie insisted that the only way to prevent He Who Remains’ death was for Loki to kill her instead. However, Loki was unable to do so and thus Sylvie ended up killing He Who Remains.
Loki found himself in a predicament where he had to keep He Who Remains alive without harming Sylvie. As a result, he traveled back in time repeatedly, hoping to find a solution. During one of these attempts, He Who Remains stopped time and engaged in a conversation with Loki. He explained that the Temporal Loom was a safeguard mechanism put in place to protect the Sacred Timeline and that the TVA’s downfall was just an unintended consequence.
At the end of the season 1 finale of “Loki”, He Who Remains gave Loki an ultimatum. Loki could either kill Sylvie, sparing He Who Remains and keeping the Multiverse in check, or let events play out as they did, destroying the Temporal Loom, and watching everything, including the Sacred Timeline, get destroyed.
However, Loki decided to find another solution, and by the end of the episode, he had achieved his goal, ultimately becoming God Loki.
Despite this, Sylvie still killed He Who Remains, which was the Kang variant’s intention. As a result, the character is truly dead at the end of season 2.
Let’s remember that He Who Remains appeared in Season 2 of Loki only because Loki went back in time. If Loki had chosen to kill Sylvie when he time-slipped back to that moment, then He Who Remains would be alive in the present timeline. However, since he didn’t kill her, it’s impossible for He Who Remains to be alive in the present timeline.
What About Victor Timely?
In one of the episodes of Loki Season 2, it was revealed that Ravonna Renslayer had given a TVA Guidebook to Victor Timely in the 1860s. This led to the creation of prototypes of the Temporal Loom by Victor Timely.
However, in the finale of Season 2, after Loki essentially freed the Multiverse, there was an extremely short scene featuring a young Victor Timely working on his candles back in the 1800s.
In a short sequence, it was confirmed that the version of Timely never received a TVA Guidebook. This means that the events that occurred because he was given one will never happen. However, another version of Timely is still at the TVA at the end of Season 2. It was revealed that Timely helped OB create a new second edition of the TVA Guidebook. This implies that Timely will no longer be a threat to become He Who Remains. The events at the end of Season 2, including Loki taking He Who Remains’ place, suggest that Timely will never become He Who Remains and reclaim his throne from Loki.
Are There Other Versions of He Who Remains?
There is a theory in the real world that suggests that there are an infinite number of universes, and consequently, an infinite number of versions of every person who has ever lived. The theory even goes so far as to propose that among those endless versions, some individuals are identical in every single way, down to every eye movement, every twitch, and every thought.
If we apply this theory to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), it means that there must be an infinite number of Kang the Conqueror Variants that act as a He Who Remains, just as there are an infinite number of Kang Variants that are the same as Victor Timely and every other Variant of the character.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Multiverse is infinite, which means that there could be other versions of He Who Remains in existence. Although these versions may never appear in the MCU, it is still worth noting that they exist somewhere in the vastness of the Multiverse.
The He Who Remains that we see in Loki appears to be truly dead. However, it’s interesting to imagine that there could be an infinite number of He Who Remains out there, existing at different points in the universe. It’s also intriguing to think about how alternate versions of Loki may have made different choices than the Loki we see in the MCU and how they could be alongside their respective versions of He Who Remains.
If you’re interested in watching Loki, it’s available on Disney+.