Westeros has one Iron Throne, but on House of the Dragon two people now claim it as their own. And that means civil war has come to House Targaryen and the Realm. The prequel’s season one finale made sure of that. The death of Prince Lucerys Velaryon killed any chance at a peaceful resolution to the question of succession. But we still have plenty of other questions for the show’s sophomore year. Here are the biggest ahead of House of the Dragon season two.

Jump To: House of the Dragon Questions with Existing Answers // House of the Dragon Questions That Fire & Blood Might Answer // House of the Dragon Questions with Season Two Answers

Important House of the Dragons Questions We Already Have Answers For

There are a couple of major questions about the show’s future we already know the answer to. That will let us focus more time on the many we don’t know.

Will There Be Any More Time Jumps in House of the Dragon?

The big time jumps of House of the Dragon season one are a thing of the past. Showrunner Ryan Condal has said there will not be anymore large passages of time between episodes going forward. House of the Dragon will be more like Game of Thrones in that regard. (And considering what we know about the Dance of the Dragons, the prequel could ultimately be even more condensed than its predecessor.)

When Will House of the Dragon Season Two Release?

HBO renewed House of the Dragon for a second season in late August just five days after the premiere. It will release on June 16 with weekly episodes for eight weeks.

House of the Dragon Questions George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood Can/Might Answer

House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood. But the series has already made major changes to the timeline and specifics around certain events. It can (almost certainly will in some cases) do the same in the future. So we only think we know the answers to these questions.

Who Will Claim Vermithor and the Other Dragons Without Riders?

Rhaenyra’s side has a big dragon advantage over the greens, but not in the way that matters. Most of their dragons lack experience in battle, and even more have no rider at all. Vermithor, the dragon Daemon sang to, is the biggest left without a mount. But there are others.

That includes three very wild, dangerous dragons. Who—if anyone—will claim them and what will that mean for the war?

Who Will the North, Vale, and Riverlands Declare Their Loyalty To?

Both sides have dragons, but they still need men to win this war. Especially the men who lead the Realm’s greatest and most powerful houses. Lord Boros of Storm’s End declared for Aegon, but Rhaenyra is counting on House Stark in the North and House Arryn in the Vale to support her.

She has reason to think both will, but Lord Grover Tully of (the vital) Riverlands is a wild card. Will Daemon’s dragon flight there be enough to bring House Tully and all its sworn houses to Rhaenyra’s cause? Or will the region fight for Aegon?

Is Mysaria the White Worm Still Alive?

Alicent and Larys Strong conspired to burn down Mysaria’s manse. She not only had spies throughout King’s Landing and the Red Keep, she was a valuable asset to Otto Hightower. But we never actually saw her (or anyone else’s) body burn. Is she still alive? If so, what kind of role will a powerful purveyor of spies play during the Dance of the Dragons? And might Mysaria’s past with Daemon influence her actions for or against Rhaenyra?

How Will Rhaenyra Respond to the Death of Her Son Lucerys?

House of the Dragon‘s first season ended on an ominous note. After learning about the death of her son Lucerys, Queen Rhaenyra’s resolve hardened. Any thoughts of peacefully ending the war died with Luke. But how exactly will a mourning mother respond now that she wants both her throne and blood? We doubt restraint will factor into the answer.

Questions Only House of the Dragon Season Two Can Answer

For as much as we think we know what’s going to happen on House of the Dragon, there’s even more we can’t predict. These are the biggest questions only the show itself can resolve next season.

Will Aemond Tell the Truth About Luke’s Death?

Aemond did not mean to kill Prince Lucerys on House of the Dragon. That’s a departure from the story told in the (unreliable) Fire & Blood. But is that the official story because it’s the one Aemond will tell? Will he lie and say he murdered his nephew intentionally? If not he’ll have to admit he’s not in control of Vhagar. Will he elect to look weak or be thought a dangerous kinslayer?

Will Rhaenyra Tell Anyone Else About Aegon the Conqueror’s Prophecy?

Aegon the Conqueror’s “song of ice and fire” completely changed Rhaenyra’s own story. But even though he was briefly Viserys’s heir, the King never told his brother Daemon about the prophecy. Does anyone else know about it? Will Rhaenyra share the Conqueror’s vision with more people? If so, how will that impact their support during the war?

Will Ser Laenor Velaryon Return in House of the Dragon Season Two?

Unlike in Martin’s books, Ser Laenor Velaryon is not actually dead. He only faked his death so him and Rhaenyra could be free from the duty that bound them to a life of misery. Since he only lived on the show, only House of the Dragon can tell us if he’ll ever return to Westeros and his dragon Seasmoke.

Will Halaena Targaryen Predict Other Major Events?

From cryptically foretelling of Aemond losing his eye to gain a dragon, to the civil war now threatening to tear her family apart, to predicting “the beast beneath the boards,” the new Queen of Westeros has proven herself to either be a prophetess, witch, or yet another Targaryen dreamer. Whatever she is, Halaena can clearly see the future. So what other major events will she see before they happen? And, more importantly, will anyone in her family ever realize they should listen to her?

Is Aemond the Real Father of Halaena’s Children?

One fan theory to arise during House of the Dragon‘s first season is that Aemond, rather than her brother-husband King Aegon, is really the father of Halaena’s children. Not all the “evidence” holds up to scrutiny, but some of it absolutely does. Aemond is also dedicated to his duties. Did he see protecting his sister and ensuring more heirs as part of his familial responsibilities since Aegon is an absentee husband? Does Aemond love his sister romantically? All of the above? Or is this just a fun theory without merit?

Is Lord Larys “The Clubfoot” Strong Actually a Warg?

The other major fan theory from House of the Dragon says Larys Strong is actually a warg who can inhabit the many, many, many rats of King’s Landing. That could explain why he knows so many secrets of the royal court. He’s a strange man (and not because of his foot fetish), but is he even more peculiar than we thought? Is he really a warg like Bran Stark?

We have a lot of questions we need answered and it will happen soon.

Originally published October 26, 2022.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post The Biggest Questions We Have for HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Season 2 appeared first on Nerdist.

Valentine’s Day is the ultimate day to acknowledge and celebrate various forms of love, specifically the romantic kind. American stores begin to stock their shelves with chocolates, candy, and massive teddy bears as soon as they can move Christmas paraphernalia out of the way. It’s a Super Bowl for card venders, florists, and jewelers as people scramble to find the right gift to express their eternal love. But how did February 14 turn into a commercialized holiday in the United States? Valentine’s Day’s rise to fame is an intriguing trip with lover lotteries, brand building, and more. 

A Brief(ish) Look at V-Day’s Origin Stories

Many historians connect Valentine’s Day’s origins to Lupercalia, an Ancient Roman festival held on February 15. The festival (which may have predated Rome) would celebrate the dawn of Spring, a season of fertility and growth; it was also a celebration of Juno, the pagan goddess of love and marriage. People would ward off evil spirits and purify their land, often sacrificing animals at the cave where, according to mythology, the twins Romulus and Remus were breastfed by the she-wolf Lupa. This is where Romulus supposedly founded Rome. 

A collection of priests known as the Luperci would preside over the festival with goat and dog sacrifices. Two Luperci would have their foreheads touched with a bloody knife before it was wiped with milk-soaked wool. They would cut thongs from the skin of animals and run nearly naked, striking women and supposedly making them fertile.

Women would be paired off with men via a lottery to celebrate the holiday in ways one would expect. A modern-day Lupercalia reference (albeit a loose interpretation) can be found in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina season two. On the show, the witches and warlocks are paired together for The Courting, a night of “unholy” abstinence, before giving way to the Hunt, which ends with sex.

There’s also the obvious historical connection to the holiday’s namesake, Saint Valentine. Several accounts about the details about his life and exploits  may even suggest multiple St. Valentines. First, there’s the account of a priest who was imprisoned for ministering to Christians in the third century before Christianity became a predominant religion. He allegedly gave sight to a blind girl and sent her a note signed “Your Valentine” before he was martyred on February 14 in 270 AD.

There are also stories about a Bishop of Terni during that time period. He secretly married Christian couples to help the husbands evade enlistment in Rome’s pagan army. He supposedly cut hearts from parchment paper to give to the men to remind them of their vows and God’s love. Needless to say, this story ends the same way with Saint Valentine’s death on February 14. 

Valentine was actually a common name so it’s not impossible for there to be two different men with similar missions. But it could also be various tales about the same man. Either way, this later led to The Feast of Saint Valentine on February 14, which Pope Gelasius used to replace Lupercalia in A.D. 496. All of this provides a basic explanation for how it became a major day.

A Day of Love and the Rise of Commercialization

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the day started to become associated with romantic and courtly love similar to spring’s lovebirds. Some historians attribute this to Geoffrey Chaucer, an English poet. Around the 1370s or 1380s, he wrote “Parliament of Fowls,” which contains a line about Saint Valentine’s Day being the day for a bird to choose their mate. This inspired nobles to write letters known as “valentines” to their love interests. Around 1599, Shakespeare’s Hamlet makes a direct connection between St. Valentine’s Day and being someone’s Valentine. 

Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day,
All in the morning bedtime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine. -Ophelia

Jill Wellington/Pexels

As people continued to explore and expand across the world, Valentine’s Day made its way to England. Eighteenth century English and American couples started to celebrate the holiday in a way that closely resembles what we do today: flowers, sweets, and greeting cards with hearts and Cupid, the god of desire and erotic attraction. At the time, the cards were handmade with love. But people soon began to capitalize on the holiday.

A poem in Gammer Gurton’s Garland (1784) includes the classic lines about red roses and blue violets. This could have influenced the association of red roses to the holiday. 

“The rose is red, the violet’s blue,
The honey’s sweet, and so are you.
Thou art my love and I am thine;
I drew thee to my Valentine:
The lot was cast and then I drew,
And Fortune said it shou’d be you.”

Mount Hollyoak College Archives and Special Collection 

In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling Valentines in America in mass quantities, earning her the moniker “Mother of the Valentine.” Her cards would feature lace, ribbons, and pictures, and were a cheaper option than importing cards from overseas. This sparked a steady uptick in Valentine’s Day merchandising in both America and England; Cadbury’s (a British company) introduced a heart shaped box of chocolates in the 1860s.

The infamous conversation candies (pieces of candy with lovey/flirty phrases) were developed in 1866 by Daniel Chase, the brother of New England Confectionery Company founder Oliver Chase. He wanted to compete in the growing Valentine’s Day market by making his own lane. The candies did not become heart shaped until around 1902.

Around 1873, Milton S. Hershey started his first candy shop in Philadelphia. His consistent study of confection making, particularly chocolate and caramel, led to founding of Hershey Chocolate Company (Hershey’s) in 1894. The company struck sweet gold in 1907 with Hershey’s Kisses, a candy now synonymous with the day of love. Hallmark Cards (founded in 1907) sold Valentine’s Day gift cards in 1910; however, the decline in postcards’ popularity led them towards the creation of Valentine’s Day cards in 1913. 

Hallmark Archives

Of course, there was pushback to the holiday’s rapid commercialization. Similar to anti-Valentine’s Day sentiments today, many people thought that the push to buy mass-produced gifts in honor of love defeated the holiday’s overall purpose of creativity and celebrating love on an individual scale. Either way, the commercial rush for gifts continued to expand in subsequent decades with print advertisements for chocolate and gift ideas.

Major companies like Coca-Cola, Whitman’s, and Hallmark competitor Norcross pushed everything from cakes to pajamas to sexy nightclothes for an easy holiday cash grab. Famed diamond company DeBeers also launched its “a diamond is forever” campaign in 1948 to connect quality jewelry with an expression of love.

Valentine’s Day fell at a perfect time to entice viewers who had finally built back up some post-Christmas reserves. As expected, promotional materials heavily centered on white heterosexual couples or white women. Those that did feature people of color didn’t even use actual human beings, instead leaning towards caricatures depicting harmful and racist stereotypes. 

The History of Valentine’s Day: The TV Years and Beyond

Interestingly, the rise and popularity of TV in the 1950s through the 1970s didn’t seem to have a profound effect on Valentine’s Day. It wasn’t until the 1980s when companies like Hallmark began to really put stock into V-Day commercials. This 1985 commercial is exactly what you’d expect from a cheesy advertisements during this time; however, it was reflective of shifting social attitudes with some diversity (and no blatant racism) in the mix.

In 1986, Hersey’s Kisses began to lean more into love day by offering candies in pink and red foil. In the years since, Valentine’s Day has become one of the most commercialized holidays in America. It’s the subject of TV episodes and films and even the inspiration behind YouTube, which was founded on Valentine’s Day 2005 as a dating website. And Hallmark further capitalizes on the holiday with an entire TV channel playing cheesy love movies.

There is paraphernalia for everyone in a person’s life, whether its friends, lovers, enemies, or pets. Companies are leaning into social media marketing as streaming services curate content for those who can’t get enough of romcoms or dramatic love stories. Annoying as the marketing bombardment may be, it has made significant strides in recent years. Now, people from different racial/cultural backgrounds and non-heterosexual romantic relationships are in advertisements and on cards, too.

According to the National Retail Federation, people were projected to spend around $26 billion on Valentine’s Day in 2023. Hallmark will offer approximately 491 different types of cards in its stores, leading the pack for sentimental valentines. Long gone are the days where the majority wrote heartfelt letters or simple gifts. Hate it or love it, Valentine’s Day is here to stay and probably won’t get any less commercial any time soon.

Originally published on February 12, 2021.

The post The Murky History (and Clear Commercialization) of Valentine’s Day appeared first on Nerdist.

Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro truly loves classic horror. You can see the fingerprints of Creature from the Black Lagoon all over The Shape of Water and the impact of Hammer horror films in Crimson Peak. But another classic spooky part of pop culture that del Toro adores is Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride. His deep love for it goes back to his childhood visits to Disneyland on trips to California. del Toro loves the ride so much, in fact, that he has a whole room in his house dedicated to it. A room that he recently revealed he has expanded. And, for the curious, Guillermo del Toro even shared photos of his Haunted Mansion room via social media. And you can check them out in full size as well just below.

Fans can spot many elements of the classic Disney attraction in this room. Of course, there’s the infamous Hatbox Ghost, as well as the floating head of Madame Leota in her crystal ball. The portraits from the stretching room feature in del Toro’s Haunted Mansion room. Also pictured are most of the enchanted paintings from the portrait gallery. In fact, the Medusa portrait over his fireplace is actually the original by legendary Disney artist and Imagineer Marc Davis and not a reproduction. You can sense all 999 Happy Haunts just by looking at the photos of del Toro’s Haunted Mansion room. We can only hope he shares more soon.

Click To View Gallery

As some of you might recall, at Comic-Con 2010, Disney announced del Toro was producing a Haunted Mansion film. Despite working on it for years, Disney ultimately chose to go another route with the final product. It seems del Toro was hoping to make something that was family-friendly yet still legitimately spooky.

Judging from the Haunted Mansion film released last year, what Disney was looking for was more of a big-budget sitcom. While his Haunted Mansion Disney movie never saw the light of day, it’s nice to know that del Toro has not lost his love for the timeless Disney Parks attraction.

The post Guillermo del Toro Lets Us Peek Into His Expanded Haunted Mansion Room appeared first on Nerdist.

When audiences were first introduced to Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens back in 2015, the assumption was that this “Vader 2.0” would have the same “dark side to light side” redemption arc as his grandpa. And more or less, by The Rise of Skywalker, that’s ultimately how it played out. Hey, it’s Star Wars. As George Lucas famously said once about repeating themes in his saga, “It’s like poetry. It rhymes.” But while doing an interview on The Roku Channel’s The Rich Eisen Show, the man behind the mask, Adam Driver, said that wasn’t the original arc for his character. In fact, Kylo Ren wasn’t meant for redemption at all, but instead, meant to go the opposite way. Here’s what Adam Driver had to say about Kylo Ren’s arc and the original plan for it.

I had an overall arc in mind that he wanted to do, which then changed. His idea was almost the opposite journey of Vader, where Vader starts the most confident, the most committed to the Dark Side, and by the last movie he’s the most vulnerable, and weak, and he wanted to start at the opposite, where this character was the most confused and vulnerable, and by the end of the three movies would be most committed to the Dark Side.

While he doesn’t say whose idea it was, we’re guessing Driver meant J.J. Abrams, who directed The Force Awakens. While this last-minute Kylo Ren redemption reveal might annoy some folks, changing story beats mid-stream is a very Star Wars thing to do. In the original draft of The Empire Strikes Back, Luke’s long-lost twin sister was someone named Nellith Skywalker, who was off training to be a Jedi on the other side of the galaxy. The movies dropped any reference to her, except for Yoda mentioning “another” who was their last hope. Leia as Luke’s Force-using sibling also didn’t happen until the writing process for Return of the Jedi.

Both the prequels and the sequels would have been entirely different without the Luke/Leia reveal. And that story beat came very late in the game. Another thing one can’t predict until a film starts actually shooting is the actor’s chemistry with each other. And no one could have predicted that Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren and Daisy Ridley’s Rey would have had so much on-screen chemistry as they did. We’re sure that played a role in Kylo Ren’s Star Wars redemption. As Yoda once said, “Always in motion is the future,” and that applies to crafting ongoing stories of any kind. Especially Star Wars stories.

The post Adam Driver Reveals Kylo Ren’s Redemption Wasn’t Originally the Plan for the STAR WARS Character appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back, Rick & Morty fans! This week’s episode offered up one of the show’s craziest experiments yet, but was a Rickless Rick and Morty a success or failure? Dan dives in to break it all down on today’s episode of Nerdist News!

More Rick and Morty news: https://nerdist.com/topic/rick-and-morty/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: Adult Swim

The post What Is Rick and Morty Without Rick? | S7E8 “Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie” Breakdown appeared first on Nerdist.

There have been many rumors that the original roster of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will all return in Avengers: Secret Wars. And yes, that would presumably include Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man/Tony Stark. But via Variety, we’ve learned that in a recent story on Downey for Vanity Fair, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige said there are no plans to bring Tony Stark back from the grave. Iron Man’s heroic death in Avengers: Endgame, in which he saved the universe from Thanos, was just too important to undo. Here’s what Feige had to say:

“We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again. We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way.”

So it seems like the MCU creatives powers that be will never use magic or nanotech to revive Tony’s corpse for a future film. This is a choice which we all of course applaud. However, we must point out that Feige very carefully worded that response. It’s safe to say we can take Feige at his word, and the MCU won’t resurrect the Tony Stark we knew and loved in 11 films. Iron Man’s death will not change. But that does not mean we are never seeing Robert Downey, Jr. play him again.

Right now, we are in the middle of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga. And we would be genuinely shocked if we did not encounter a multiversal variant of Tony in Secret Wars. And for that matter, a variant of Natasha Romanoff (Scarlet Johansson) too. With Secret Wars likely capping off twenty years of the MCU, it’s hard to imagine no Tony Stark involvement in that. Regardless of what Kevin Feige said, don’t count out seeing Iron Man again. He just won’t exactly be the one you remember. Because that guy is staying dead for sure.

The post Iron Man’s Heroic Death Will Not Be Undone in the MCU appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back, Rick & Morty fans! This week’s adventure asks fans to open their minds in a Summer and Morty centric episode that sees the siblings come together closer than they’ve ever been, both figuratively and literally. Dan dives in to break it all down on today’s episode of Nerdist News!

More Rick and Morty news: https://nerdist.com/topic/rick-and-morty/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: Adult Swim

The post Can Rick and Morty Open Your Mind? appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back, Rick & Morty fans! After last week’s explosive episode, Rick and Morty take a much needed reset in this cosmic clip show as the duo stand trial for their past actions. Dan dives in to find out whether Rick and Morty are good people in today’s episode of Nerdist News!

More Rick and Morty news: https://nerdist.com/topic/rick-and-morty/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: Adult Swim

#NerdistNews #RickAndMorty #Animation #AdultSwim #RAM

The post Rick and Morty Are Bad People (And That’s OK!) | S7E6 “Rickfending Your Mort” Breakdown appeared first on Nerdist.

Nerdist’s resident Doctor Who expert and superfan Kyle Anderson is putting his fandom to the test in the ultimate challenge to name every single episode title from the show’s 60 year run– from memory.

More Doctor Who News: https://nerdist.com/topic/doctor-who/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: BBC

The post We Named EVERY Doctor Who Episode Title (From Memory?!) appeared first on Nerdist.

Even though the underwater hero Aquaman has been around in the DC Universe since 1941, he didn’t really have an arch-enemy of his own until the ‘60s. Although some fans cite Ocean Master as King Arthur of Atlantis’ main foe, we think that title goes to Black Manta. He’s had a few different origin stories over the decades, but his memorable armored look made him forever iconic. Before Yahya Abdul-Mateen’s return to the role in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, let’s take a deep dive (pun intended) into the history of Black Manta.

Black Manta’s DC Comics History

Black Manta first appeared as an antagonist for Arthur Curry in Aquaman #35 in 1967. He had no civilian name and his true appearance behind the black helmet and diving suit was a mystery. In that first story, Black Manta and his “Manta Men” attack Atlantis and, despite this being his first appearance, Aquaman describes him as “an old enemy.” In a foreshadowing of much darker things to come, Black Manta kidnaps Arthur Jr., Aquaman’s son. But Aquaman’s other arch-enemy Ocean Master rescues him.

Black Manta would continue to plague Aquaman throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, first in his solo series, then in the anthology titles like Adventure Comics. What really elevated Black Manta to iconic status, however, were Saturday morning cartoons. He was a recurring bad guy in the ‘60s Superman/Aquaman Hour series, and was a part of the Legion of Doom in Challenge of the Super Friends in 1978. This made Black Manta known to millions of kids who never read a single comic book.

It’s quite possible that Black Manta was part of a long line of DC heroes created for outside media that just debuted in comics first. Both Batgirl and the second Aqualad were part of this group. The Aquaman issue introducing him had a cover date of August 1967. Black Manta then appeared in the first episode of the Superman/Aquaman Adventure Hour one month later in September 1967. It’s likely that they created him for the cartoon, the folks at DC heard about him, and so he debuted in the comics first.

Black Manta’s Many DC Comics Origins

For a long time, Black Manta was just a cool name and a cooler costume. He had almost no backstory. He finally took off his helmet in a 1977 story, revealing that he was an African-American man. He explained how he was trying to establish an underwater colony where his people would live freely without the persecution of the surface world. (How he planned for them all to breathe underwater remains a mystery.) This continued a problematic comic book trope, of African-American characters needing a codename with the word “black” in it. Several characters were a part of this trope, like Black Goliath, Black Lightning, and more. But Manta’s backstory reveal gave him more actual motivation than before.

Black Manta’s First Aquaman Origin Story

Manta would not get his first origin story until 1992, in Aquaman vol. 4 #6. In a flashback, they showed the boy who would grow up to be Black Manta growing up in Maryland, somewhere near the Chesapeake Bay. One unfortunate day, he was playing near the ocean when a group of pirates kidnapped him. They forced him to become their unwilling servant aboard their ship.

He spent years abused and tortured by these pirates, forced to do their bidding. One day, he saw Aquaman swimming through the ocean with dolphins, and signaled him for a rescue. But Aquaman didn’t see or hear him. But the young boy felt he ignored him, and it began a lifelong grudge. Once the boy was able to escape, he became a vicious pirate himself. And he now harbored a deep hatred for the King of the Seven Seas.

Black Manta’s Batman-Related Origin Story

Years later, a new origin story emerged, one that tied Manta to Batman’s home city. They revealed that the young child was diagnosed with autism and, because of caretakers who didn’t understand his condition, was committed to Arkham Asylum. While staying at Arkham, doctors there subjected him to experimental treatments designed to cure him. But they ended up having the opposite effect, making him grow up into the extremely violent criminal he became. Around this time, they finally revealed Manta’s real name—David Hyde. They also revealed that his son, Jackson Hyde, had become the superhero Aqualad II, spitting in the face of his father’s hatred.

The New 52 Black Manta Backstory

The New 52 reboot of 2011 was controversial, but Geoff Johns’s Aquaman run was celebrated. And here, Black Manta got yet another new origin story. In this iteration, Black Manta was a mercenary who was paid to obtain a sample of Arthur Curry’s blood to see if he was really from Atlantis. During the attack, Arthur’s father Thomas Curry dies of a heart attack. Blaming Manta and seeking vengeance, Arthur attacked the vessel that Black Manta was on, but accidentally killed his father instead. Blaming each other for losing their respective fathers, a rivalry began that would go on forever. Much of the cinematic Aquaman’s backstory drew inspiration from the New 52 run.

Black Manta Kills Aquaman’s Son, Arthur Jr., a.k.a “Aquababy”

While many villains threaten the lives of their respective enemy’s loved ones, few ever go through with it. The Joker killing Robin notwithstanding. But in 1977, Black Manta did the unthinkable in DC Comics and murdered Aquaman’s child Arthur Jr., also known as Aquababy. As revenge for his string of defeats at the hands of the Sea King, Black Manta kidnaps Arthur Jr. and places the water-breathing child in a bubble, slowly filling it with air and suffocating him.

Although Aquaman defeats Manta, he’s too late to save his son, and Arthur Jr. suffocates to death. It’s a horrible fate and a truly dark story for a Bronze Age-era comic. Our guess is someone at DC Editorial really didn’t care for Aquababy. The “Death of a Prince” storyline had huge ramifications for Aquaman as a character, and ultimately led to the end of his marriage to Queen Mera, who blamed her husband for their child’s death.

Black Manta’s Powers

Black Manta has no innate powers to speak of, although he is quite adept at various forms of combat. However, his suit packs quite a wallop. His high-tech diving suit allows him to have not only an indefinite oxygen supply underwater, but also protects him from the crushing depths and freezing cold of the ocean. The suit also allows Black Manta to increase his own strength and gives him incredible speed underwater. It’s resistant to bullets and plasma weapons, and this allows him to go toe to toe with Aquaman, despite just having average human strength. It can fire a variety of deadly plasma blasts as well.

Black Manta’s Role in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

In the first Aquaman movie, Yahya Abdul-Mateen portrayed the Black Manta. The origin story in the 2018 James Wan film sticks pretty close to the DC Comics New 52 version. He’s a high-tech pirate alongside his father, and when his dad dies after an incident involving Aquaman, he vows revenge. He attacks Arthur Curry in Italy, but Arthur ultimately defeats him. But as the post-credits scene shows us, Black Manta definitely did not die. All signs point to Manta trying to exact his revenge on the King of Atlantis in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

The Black Manta Spin-off The Trench

Warner Bros. planned a spin-off film for Black Manta called The Trench. We saw Aquaman face off against the monsters who live in the undersea trench in the 2018 film. James Wan revealed that The Trench was secretly a stealth solo Black Manta movie. When Warner Bros. canceled those plans, ideas for the spin-off found their way into the sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

Black Trident in Aquaman 2

In the trailer, we see that Black Manta is wielding the Black Trident, a relic from Atlantis from before King Atlan’s time. Chances are we are going to see Trident vs. Trident in the upcoming sequel. This would put Manta on equal footing with his famous nemesis. We’ll find out when Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom hits theaters on December 22, 2023.

The post Who Is AQUAMAN 2’s Main Villain? Black Manta’s Comic History and Powers, Explained appeared first on Nerdist.

Recently, I was talking to someone about the magic of theme parks—specifically about how to share that magic with a cynical adult. He said it’s not about pointing out a ride’s elaborate facade or an incredible feat of engineering. I started to protest, “But these are all important parts of making a theme park special!” No, my friend insisted, it’s about the people. It’s about how those of us visiting a theme park react to and share experiences together and make memories. Whether you’re with a group or alone, it’s about how you interact with elements of the park, characters in the park, and the impressions all of it leaves behind.

This was at the front of my mind when Walt Disney World hosted Nerdist to experience holidays at the parks. I observed adults giggling in delight as fake snow “fell” from the sky. People sang along to a The Nightmare Before Christmas show with exuberance. Puppets from Animal Kingdom’s Merry Menagerie turned a group of grown-ups into excited kids. In moments loud and quiet, I noticed people making memories all around me. My friend was right. That’s what theme parks are about.

Of course, it’s easier to tap into wells of emotion during the holidays. This time of year tends to soften our hearts and awaken a childlike joy. As Walt Disney World ambassador Raevon Redding put it, “I’m normally happy nine times out of 10, so this time of year I’m really happy everyone’s happy—we’re all in unison. And I’m not all the way Buddy the Elf… but I’m close.”

It was hard not to feel a lightness of heart upon seeing the towering Christmas tree upon entering Magic Kingdom or getting up close and personal with Lucille the seal from the Merry Menagerie. That sweet puppet had so much life and personality I believed she was real. Festivities extend beyond the theme park gates too. Walking the trail of themed trees at Disney Springs buoyed my spirit on a blazing Florida day (the Haunted Mansion tree is everything). The smell of gingerbread fills a handful of Disney hotel lobbies thanks to giant confectionary constructions, including the Grand Floridian.

Inside the parks, two different parties fill the calendar for the holiday season: Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and Disney Jollywood Nights. The former is a long-time family favorite, the latter is a brand-new event geared towards adults. I attended Jollywood Nights on its first night and while the event has room to grow and improve, the two shows were stand-outs.

First up, What’s This? Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Sing-Along happens four times a night at the Hyperion Theatre. The show takes two performers on a dreamlike adventure through some of the movie’s best songs using creative props and storytelling. This delightful show really leans into the charm of curiosity and wonder. The more you sing along when the show invites it, the more fun you’ll have. And the best part: Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie both appear. The life-size Jack Skellington puppet normally appears at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party. I was so excited to see the impeccable puppet get a holiday outing. It’s like seeing Jack from the film come to life, which means it’s kind of mind-blowing.

Oogie Boogie isn’t as intricate as Jack just because of the nature of the character. Jack Skellington is a spindly skeleton-like being; Oogie Boogie is more of a shapeless burlap sack. Still, the character moves on stage exactly like he does in stop-motion in the animated movie. It’s uncanny. The Sing-Along uses Oogie Boogie’s unraveling to excellent effect, too. I walked away from the show with a need to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas as soon as possible.

The second show, Disney Holidays in Hollywood, also takes place four times an evening during Disney Jollywood Nights. The Theater of the Stars performance is an old school variety-style show celebrating the holidays. Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy cohost the event. And look, The Muppets are criminally underutilized in Disney Parks so I’m overjoyed to see them starring in this show. Miss Piggy remains the best diva ever, and her dialogue in this performance cements it. Kermit keeps it real, while Tiana, Minnie Mouse, and Mickey Mouse bring holiday cheer.

But the part of the show that caught me and my feelings unexpectedly was Belle. Remember Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas? The 1997 direct-to-video holiday film takes place within Beauty and the Beast and is a fun enough movie centered on a kind of bizarre plot about the villainous organ called Forte. But it does have a showstopper of a song: “As Long As There’s Christmas.” Belle sings this live during Disney Holidays in Hollywood. Maybe it was the late (for me) hour or maybe it’s because Belle is one of my favorite characters, but something about hearing this deep cut of a song and its earnest lyrics wrapped around my heart. It brought up warm and fuzzy memories of holidays past and hope for holidays to come.

Blowers above the theater sent snow falling onto the audience as the show ended, eliciting laughs and shrieks. The snow was soapy and manufactured. The feelings were not.

The post Holidays at Walt Disney World Bring Joy in the Form of THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and THE MUPPETS appeared first on Nerdist.

In The Marvels, Iman Vellani makes a delightful return as Kamala Khan after we last saw her in the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel. The Pakistani-Canadian actress has been widely noted as a scene-stealer in the film, bringing all of Kamala Khan’s joy over meeting her idol Captain Marvel to the big screen. Vellani is fully living the dream of a comic book nerd in many ways. She recently co-wrote Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant alongside Sabir Pirzada, which introduces Kamala Khan as a mutant and member of the X-Men in the Marvel Comics universe.

We caught up with Iman Vellani to talk about her ideas for Kamala Khan’s future, her relationship with her The Marvels co-stars, and her hopes for Ms. Marvel to meet a certain character in the MCU.

Nerdist: What is it like living every comic book nerd’s dream? Your joy in being in this film was so palpable and so wonderful to see. What was the experience like?

Iman Vellani: I really have been trying to figure out how to sum it up and it’s near impossible. I feel like such an imposter at times. I am very, very lucky and I can acknowledge that, but what if I’m not enough? What if there’s a bigger fan? It’s a lot of pressure when you actually think about it and knowing the fan base very well from God knows how many years I’ve been a part of this community… It’s a little intimidating, but I think if I’m happy doing the work, then people will be able to see that. So hopefully that’s enough.

The relationship between Kamala, Carol, and Monica was the highlight of the film. What was it like building that relationship and bonding over the filming throughout?

Vellani: Yeah, I was going into this thinking we’re going to be like sisters, super close, and they kind of just took me in. It was very sweet because both of them have not only been in Marvel things before, but they’ve just been in Hollywood before and I had just come off of Ms. Marvel. I hadn’t done any press yet. I haven’t been exposed to the world. I basically had these two years where I could just prepare for my life to change. Brie and Teyonah were both very good at giving me space to ask questions and be vulnerable and open.

There’s so many weird questions that you can’t really ask until you’re put in that situation, in terms of press and your makeup or body image. There’s so much of just being a woman in the public eye and I think they understand that on such a deep level. It was very great for me to have them as support, and then they just let me take off once the universe got ahold of me and they’ve always been available if I ever needed anything. It was a very sweet relationship.

In The Marvels, Kamala goes through this journey of learning not to put Captain Marvel on such a high pedestal. Did that journey parallel your own at all as someone who’s just entering this world of Marvel and this massive limelight?

Vellani: Absolutely. I say this all the time, but me and Kamala are going on a very similar trajectory here. With Ms. Marvel, it was like a homey environment, small, everyone was kind of my age and we were all new and this was everyone’s first big thing. Then suddenly, two weeks later, I’m doing a scene with Samuel L. Jackson and my brain cannot wrap my head around it. I’ve gotten a lot better at realizing famous people are also people.

I think at the same time, Kamala realizes Carol has so many stressors already on her, and she very clearly does not know how to express her feelings. She doesn’t know how to be vulnerable in front of other people. She doesn’t have any relationships in her life, whereas Kamala has her friends, her family, her religious community. She’s got her mentors, her idols, and so many people around her in her life and her entire Jersey City squad and Carol doesn’t have that. [Carol] has Goose. She has a freaking cat. That’s it.

It’s not even a cat. So it makes total sense that she is the way that she is, and I think Carol actually ends up learning a lot from Kamala about being open and having emotions and honoring those feelings and just like Kamala does. It was very sweet to watch our characters progress and go through this entire arc throughout the course of the film.

Kamala/Ms. Marvel is one of my favorite characters, not only as a South Asian Muslim woman, but also because so much of her culture and religion is woven into who she is in every comic page of portrayal. The same is true for her in live-action, too. Do you have a favorite example of a certain cultural or religious reference that happened in The Marvels?

Vellani: There’s this one part where Muneeba, Kamala’s mom, is saying how she’s going to kill Carol Danvers in Urdu. That was really funny. I don’t know why. That just makes me crack up every single time. That, and obviously [the moment where] Aamir is praying as they’re about to crash-land back on to Earth and Nick Fury was like, “Well, don’t stop. We need all the help we can get.” There are these little moments like that that make these characters so specific and [to me], this is representation. Not being “this is what Islam is and this is what being Pakistani means.” It’s just having these little moments. My parents talk to me half in English, half in Urdu. They’re sprinkling in little words just like the Khan family does. It makes me feel seen, and I love that we have that in the film.

Yeah, absolutely. I think something special about Kamala is that kind of specificity, but that is universally appealing, because, ultimately, she is just a girl trying to fit in.

Vellani: Exactly. Aren’t we all?

Kamala gets her little Nick Fury in Iron Man moment at the end of the film, which had me so excited. It seems that this new team seems quite intriguing. Do you have a dream team, aside from Kate and now potentially Cassie, even someone who isn’t in the MCU yet?

Vellani: People really love these Young Avengers, but I don’t even know if they actually read those comics—not that they’re bad. The chemistry between Kamala, Miles [Morales], and Sam [Alexander], it’s too good. I would love to see that trio in the MCU. Neither of those characters exist yet in live action, but I’m praying for it. Yeah. I love Sam Alexander. One of their first interactions that they had. Also when Sam tried to reveal his identity and Kamala was like, “Get away from me.” I love it.

If there were a Ms. Marvel season two, which we are all hoping for, what is your favorite comic storyline that you would like to see done in live action next?

Vellani: Doc.X, I think. Gen Z and their phones, people love talking about that and just the impact that technology really does have on us. I think Doc.X is such a good villain to incorporate and act as the metaphor for how much content we’re consuming and the ways we use technology to ruin other people’s lives.

I think that could work so well in a college setting or even her senior year. I really want to see that storyline play out. And also, I think it’s one of the storylines where Kamala is just at her peak nerdiness. The comic also starts with her hosting a LAN party with all these other nerds, gaming. It’s so amazing, honestly. So I want to see more of that. I want to see gamer Kamala. I want to see her just fueling on bags of chips and pop. 

Speaking of comics, co-writing the first comic book run where Kamala is now a mutant is a big responsibility! I’m sure you were over the moon at the opportunity. Did you learn anything new about Kamala’s character?

Vellani: I honestly wanted to honor a lot of G. Willow Wilson’s original Ms. Marvel run. She does such a good job of painting the picture of who Kamala is right down from the very first frame of her smelling bacon at Circle Q, and I love it. I love how much personality she has. For me, I wanted the comic that I co-wrote to showcase why I love this character so much in this specific medium.

I love Kamala in the MCU, but I wanted people to see why she’s even cooler in the comics. I wanted to put her powers on full display, so me and my co-writer Sabir Pirzada, who is my favorite human to work with, were just like, “Okay, how crazy can we go with these powers? What kind of shapes can we come up with?”

These powers work so well and only in comics. You could do so much with it. And as long as the artist can draw it, the sky’s the limit. That was my main takeaway, and I think I found so many new things Kamala can do with her powers. It’s crazy. She uses her own body as a slingshot at one point. Her fingers elongate into spaghettis and they separate drones. It’s so weird and crazy. You couldn’t do that in live action. So yes, this was my love letter to her powers, I guess.

Now that you’ve written for Ms. Marvel, if you had the chance to write for any other superhero, who would it be?

Vellani: That’s tough. Maybe Deadpool, honestly. I think he’s a pretty fun character and I love reading his comics. He just comes to the top of my mind because I recently have been reading some Deadpool. But I love his humor, and honestly, when you read enough Deadpool comics, you can just mimic it and I feel like that would be really fun and put him in really strange situations.

Let’s hop back to The Marvels. As you talked about before, Kamala has a lot of people to rely on and it shows this emotional maturity that, say Carol or even Monica, can’t really get to. Could you tell me a little bit about how you portray that and what was most important to you in portraying her relationships to her family and friends especially?

Vellani: Kamala is very much the glue of the group in a lot of ways. She has so much more knowledge than them about superheroing. Even though she’s younger than all the rest of the characters, she’s still the most mature, still the most emotionally intelligent because she is such an observer. And I’m very glad for the way the movie is edited because it cuts back to Kamala just reacting and not speaking. There’s little moments where Monica slips up and calls Carol “Aunt Carol,” and you just have that one look from Kamala.

There’s a lot of moments like that and she realizes very quickly early on that she’s in between some really tense moments between Carol and Monica. They have years of history under their belt and yet she still doesn’t shy away from giving her opinion. She doesn’t shy away from making choices under pressure. A lot of the reason is because of her relationships, Kamala just feels like a character who understands what it is like to be human. She’s the epitome of humanity in my eyes. I think she’s the most human character in the MCU. I think she has so many relationships that ground her. I think her religion grounds her. The fact that she has both parents who are alive grounds her, and Carol just doesn’t have that. 

I think that quality just makes her a natural born leader in a lot of ways, which is why I would be so excited to see something like the Young Avengers come to fruition. There’s so much that so many characters can learn from her, and Carol definitely takes a lot of that from Kamala. Kamala teaches them about teamwork and about partnership because she’s researched all this. She reads comics, she writes fan fiction, she’s listening to Scott Lang’s podcast. So she’s so involved in the superhero of it all that sometimes she forgets that her heroes are also adults and they have lives and they’re human too. Carol and Monica teach her more about adulthood, and she teaches them about leadership and about teamwork. So it’s a good balance.

The scene in Aladna, with all the bright colors and set pieces, kind of reminded me of a Bollywood musical. We’ve seen Kamala go through some Bollywood-like scenes in the comics, but would that be something you would like Kamala to do in the MCU too? 

Vellani: I would like for Kamala to do it. I would not like to do it. They already had me dance twice in Ms. Marvel. I can’t move like that. No, I wish I could say I was the Madhuri Dixit of the MCU, but I’m really not. I don’t think I want to be. That seems like a lot, a lot of dance moves. But there are scenes from the comic where she is in Bollywood-esque numbers and stuff and I was like, “That would be fun for Kamala, if I’m thinking not selfishly.” I would love to see it. I’m a little scared of Bollywood. It feels very intimidating and a lot of pressure.

We have to talk about the end credit scene, it is groundbreaking for the MCU. Now that Kamala is already part of the X-Men in the comics, which member of the X-Men would you like to see her meet first?

Vellani: Wolverine. Wolverine any day. Personally, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is one of my favorite characters ever, but also her first mentor in the comics was Wolverine. I wanted to bring Wolverine back into this one. Hopefully, we can do that in the future. I think their interactions are so sweet and she brings out a different side of Logan and I love it when she just has all these superhero parents. It’s wonderful. He’s very protective over her and I think he’s also very real with her. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything and I think Kamala needs just a reality check sometimes. 

The post Iman Vellani on THE MARVELS, Writing MS. MARVEL Comics, and Her Hopes for Kamala Khan’s Future appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back, Rick & Morty fans! This week’s episode offered up some massive developments for the series’ longrunning storylines around Rick Prime and Evil Morty in a story that will have massive implications for the series moving forward. Dan dives in to break down this epic end of an era on today’s episode of Nerdist News!

More Horror News: https://nerdist.com/topic/horror/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: Adult Swim

The post Rick and Morty Just Changed EVERYTHING | “Unmortricken” Breakdown appeared first on Nerdist.

Marvel Studios is certainly at a crossroads at the moment. The once indestructible brand where every film was an out-of-the-ballpark hit had its share of disappointments in 2023. There are a myriad of reasons for this, chiefly too much content in too short a time, and not enough of them were “events.” (Spider-Man: No Way Home notwithstanding). Aside from cutting back on films and shows drastically, there is a solution for this MCU malaise. And that solution involves putting the Avengers and the X-Men on screen together at last, and probably in Secret Wars.

A big part of the solution is to truly make the next Avengers film an event that even the most jaded and burnt-out MCU fans would have to check out in theaters—a proper Avengers/X-Men crossover. Certain hints that have popped up recently suggest Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Marvel’s Mutants are headed for a collision course with multiversal ramifications. Whether or not Avengers: The Kang Dynasty actually happens as planned, we do believe that the next Avengers film will feature the two iconic Marvel teams at odds.

The X-Men Hints So Far in the MCU

Since Disney acquired Fox back in 2019, fans have been asking “So when are the X-Men coming to the MCU?” Even She-Hulk asked it in her own show. And so far, Marvel Studios has been playing the long game, not jumping into anything. We got the mutant hint in Ms. Marvel, and Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier in Multiverse of Madness. Plus, the news of Hugh Jackman returning as Wolverine in Deadpool 3. Heck, we’re not convinced that Evan Peters’ Quicksilver in WandaVision isn’t more than he seems and not just a gag.

Now, The Marvels has revealed yet another connection to the X-Men universe with the return of Kelsey Grammar as Beast, working in the X-mansion from the original films. An incursion event with the X-Men universe and the 616 seems imminent, and that can only mean we’re getting an Avengers vs. X-Men project. And in fact, Avengers: Secret Wars could very likely be rebranded as Avengers/X-Men: Secret Wars. An announcement of that magnitude would blow the doors off of San Diego’s Hall H, and stop all talk of “Marvel Fatigue” dead in its tracks. Just from a mercenary business perspective, it makes sense. But frankly, it’s also a story fans have waited decades to see.

Will These MCU Mutants Be the X-Men We Know?

The big question is, which X-Men are we dealing with here? Beast was working in a lab that looked identical to the underground medical bay in the Fox X-Men films. The Charles Xavier we saw in Doctor Strange on Earth-838 seemed very reminiscent of the one from X-Men: The Animated Series. But the Scarlet Witch killed that Charles. Obviously, the Charles that the Beast refers to seems to be very much alive. So, this is another hint that Beast is in the classic X-Men movie universe, not Earth-838. Or, at least, a version of the classic Fox X-Men world. And yes, we know his appearance looks different. We remind you that the look of comic book Beast is continually evolving. No reason to think the live-action Henry McCoy would be any different.

X-Men: Days of Future Past May Hold the Answer

Fans of the Fox X-Men films know that the timeline and continuity of those films are a bit of a mess. And that’s putting it mildly. But at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past, Logan’s adventures in the past caused him to wake up in a new present. Essentially, a “happy ending” future, where Xavier is still alive. The school was open, and former tragically dead X-Men like Cyclops and Jean Grey were alive and well. In fact, Kelsey Grammer’s Beast was there too, in a cameo moment.

Given one of music cues in The Marvels’ post-credits scene is from Days of Future Past, we think that they’re trying to tell us that we’re in that “happy ending” reality from that film. A reality that takes the best elements of the original movies and loses the things viewers hated. Mainly, the random and arbitrary deaths of the main X-Men. So, in short, it’s a new X-Men universe, made up of bits and pieces of the old one. And part of what it’s keeping is the classic actors. The rest is up to the filmmakers.

Deadpool 3 May Set the Stage for Avengers/X-Men: Secret Wars

With three confirmed X-Men characters back, there’s no telling who else might show up coming up soon. There are rumors already that Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, and James Marsden are back for Deadpool 3 as Storm, Jean Grey, and Cyclops, respectively. Patrick Stewart has all but confirmed he’s back too. What’s to stop Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, Alan Cumming, and Rebecca Romijn from returning as well? If you’re going to bring back the OG X-Men, it seems only using them in small roles in Deadpool 3 is a waste. No, we think there are much bigger plans afoot.

The 2015 event comic Secret Wars by Jonathan Hickman began when incursions across the Multiverse resulted in its total destruction until there were only two realities left—the classic 616, and Earth 1610, home of the Ultimate universe. Eventually, both of those realities had to do battle with each other to determine which one would get to live. Spoiler alert—neither reality gets to live, and Doctor Doom fuses what remains of them together into a new “Battleworld.”

Although it could still be Kang in the MCU, In Avengers/X-Men Secret Wars, we could get a version of that story. But it would be the MCU Earth vs the Fox X-Men Earth. And the protectors of each reality would have to fight for the existence of their world. Much like Captain America: Civil War, neither side would be wrong. Who wouldn’t fight to protect everyone they know from annihilation? In an Infinity Wars-type cliffhanger, we could see both realities fade to white, presumably destroyed. A sixth Avengers film could open on Battleworld, a hodgepodge reality made of elements of both universes. It would be an excuse to bring back anybody.

X-Men vs. Avengers: A Battle Fans Have Waited Decades to See

From a pure fan point of view, the battles would be cant-miss events. Thor vs. Storm, Wolverine vs. Hulk, Scarlet Witch vs. Phoenix, etc. And yes, an all-star lineup of Avengers vs. an all-star lineup of X-Men is a lot of characters. But let us remind you that Civil War juggled 18 principal characters. Infinity War and Endgame showcased 30, and somehow gave everyone something to do. So an Avengers/X-Men crossover could absolutely work. Although Kevin Feige might want to give Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely a call. They seem extremely adept at juggling so many superheroes cohesively, and giving emotional character stakes to these comic book battles.

The original X-Men films truly started the Marvel superhero craze in cinemas after Blade proved it could be done. It led to Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, and ultimately, the MCU. If, in fact, Avengers: Secret Wars and the Multiverse Saga are intended to bring an end to not just one era of storytelling, but going back even before the MCU, what better way to go out than with a bang?

The post Why SECRET WARS Should Be an AVENGERS/X-MEN Battle Royale appeared first on Nerdist.

Dwayne Johnson was right when he said, “The hierarchy of power in the DC universe is about to change.” He was just wrong about who would end up on top. Power now rests in the hands of new co-heads of DC, James Gunn and Peter Safran. We’ve wondered what their ascension would mean for the superhero franchise since the moment they got hired. But we don’t have to wait any longer. Gunn has announced “Chapter 1” of projects in a unified DC universe, or what is known as the DCU.

Gunn shared the plan for the new DC Universe that he and Safran have devised for the first 8-10 years of their regime. That will include a space for other projects that don’t fall under the main DC Universe purview. Films like The Batman Part 2, Teen Titans Go, and Joker: Folie à Deux will fall under the DC Elseworlds banner, same as in DC comics.

Movies already in the works like Shazam: Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman 2, will lead to Gunn and Safran’s new unified DC Universe. (Notably, Gunn said The Flash “resets the entire DC Universe.”) That singular universe will encompass film, television, and gaming. Gunn said characters will even move between animation and live-action, with the same actors playing the voices for the former.

But the biggest news from Gunn is the slate of new films and television shows DC is calling “Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters.” Below, we break down what we know about these DCU entries so far.

DC UNIVERSE CHAPTER ONE MOVIES

Superman: Legacy: The film side of the new DCU will kick off on July 11, 2025 with Superman: Legacy. Gunn is writing the script, which he says is “the true beginning” of this new unified era.

According to a release, the Superman movie will “focus on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing.”

You can check out everything we know about Superman: Legacy here:

The Authority: Gunn’s “passion project” is a “big movie” that will introduce a very different group of superheroes. They believe the world is broken and needs saving. But they will also interact with all of the franchise’s other big characters.

A release shares more about this DC Universe movie, It notes “WildStorm characters will join the DCU as members of The Authority take matters into their own hands to do what they believe is right.”

The Brave and the Bold: Batman will come to the DCU in a story based on Grant Morrison’s comic series. It will feature Batman’s actual son, Damian Wayne, as Robin.

According to Gunn, “This is a story of Damian Wayne, who’s Batman’s actual son that he didn’t know existed for the first eight to ten years of his life. He was raised as a little murderer and assassin. He’s my favorite Robin.”

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow: Tom King (and Bilquis Evely)’s comic book series from last year is getting turned into “a big science fiction epic film.”

Gunn shares, “In our story, we have Superman, who was sent to Earth and raised by incredibly loving parents. Kara was on Krypton. She was on a piece of Krypton that drifted away from the planet, and she lived there for the first fourteen years of her life in a horrible situation where she watched everyone around her die. So, she’s a much harsher and more f*cked up Supergirl than you’ve been used to thus far.”

It was recently reported that Ana Nogueira will write the DCU’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow movie.

Swamp Thing: Though “tonally outside the rest of the DCU,” the origin story of Swamp Thing will still feed into the rest of the DC Universe’s stories.

DCU CHAPTER ONE TELEVISION SHOWS

Creature Commandos: The first project for the new DCU is an animated series based on characters first introduced in 1980.

A release shares that this show will be “a seven-episode animated show in which Amanda Waller creates a black ops team out of monstrous prisoners; Gunn wrote all the episodes of the first season.” Gunn further shares, that team will include, “Rick Flag, Sr. He’s going to show up in other stuff. Then Nina Mazursky. Doctor Phosphorus, a Batman villain. Frankenstein—Eric Frankenstein, specifically. The Bride of Frankenstein, who’s the lead. Finally, G.I. Robot and Weasel.”

Waller: The second series from Gunn and Safran is Waller, a live-action spinoff from Peacemaker. It will see Amanda Waller teaming up with members from the Peacemaker team.

Christal Henry (Watchmen) and Jeremy Carver (Supernatural) will write this entry in the DC Universe.

Lanterns: Gunn says Lanterns will be a big HBO series starring Hal Jordan and John Stewart. The “terrestrial-based” show will be akin to True Detective. The two will investigate a “terrifying mystery” that has huge ties to the entire franchise.

Paradise Lost: Paradise Lost will take place on Themyscira, home of Wonder Woman. Gunn says it has a lot in common with Game of Thrones. A release shares this entry into the DC Universe “focuses on the genesis and political intrigue of an island of all women.”

Booster Gold: Booster Gold might be DC’s most popular loser. He’s a hero who travels back in time with technology from the future that lets him be a superhero. That tech is also getting him his own show.

Even more exciting for DC fans? Gunn says these are just the stories he can tell us about right now. But this slate is enough to know the hierarchy in the DC universe really has changed.

Originally published on January 31, 2023.

The post James Gunn Announces First Slate of TV Shows and Movies for the DC Universe appeared first on Nerdist.

“I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose.”

Loki‘s season two finale proved the Asgardian prince was right all along. Only the glorious purpose with which Loki believed himself burdened turned out to be very different from anything he’d imagined. The God of Mischief, who wanted nothing more than to be loved, who thought personal fulfillment could only be found in the admiration of adoring crowds, realized the only true purpose in life is loving others. Loki became the God of Stories, the being at the end of time who makes it possible for everyone, everywhere, to live their lives freely. It was the final chapter in a story that saw one of the MCU’s best, most interesting, most important characters, one who began his own tale as a selfish villain, become a selfless hero. But it wasn’t exactly a happy ending.

Loki only got everything he ever wanted and redeemed his soul with great personal sacrifice. To protect those he cares for most he must spend eternity apart from them. He sits on a throne no one will ever come before. He shoulders a burden the very multiverse he saved will never know about. It was a conclusion as heartbreaking as it was beautiful, tragic as it was hopeful, ironic as it was poetic. It was an honest, earned, emotional farewell in the way only bittersweet endings can be.

Loki spent his life projecting strength to hide the weakness that truly drove hm. He played the villain to exude toughness because he was always scared and insecure. He thought he needed to intimidate and awe others into submission if he was ever going to earn what he thought he wanted most of all: love and respect. His personal failings didn’t just lead to his own suffering, though. They led him to hurt so many. Loki turned his pain into more pain.

That Loki, with whom we spent 13 years, was long gone by the time he destroyed He Who Remains’ Temporal Loom. By then he’d finally learned to be honest with himself. That self-reflection allowed him to recognize what he actually wanted in life. He would never find meaning in the love of others, but rather in loving them. To show love to those he cared about most, though, he had to do the one thing he feared most. To fulfill his glorious purpose he had to accept being alone. And he has to do it without thanks. The infinite number of people who owe him their very existence don’t even know he’s out there, let alone what they owe him. And the handful of friends who do will never again see him. To give everything to everyone Loki had to give up everything.

Whether you always loved Loki or came to begrudgingly respect him for what he did, it was hard to see him sitting on his throne at the end of time and not feel conflicting emotions. He wasn’t weak or afraid. He’d grown as a person and became strong enough to do something amazing with his life. He did something that mattered, something that earned him true redemption, something that benefitted all of existence. What greater purpose could anyone have then Loki, protector of the Tree of Life? What would his father, mother, and brother think of him if they could see him now? He’d been so desperate to make them all proud and now he had. And yet, to accomplish everything he ever wanted he had to accept being alone, the one fate he feared.

It was an incredible ending for an incredible character and story, one that felt both earned and right. It’s why Loki’s final chapter stands alongside other great goodbyes in the MCU, the ones that didn’t ask us to only feel good or bad, but to feel everything. Tony Stark was once a war monger who wanted to build a suit of armor around the world. In the end he was that suit of armor, but he paid for it with his life. Just as Natasha Romanoff did. The Black Widow who wanted to erase the “red” in her ledger sacrificed herself to save her best friend and the whole universe. Like Loki their endings were not only fitting conclusions to their stories, they stand out because they forced us to accept that emotions that seem inherently at odds with one another are anything but.

There is no good without bad, no hope with fear, no life without death. And we feel both good and bad more acutely when they come together because together they best resemble the conflict of being alive. None of us will ever get happy endings. One day we will all say goodbye to those we love. We might bid farewell first or be the ones left behind, but a parting is coming. Every hug, every “see you later,” every piece of key lime pie we share together could be our last. Remembering that is painful, but that pain it also reminds us to enjoy those moments and those people more. Stories that remind us of that force us embrace the most inescapable truth about existence, that to be alive and to feel is bittersweet.

Not every great ending is bittersweet. Neither is every bittersweet ending great. But when one is honest to the character and their arc, when it feels like the only ending they ever could have had, it lands an emotional blow no other conclusion can. Because a bittersweet ending is the only kind of ending that asks us to feel everything at once the way life itself does. How fitting the new God of Stories, the hero who saved everyone’s story, ended up telling one that did just that.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on  Twitter and  Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post LOKI and the Honest Beauty of a Bittersweet Ending appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back to the TVA, Marvel fans! In the final episode of the season, the God of Mischief finally found his glorious purpose in a supremely satisfying climax, but was this epic ending also secretly a series finale? Dan Casey hops through a time door to find out whether this could be the last we see of Loki on today’s episode of Nerdist News!

More Loki News: https://nerdist.com/tags/marvel/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: Marvel

#Nerdist #Loki #Marvel #MCU

The post Did Loki Just Give Us A Secret Series Finale? appeared first on Nerdist.

“It should have been you.” – Carol Danvers in The Marvels.

Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan wore Skrull memory probes together in The Marvels to find Dar-Benn’s coordinates, but the three saw more than just a star map. They also unintentionally shared private memories with one another. That included a moment Monica didn’t know about. While she remained blipped out of existence by Thanos, “Auntie Carol” visited Monica’s dying mother, Maria Rambeau. During their encounter Carol tried to explain why she had stayed away from Earth for so long. Carol also told her best friend she should have been the one who gained cosmic powers.

In the moment it felt like Carol’s way of owning up to and apologizing for her failures, both as a friend and a superhero. She wasn’t good enough at being either, not the way her friend would have been. But after the film’s shocking post-credits scene, that previous moment took on a whole new meaning. Carol Danvers might have been right, at least about the hero part. Maybe it should have been Maria Rambeau who became Earth-616’s Captain Marvel. Her Variants in parallel worlds became Captain Marvel instead. The MCU’s Carol Danvers might be an anomaly.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness introduced the Illuminati of Earth-838. One of the powerful group’s members was that dimensions’ Captain Marvel. She wasn’t a Variant of Carol Danvers but a version of Maria Rambeau.

That reveal was a fun, clever “what if,” the kind of alternate reality inevitable in an infinite multiverse. It wasn’t even hard to imagine why that universe’s Captain Marvel was different. On Earth-616 Carol and Maria were both pilots for P.E.G.A.S.U.S., a government project run by secret Kree scientist Dr. Wendy Lawson (a.k.a Mar-Vell). Carol was in the cockpit for Mar-Vell’s escape attempt. It resulted in Carol gaining immense powers from the Tesseract. But Carol was only flying because she’d taken a shortcut while racing Maria to the program’s hangar. Had Maria beat her there instead Maria would have been the one to become Captain Marvel in Earth-616.

Now the Illuminati Maria, who presumably died during her encounter with the Scarlet Witch, seems far more important than ever. The Marvels‘ only post-credits scene introduced another super Maria Variant. She lives in a world with the X-Men, a dimension that didn’t know about the multiverse before. There she is Binary, an even more powerful superhero persona Carol Danvers took on in Marvel Comics after losing her original powers.

Both Maria Rambeau Variants in the MCU are versions of Captain Marvel. On its own, that is more interesting than telling. But combined with the complete absence of any Variants for her MCU best friend, it stands out like a giant tear in space. We have yet to meet another version of Carol Danvers in any other reality—let alone another super one—even though “Captain Marvel” is proving to be a significant figure across the multiverse. As of now, Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers is a major anomaly.

What exactly does that mean? We don’t yet know. Marvel Comics once introduced a cosmic entity known as Anomaly, but despite its connections to Quasar (and therefore Quantum Bands) it’s not relevant to the MCU’s Carol Danvers. The franchise’s America Chavez is also not a great one-for-one comparison, because there is literally no one else like her in the Quantum Realm. Meanwhile we’ve now met three versions of a Captain Marvel character in three different worlds. And while Miles’ status as an anomaly in Across the Spider-Verse seems most pertinent, that’s a Sony story and it’s never clear what (if anything) it tells us about the MCU.

We do know one important thing: the universe doesn’t make mistakes with its greatest heroes. It gives great power to those it will one day ask to carry a great responsibility. Twice someone spared Tony Stark’s life, and he eventually saved every living being everywhere. The Hulk was seemingly created in an accident that should have killed Bruce Banner so he could use the gamma-ray powered Infinity Stones to bring back everyone Thanos snapped. And a Loki Variant just found the glorious purpose he believed himself born with to be saving every branch of reality to ever exist.

If Carol Danvers of Earth-616 is the Captain Marvel anomaly it’s not because the universe made a mistake. Her friend was not the one who should have been the one to gain those powers. It should have been Carol—along with all her flaws—for a reason we don’t yet know but one we can anticipate. Someday the universe will need that Carol Danvers to do something great, something her whole life will build to. And in that moment she and she alone will be the one, in any universe, who can do it.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post Is THE MARVELS’ Carol Danvers the MCU’s CAPTAIN MARVEL Anomaly? appeared first on Nerdist.

Loki‘s second season ended with the Asgardian prince getting everything he ever wanted. He really was born with a glorious purpose. It led him to sit upon a throne as he’d always coveted. And yet, the fulfillment of his lifelong dreams was not what he imagined. The God of Mischief, who had long played the role of a villain, proved to be anything but. His burden was not to earn others’ love but to show love. Loki saved everyone in every timeline by sacrificing himself to create a new kind of existence. It honors his Norse heritage and frees the universe from the Sacred Timeline’s oppression. The only thing it didn’t do was eliminate the danger posed by Kang the Conqueror and his dangerous Variants.

Loki spent the first half of his show’s season two finale desperately trying to fix the Temporal Loom that had seemingly exploded at the end of episode four. That blast had sent everyone at the TVA back to their original branch and life. It was everything Sylvie wanted, but in episode five those realities and everyone in them all began to turn to spaghetti. Without the Temporal Loom around to organize branches into the Sacred Timeline the entire multiverse appeared doomed. Loki was the multiverse’s only hope thanks to his time slipping.

Once Loki learned to control his movement through time he was able to go back to before the Loom’s failure. In the finale he spent centuries studying and repeatedly attempting to expand the Temporal Loom. He finally achieved his goal when he made it possible for Victor Timely to successfully fire the Throughput Multiplier onto the Loom before it was too late.

It didn’t work. It was never going to work. Scaling up the Temporal Loom’s size to fit more timelines was always doomed to fail. Without the TVA’s pruning of branches, new realities grow at an infinite rate. You can’t scale up for infinite. “It’s like trying to divide by zero. It can’t be done.”

Loki then decided he had to go back even further in time to fix everything. He needed to stop Sylvie from killing He Who Remains in the first place. The death of the TVA’s creator had put this existential disaster in motion.

Inside the Citadel of Time, during a sequence from the show’s season one finale, Loki tried again and again to prevent Sylvie from killing He Who Remains. He never succeeded. No matter how many times he time slipped to that encounter, Sylvie always murdered her sworn enemy. Each time she also told Loki if he wanted to stop her he had to kill her. Loki wouldn’t.

Eventually He Who Remains paused time when he realized Loki had relived this moment many times. The TVA creator also knew all about the time slipping. He had “paved” the road that led to Loki’s time traveling ability, because Loki was He Who Remains’ backup plan for reincarnation, not Victor Timely.

Loki then shared his own secret. He could also control time; he was much further along in his understanding of time manipulation. He Who Remains then explained exactly what was going on. There was no Temporal Loom scaling problem because the Temporal Loom is simply a failsafe. “When the Loom is overloaded with branches, it deletes the ones that aren’t supposed to be there. Everything except the Sacred Timeline.” Saving the TVA was never a concern. It was simply collateral damage that is “easy to rebuild.” The Loom’s protection of the Sacred Timeline and its finite number of chosen branches was all that ever mattered.

He Who Remains then told Loki something the Asgardian already knew: no matter what Loki did he would always lose. There was no way to save every branch. Not unless Loki changed the equation entirely and destroyed the Temporal Loom.

While He Who Remains said countless versions of his dangerous Variants already existed by now, destroying the Temporal Loom would mean multiversal war. That would result in the destruction of every branch of reality, including the Sacred Timeline. He Who Remains said that’s what this was all about. He offered mercy to some by making the hard choice to sacrifice timelines to prevent the end of them all. Loki was unconvinced. He still refused to kill Syivle and said he would “find another way.”

That other way led him to time slip to his first sit down with Mobius. There/then Loki asked his friend for help. Loki asked about how you decide who lives and dies. Mobius talked about keeping the big picture in mind and how “most purpose is more burden than glory.” Ultimately there is no comfort in real, meaningful purpose. The only choice we have is to pick which burden we are willing to live with.

Loki thanked him and then went to speak with Sylvie before she turned to spaghetti. When he told her the truth about the Loom being a failsafe Sylvie realized he might have to kill her. It was the only way to guarantee He Who Remains would live. Loki said it was either the Sacred Timeline or nothing, but she didn’t accept that. What gave him the right to take away everyone’s free will? What was the point of protecting an existence without it? Who was Loki to say they couldn’t die fighting instead? Why replace one nightmare with another anyway, especially when “sometimes it’s okay to destroy something.”

It’s what Loki needed to hear. Sylvie had never lost sight of the real big picture and what matters – a chance to live your life. Loki knew what he needed to do. He finally realized what kind of god he needed to be for his friends and everyone. Loki realized he could replace the branch-killing Loom, and therefore the Sacred Timeline, with something better: himself.

Loki went back to the moment before the Temporal Loom exploded to save the people he loved. He walked out on the platform without a suit and adorned his royal Asgardian clothes and horned crown. He then used his powers to destroy the Temporal Loom for good. Without it the infinite branches began to die, but Loki grabbed them and brought them back to life with his energy. He then gathered every timeline and carried them through a rift that led to the End of Time.

There he weaved the branches both into his robe and into himself as he claimed the throne as the King of All Time, Always. Only, unlike He Who Remains, he did not oppress timelines into a branch-killing Loom. Instead Loki let them all blossom and co-exist in peace as part of something new. Loki created Yggdrasil, the sacred ash Norse Tree of Life that contains all life.

Loki sacrificed himself to save everyone on every timeline. He also saved the TVA, a place people can now choose to serve freely. Some like Mobius opted to leave the TVA behind and go home. Others decided to stay because the TVA still serves an important purpose. It now monitors Variants of He Who Remains, one of whom caused (an already dealt with) problem in an Earth-616 adjacent world. That was a reference to Kang’s activities in the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Loki’s glorious purpose, which was never about earning the love of others but rather showing it to them, saved every branch in the infinite multiverse. He also stopped multiversal war and the potential destruction of everything. The Variants of He Who Remains will not destroy the entire universe. But when Loki broke the loop of time he did not destroy Kang and his Variants for good. Instead, in this new reality, they’re united as the Council of Kangs seen in Quantumania. He Who Remains Variants are no longer fighting each other to control the multiverse, they’re fighting together. That’s still a dangerous proposition for every branch of reality.

Loki’s sacrifice wasn’t a perfect solution because life isn’t perfect. We can never be truly safe. But it was beautiful and full of hope. He created a far better universe than the one He Who Remains maintained. Loki didn’t offer the multiverse false mercy defined by death. Loki has to give the multiverse life. Every life.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on  Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post What Happened in LOKI Season 2’s Finale and What It Means for the MCU appeared first on Nerdist.

The Temporal Loom is central to Loki’s second season, and we learn it’s critical in making the Time Variance Authority function. But what is Loki‘s Temporal Loom exactly? Here’s what we know about the Temporal Loom from Loki season two and what we can glean from Loki‘s various inspirations.

The MCU’s Loom: Loki Season Two’s Temporal Loom

Created by He Who Remains at some unknown point in time, Loki‘s Temporal Loom takes raw temporal energy and refines it into a physical timeline. Part of the reason the TVA prunes the extra timelines is so that the Temporal Loom doesn’t overload trying to “weave” too many timelines at once. Without the Temporal Loom, the TVA can’t function. And if it overloads, the TVA goes boom, and all of reality would soon follow. In episode two, we learn that a meltdown can’t be prevented without the temporal aura, or time signature, of He Who Remains. Who is currently quite dead.

By the third episode of Loki season two, the Temporal Loom is indeed overloading, thanks to the countless branched timelines that are returning with the death of He Who Remains. It simply wasn’t made to handle so many divergent timelines branching off at once. And without it, not only does the TVA cease to function, but chaos will reign in the multiverse. But we also learned of the origins of the Temporal Loom and how they tie into a specific Kang variant.

Victor Timely and the Origins of the MCU’s Temporal Loom

In episode three of Loki’s second season, Loki and Morbius travel back in time to the year 1893. There, they encounter a variant of He Who Remains. This variant, Victor Timely, is presenting his latest invention at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. It’s a very rudimentary version of the Temporal Loom, sold to the 19th-century audience as a way of harnessing energy. Victor Timely was able to create this Temporal Loom prototype based on his understanding of the descriptions of the TVA manual. A book that was left for him by Ravonna Renslayer and Miss Minutes when he was a child. Of course, the Temporal Loom malfunctions on stage after a mere few minutes. Yet it shows that as early as the 1890s, a Kang variant was working on the very thing that would make the TVA run.

Loki‘s Temporal Loom Isn’t Designed to Support the MCU’s Multiverse

In episode four, Loki and Mobius bring Victor Timely to the TVA to fix the overloaded Temporal Loom. They need the temporal aura of He Who Remains to open the blast doors to the Loom, which Timely matches. But Timely provided another service, what he called his “greatest invention” in the previous episode. Timley’s greatest invention is something that looks like a primitive version of Kang’s Multiversal Power Core from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. He can attach this invention to the Throughput Multiplier and expand the rings of the Temporal Loom. This would allow the new branched timelines to filter through, and save the TVA, and all reality. However, it doesn’t quite work out that way.

When Victor Timely tries to head out and fix the loom, he turns into spaghetti. And the Temporal Loom, well, it overloads and explodes. This explosion destroys the TVA, which appears to doom every branch, too. Every universe and thread of reality appears to literally shred, and there is nowhere to go for anyone except Loki, who finally manages to control his time slipping. But in the finale of season two, we learn that the Temporal Loom is a failsafe; it’s not designed to support the multiverse. No matter how many times Loki tries to get expanding it right, it simply always fails because it’s impossible to scale up for an infinite number of timelines. He Who Remains explains that the Loom’s purpose isn’t to support a multiverse of endless branches, but to destroy everything but the sacred timeline. To keep existence stable for other branches, something else has to be done.

Loki Replaces the Temporal Loom with Himself

In Loki season 2’s final episode, Loki destroys the Temporal Loom and replaces it with himself, forming the great tree of Yggdrasil out of the timelines and supporting them with his magic. With Loki at the center, the universe and all its branches can exist and thrive in a way they could not when the Temporal Loom wove the universe.

That’s the MCU. But does Loki‘s Temporal Loom have a precedent in the pages of Marvel Comics? Well, yes and no. But mostly, no. However, Loki season two’s Temporal Loom found inspiration in various parts of Marvel’s comics and actual myth.

Loki‘s Temporal Loom and Its Mythological Inspirations

In Greek mythology, there is a Loom of the Fates, which also exists in the Marvel Universe. In Norse mythology, that loom is the Loom of the Norns. (Marvel Comics combines these two mythologies together into one.) Essentially, in mythology, the three Fates weave this loom to shape the life and destiny of every being in creation. Thor destroyed the Loom of the Fates in Thor Vol. 2 #85 and broke the thread that holds the destiny of Asgardians, from which Those Who Sit Above in Shadow were absorbing energy. Those Who Sit Above were the silent beings who created the Asgardian Gods. So it’s fitting that a powerful loom that determines how the universe flows originated in Thor comics since the MCU’s Temporal Loom now appears in Loki, thus tying it to Thor’s mythos.

Spider-Man’s Loomworld

In the Spider-Man lore, there’s another powerful loom of sorts, reminiscent of Loki‘s temporal loom. The loom in this instance is a whole world itself, one that accesses all existence. There’s an entire Loomworld, where beings called the Inheritors could access the Web of Life and Destiny to travel across the multiverse and hunt down Spider-Totems. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse especially drew inspiration from this. They created the Loomworld of conquered realms from countless wars fought across realities. Eventually, several spider-people formed the Web-Warriors. They operated from Loomworld and used it as a focal point to protect the multiverse, which is similar to how the MCU’s TVA works.

Temporal Limbo, Chronopolis, and the Heart of Forever

In the comics, Kang did not create the TVA. There was a “He Who Remains,” but as far as we know, he’s not a Kang variant. However, the TVA has a lot in common with the realm of Limbo, a place outside of time historically ruled by Immortus, who was, of course, a Kang variant. Temporal Limbo was a timeless realm facilitating time travel to various points in history. Much like the MCU’s TVA, it existed outside the time stream. And time did not flow there the way it does everywhere else.

Limbo is also part of Chronicles, which has something very similar to the MCU’s TVA. At its heart is the most important component of the city, the Heart of Forever. It’s a trans-chronal engine that enabled Kang’s home to exist in every branch of the timestream simultaneously. While not exactly like the Temporal Loom in Loki, it has key similarities.

In the end, Loki‘s Temporal Loom is a hodgepodge of different elements from the pages of Marvel Comics—not to mention actual mythology itself. Ultimately, though, the Temporal Loom is a unique creation designed for the MCU. However, we’d hardly be surprised to see it retconned into the comics at some point.

Originally published on October 5, 2023.

The post LOKI’s Temporal Loom: What Is It and What Are Its Marvel Comics Inspirations? appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back, Rick & Morty fans! This week’s spaghetti filled adventure is one of the series’ darkest episodes to date, as it shines a light on everything from capitalism to cannibalism. Dan takes a closer look at this exploration of ethics and the bliss of ignorance on today’s episode of Nerdst News!

More Horror News: https://nerdist.com/topic/horror/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: Adult Swim

The post The Guilty Pleasure of Rick and Morty | “That’s Amorte” Breakdown appeared first on Nerdist.

Even after 50 years, the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction remains one of the best dark rides in theme park history, and is still a fan favorite. The first version opened at Disneyland in 1967, and since then, Disney has recreated it in all the other Disney parks around the globe. Now, it has been recreated again—this time in someone’s own home, with only120,000 LEGO bricks. The makers of this incredible LEGO build are brothers Joel and Jonathan Nueber, whose video they presented on the Beyond the Brick YouTube channel. And yes, this amazing LEGO build has real water. You can watch the full video right here:

The Nueber brothers mainly based their LEGO version of Pirates of the Caribbean on the one found in Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The loading dock is similar to the one found there, which resembles an old Spanish Fort. The one at Disneyland has the name “Lafitte’s Landing,” named after the infamous pirate Jean Lafitte. But just about every famous scene found in the attraction found new life here in LEGO brick form. From the mysterious caverns with skeletal swashbucklers to the dreaded pirate ship The Wicked Wench. Yes, even the dog holding the key to the jail cell with the pirate prisoners is here.

After the video showing the complete ride-through, there’s a side-by-side comparison with the original Disney Parks ride. And you can see how they thought of just about every detail. We’d love to see the video timed to the original soundtrack of the attraction at some point. Although it’s a small thing, we kind of love that one of the passengers is an Imperial Stormtrooper. Maybe he’s a cast member who came over from the LEGO version of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge? Now, we dare someone to make that in LEGO brick form! No really, we think that would be amazing. This LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean proved anything is possible.

The post Huge LEGO Custom Build of Pirates of the Caribbean Ride Uses Real Water appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back to the TVA, Marvel fans! Time keeps on slippin’ in this week’s episode of Loki, as the group must deal with the aftermath of Victor Timely’s untimely pastafication. While the episode delivered some major answers, it also brought up an even bigger questions of the series’ timey-wimey secrets. Dan Casey hops on his jet ski in search of answers on today’s episode of Nerdist News!

More Loki News: https://nerdist.com/tags/marvel/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: Marvel

#Nerdist #Loki #Marvel #MCU

The post Is Loki One Giant TIME LOOP? | Loki Season 2 Episode 5 appeared first on Nerdist.

Victor Timely’s stay at the TVA was both short and long. Soon after arriving he tried to stop the Temporal Loom’s complete failure but before he could, temporal radiation turned him into human spaghetti. What exactly happened to Victor? And what does his demise mean for Loki, the TVA, the Sacred Timeline, and the entire MCU? His un-Timely death just unleashed total chaos—and infinite Kang Variants— on the multiverse.

What Happened to Victor Timely on Loki?

Victor Timely provided the final component O.B. and Casey needed for the device they’d built to expand the Temporal Loom’s capacity. The Throughput Multiplier that Victor designed would ensure the Loom could handle more strands of universes safely, stabilizing the Sacred Timeline.

Just like in the season two premiere with Mobius and the Temporal Extractor, someone needed to physically place that piece of equipment on the Loom. That meant going outside the TVA and risking exposure to extreme temporal energy and “fatal corporeal de-husking.” (A term we know from an official show poster featuring O.B.)

Despite the risk, there was no time to waste. The Loom was ready to burst under the strain of too many branches. Victor, whose temporal aura had unlocked the blast doors, offered to go. Sadly his bravery led to his death. Even with a suit on, the instant Victor stepped outside he burst into ribbons. The amount of temporal radiation had become too much.

Why did Victor turn into spaghetti instead of simply exploding or having his skinned peel off, though? In the show’s season two premiere, Loki asked O.B. what would happen if the Temporal Extractor failed to the pull the Asgaradian out of the time stream. Ouroboros answered with a question. “Well, have you heard about how if you fall into a black hole you turn into spaghetti?” Loki had not, but we have.

What Is “Spaghettification?”

“Spaghettification” is a theoretical concept introduced by Stephen Hawking in A Brief History of Time. It hypothesizes what the immense density and gravitational pull of a black hole would do to someone or something who crossed the black hole’s event horizon. As NASA explains, “This effect essentially stretches out the object more and more as the object gets closer to the black hole, creating a long, thin shape.”

That is what O.B. warned Loki about, but it’s not exactly what happened to Victor Timely. For one Victor wasn’t caught in the time stream like Loki had been. Victor also wasn’t stretched into one long Variant noodle. Temporal radiation caused Victor to burst into multiple spaghetti-like ribbons, something we’ve seen before in the MCU.

Who Else Was Turned Into Spaghetti in the MCU Before Victor Timely?

Thanos used the Reality Stone in Avengers: Infinity War to briefly transform Mantis into loose ribbons.

The Scarlet Witch also used her dark magic to brutally murder Reed Richards of Earth-838 in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Magic. Wanda stretched Reed out into long spaghetti-like pieces before making his head explode.

Reed Richards’ slower, painful splintering more resembled Victor Timely’s instant death in many ways. However, the Kang Variant’s fate will have far greater ramifications for the entire multiverse. That starts with what Victor failed to stop.

What Happened to the TVA at the End of Loki Season 2 Episode 4?

Without the Throughput Multiplier in place the ever-increasing number of branches overwhelmed the Temporal Loom. The “heart of the TVA” could no longer weave all those strands of existence into one neat timeline. The result was an explosion of all branches and unrefined time that seemingly destroyed the TVA.

Without the Time Variance Authority there is no one to help manage the chaos of a multiverse that also lacks the guardrails offered by the Sacred Timeline. And we know that means because we know what happened before the TVA existed.

What Does the Implosion of the Temporal Loom Mean for Loki and the MCU?

The Temporal Loom’s explosion literally threatens all threads of reality in the MCU. In Loki season two, episode six, we learn that no branch of existence is safe after the Temporal Loom’s meltdown, they are all dying. We see both Sylvie’s and OB’s separate branches disintegrate into nothing before our eyes. Sphagettification is now happening across branching timelines, essentially destroying every MCU universe and every variant in existence.

But that’s not the only threat that exists for the MCU. He Who Remains created the TVA after defeating his Variants in the Multiversal War. Their battle nearly resulted in the end “of everything and everyone.” The TVA was He Who Remains’ solution to avoiding total annihilation, because without the organization, his Variants would always be a threat to existence. Without the TVA, Kang Variants always live since time is a circle. The TVA alone eliminated them as threats forever. (Except possibly Victor, who might have been He Who Remains’ backup plan specifically because Victor was not a threat, though we need more information to know for sure.)

The breaking of the Temporal Loom, and therefore the Sacred Timeline, means the system created to prevent Kang Variants from existing is gone. That means they might all have come back the second the Loom exploded. That would explain the existence of the Council of Kangs at the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. All those infinite strands of existence that just broke free of TVA control represent infinite Kangs.

That might ultimately explain why Victor himself turned into strands.

Is Victor Timely’s Spaghetti Fate Related to the Branching Timeline?

Temporal radiation is not a black hole, so Stephen Hawking’s theory doesn’t fully explain why Victor Timely became spaghetti in Loki. There’s also too much we don’t know about how time works in the MCU, specifically at the TVA, to explain exactly what happened to him and why. And since we know the season did not end with the Loom’s explosion, there’s still more to learn. But we can’t ignore that Victor literally branched out right before every branch of reality broke free.

Did Victor splinter into strands because the branches of reality did that to him? Or did the Loom finally burst because He Who Remains’ Variant did? If so, does that mean Victor’s temporal aura spaghetti-ed and brought all the Kangs back? Did He Who Remains actually want that so he’d come back, too? The last thing he told Sylvie after she stabbed him was that he’d see her “soon.” Was Victor his backup plan to restore himself rather than save the TVA? Does He Who Remains just assume he’ll win the next Multiversal War same as before?

Whatever answers await us during the final episode of Loki season two, one thing is clear: the untimely death of Victor Timely unleashed infinite strands of chaos on the multiverse. Fortunately, if anyone knows how to deal with time chaos it’s the God of Mischief, who already knows what it’s like to slip through time.

Originally published on October 26, 2023.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post What Victor Timely’s Fate Means for LOKI, the Sacred Timeline, and TVA appeared first on Nerdist.

Thank you to Factor for sponsoring today’s video! Use code NERDIST50 to get 50% off your first Factor box at https://bit.ly/3Rq1LrL!

Welcome back, Rick & Morty fans! Although so far this season, there seems to be a growing lack of the “and Morty” aspect of the show. In an episode all about growth, Dan is diving in to look closer at what this development means for the character of Morty and the show moving forward.

More Horror News: https://nerdist.com/topic/horror/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: Adult Swim

The post Where the Hell is Morty in Rick and Morty Season 7? | “Air Force Wong” Breakdown appeared first on Nerdist.

Most of the time, when original comic book artwork goes up for auction, it’s because it has great historical value. But occasionally, sometimes a piece of comic book art has historical value not necessarily for contributing anything great to the medium. Such is the case with this original uncolored piece of Captain America art from artist Rob Liefeld. Boing Boing reports this piece is going up for sale via Heritage Auctions. It’s currently going for north of $8,000. But what’s so special about this one promo image of Marvel’s Sentinel of Liberty? In a way, this one illustration of Cap, which you can see below, encapsulated an entire era of “extreme” ’90s comics.

So, a little background on this particular image, and why it sums up a whole decade of comics. In the early ’90s, artists like Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, and Todd McFarlane became superstars for their work at Marvel Comics. Books like Spider-Man and X-Men, which showcased their art, sold better than ever before. But in 1992, they and several other artists left Marvel to form their own imprint, Image Comics. Although a success, the glut of comics led to a speculator boom. And eventually, that led to a cratering of the entire comic book industry in 1994. Marvel Comics was in such dire straits that it canceled almost every ongoing title that wasn’t Spidey or mutant related. The outlook for Marvel at the time was bleak.

So in 1996, Marvel came to their former superstar artists with an idea. They’d allow Image Comics, specifically Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld, to take over four of their once most famous series for one year. These series were Fantastic Four and Iron Man by Jim Lee’s Wildstorm Studios, and Avengers and Captain America by Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Studios. They named this publishing initiative Heroes Reborn, and fans were legit excited.

Marvel released an early example of what Captain America’s redesign from Liefeld would look like. Let’s just say that actual human proportions for Steve Rogers were not a concern. His manly chest was so ridiculously inflated that this one image seemed to sum up everything wrong with ’90s superhero media. And it became almost instantly infamous. Even Liefeld himself has poked fun at it in recent years. And this is exactly why this one piece of art is a true piece of comics history. Marvel would find a way to reboot their line in a better way in the 2000s, with the Ultimate line. But this one image really is the symbol of an era.

The post Original Version of Infamous ’90s Captain America Art Up for Auction appeared first on Nerdist.

Are the original Avengers returning? Is Doctor Doom set to replace Kang as the “Big Bad” of the Multiverse Saga? And just what the heck is going on with the Blade reboot starring Mahershala Ali? Variety ran a story about the troubles Marvel Studios is having post-Avengers: Endgame, and in particular, post-pandemic. While Marvel has still had tremendous box office success, the glut of series and movies has made the MCU daunting for the casual fan. We’ll break down each of the big reveals from the Variety article, and what these reveals might mean for the future of the MCU as a whole. We should note, we’re focusing on what this means for future films and series here and not any behind-the-scenes drama.

Are the Original Avengers Making an MCU Comeback?

According to the report, there have been talks to bring back the original Avengers back for a film. This would include Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, both of whom were killed off in Avengers: Endgame. While the Variety pieces used the word “revive,” we would be shocked if they literally resurrected the versions who died. It’s far more likely we’ll meet their Multiversal variants in Avengers: Secret Wars, which would mean that they’d still be played by Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson.

Putting on our Nerdstradamus cap on, we think Avengers: Secret Wars, while loosely based on the 2015 comic, will at least feature a Battleworld made of various mashed-up realities and timelines. That puts every character, dead or alive, back on the table. So yes, that means the original Avengers are reunited—in a way. And also probably teamed up with the likes of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and maybe Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man. If they ever wanted a real “victory lap” film, likely before Secret Wars reboots everything, something like this might be the only way to come close to the success of Endgame. It’s not something even the most cynical person who grew up with Marvel films would ever miss. And we’d bet it was always the plan too.

Is the MCU Replacing Kang with Doctor Doom as the Multiverse Saga’s Main Villain?

And now, there’s the Kang problem. Between Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Loki, everything was gearing up to have Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror be the main villain of Phases 5 and 6. But then, all of Major’s personal and legal troubles began (which the Variety article details). It all leaves the MCU in a pickle. How do you make Avengers: The Kang Dynasty with possibly no Kang? The article suggests that at a recent Marvel Studios Palm Springs retreat, executives discussed backup plans, including pivoting to another comic book adversary, probably Doctor Doom.

Victor von Doom is one of Marvel’s greatest villains. Heck, he’s one of the entire comic book medium’s greatest villains. So a pivot toward the megalomaniacal ruler of Latveria makes sense. Also, as will all things MCU, the answers lie in the comics. In the 2015 Secret Wars series, Doom essentially steals the god-like power of the omnipotent Beyonder. It could be that Doom usurps Kang’s role and power in the story in a similar way. The Kang Dynasty could become The Doom Dynasty, and there’s ample Marvel Comics precedent for that. While the original report suggests the upcoming end of Loki forces Marvel to have Kang as the primary antagonist, we bet they have an out planned.

What Is Happening with the MCU Version of Blade?

So what about poor Blade? Things have certainly been contentious in the world of the Daywalker ever since SDCC 2019, when Feige announced Mahershala Ali as the iconic vampire hunter. The project has apparently gone through at least five writers, two directors, and one shutdown six weeks before production. Feige most recently hired Michael Green, screenwriter for Logan, to start from scratch. The hope is that Blade will now make it for a 2025 release date. The supposed budget may have come down to $100 million or so, way less than the standard MCU fare.

We think if that’s the case, it’s a wise move. Blade is a bloody, horror action franchise. Cleaning it up to be a PG-13 tentpole defeats the purpose. If Marvel Studios is releasing an R-rated Deadpool 3, why not do the same for Blade? Nobody wants to see a sanitized version of the character. We would not be shocked if going back to the drawing board for Blade means looking at what worked in the original Wesley Snipes films (well, at least the first two) and giving the Marvel vampire saga a modern spin. The report says Mahershala Ali almost walked away from the project, but we think Kevin Feige is too smart to let that happen.

The X-Men May Be the Focus Post Multiverse Saga in the MCU

The report also mentions Kevin Feige’s trump card is the acquisition of the X-Men library of characters from Fox. Although it is rumored that many of the original Fox-era mutant heroes are returning for Deadpool 3 and possibly Secret Wars alongside Hugh Jackman, we’re guessing this is a big swan song for those iterations of the characters. A reboot of X-Men is inevitable, and we agree Marvel Studios is likely to pivot to all things mutant post-Secret Wars. Feige knows the X-Men world has much unrealized potential. They can make government operative strike teams like X-Factor or mutants in a Doctor Who-style world like Excalibur. A mutant black ops team? There’s X-Force. While we doubt the Avengers brand is going away, we foresee a big pivot towards Marvel’s mutants.

Why We Shouldn’t Count Out the MCU Just Yet

Although the original report has a real “the sky is falling” approach, the truth is more complex. A “failure” for Marvel is a big success for anyone else. If The Flash made as much as Quantumania, they’d be popping champagne bottles over there. But for Marvel, compared to the peak of the Infinity Saga, it paled. Marvel’s biggest enemy is its own success. The first decade of the MCU, from Iron Man to Avengers: Endgame was unprecedented in terms of success. We’re talking about a franchise of 23 films, all opening at #1 at the box office. All with Fresh Rotten Tomatoes scores. And all of which collectively made a staggering $25 billion. To expect that kind of wild success indefinitely is totally unrealistic. We’d suggest not writing off the MCU just yet. And even if it dies, what stays dead in comics forever? The answer: Nothing.

The post Are the Original Avengers Returning to the MCU? appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back to the TVA, Loki fans! Things continue to go from bad to worse for Loki as he and the rest of the group attempt to fix the time loom, but did their actions end up dooming the multiverse instead? Dan Casey dives in to break down what this spaghetti ruining episode and what it means for the rest of the season on today’s episode of Nerdist News!

More Loki News: https://nerdist.com/tags/marvel/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: Marvel

#Nerdist #Loki #Marvel #MCU

The post Did Loki Just Doom the Multiverse? | Loki Season 2 Episode 4 appeared first on Nerdist.

Academy Award winner Ke Huy Quan appears in a major role in season two of Loki. The Everything Everywhere All At Once and Indiana Jones actor just can’t get enough of stories about the multiverse, it seems. His name is Ouroboros, or O.B. for short. But how does Ke Huy Quan’s Loki character tie into the existing Marvel Comics lore? And how does Ouroboros relate to existing mythological roots in our own world? Here’s what we know so far about Ke Huy Quan’s Ouroboros and his role in Marvel’s Loki season two.

The Ouroboros in Folklore and Norse Mythology’s Jörmungandr

You’ve no doubt heard the turn of phrase “the snake eating its own tail.” Well, that particular iconography comes straight from ancient mythology. That snake consuming its own tail is actually called the Ouroboros, and is found in the mythologies of ancient Egypt and Greece. According to Britannica, “[The Ouroboros] represents a being that is continually devouring itself, and thus reborn from itself. A gnostic and alchemical symbol, Ouroboros expresses the unity of all things, material and spiritual, which never disappear but perpetually change form in an eternal cycle of destruction and re-creation.” The Ouroboros is a fitting mythological reference to invoke in the MCU’s Loki which is all about questions of the destruction, creation, and flow of timelines.

Although the character Ke Huy Quan plays on Loki season two has the name Ouroboros, he might also have ties to a more specific character from mythology, one that even more directly related to our titular God of Mischief. In Norse mythology, the snake that consumes its own tail, a.k.a an Ouroboros, goes by the name Jörmungandr. This Ouroboros is also known as the Midgard Serpent or the World Serpent. In the old Norse myths, Jörmungandr encircles the realm of Midgard, which is another name for Earth. He is the son of Loki and the giantess Angrboða. He’s also the brother of the great wolf Fenrir and Hel. During Ragnarök, a.k.a, the Twilight of the Gods, Thor kills him.

In the pages of Marvel Comics, the Midgard Serpent has played a big role in several Thor comics. He first appeared back in 1966 and reappeared again and again over the years to fight the God of Thunder. Although the Odinson slays the gigantic beast, Marvel resurrects him more than a few times, and the two battle all over again.

When it comes to a connection with Loki, the god of mischief does ride the Midgard Serpent at one point. But there is never any real indication that Marvel Comics’ version of this Ouroboros is in any way the literal child of Loki. Marvel writers often play fast and loose with Norse myths, changing many things outright. This is another example of that. It will be interesting to see, however, what Loki season two does with the mythological origins of Ouroboros as the show continues to remix and reference mythology.

Ke Huy Quan’s Loki Character O.B./Ouroboros and His Marvel Comics Connections

Ke Huy Quan’s Ouroboros might be an original creation for the MCU series, not based on a preexisting Marvel Comics character. However, his name does pop up in several comics from the past. And in different forms.

The only Marvel Ouroboros with ties to the TVA is a certain Mr. Orobourous, who made one appearance in a She-Hulk comic in 2005. Created by Dan Slott, Orobourous was a judge for the Time Variance Authority. In Marvel’s She-Hulk comic, Orobourous is spelled a bit differently than the traditional Ouroboros of mythology, but the reference seems to be the same. This character was also a clone of Mr. Paradox, who himself was a clone of several TVA bureaucrats. We already know the O.B. is not a judge in Loki, but it seems the creators took a shine to the name at least.

But She-Hulk‘s judge is not the only Ouroboros in Marvel lore. First, there was the Oculus Ouroboros, which was not a person in Marvel Comics, per se, but a conduit of elemental magic, that depicts a variation on the classic Ouroboros shape of a snake eating its tail by featuring a second snake. It first appears in Doctor Strange #92, back in 1993. The Sorcerer Supreme stops an attempt by Doctor Doom to gain access to its power.

An actual character using the name is Admiral Ouroboros. He made his first Marvel Comics appearance relatively recently in 2015’s Silver Surfer #11. He battled the former Herald of Galactus during an adventure where the Surfer became stuck in a time loop.

The most recent Marvel usage of the name Ouroboros appeared in 2022, in Marvel’s Contest of Champions. In this instance, Ouroboros is an organization in universe 517. This organization came together to oppose the rule of the Elders of the Universe across the reality called Battlerealm.

However, despite all these possible references, we think it’s unlikely that Loki’s O.B. is directly related to the previous Marvel concepts of Ouroboros. It’s far more likely the MCU’s Ouroboros is riffing on one or more of the mythological histories of the creature.

Ke Huy Quan’s O.B./Ouroboros in the MCU and Loki Season Two

The version of Ouroboros played by Ke Huy Quan in Loki is an integral part of the TVA. He’s just someone who rarely gets a visit from other TVA employees. He’s been toiling away, quite literally without sleeping, in the Repairs and Advancement department. O.B.’s office is stuffed in the TVA’s basement. It’s a sprawling mishmash of all kinds of mechanical parts and different inventions. Mobius takes Loki to help with his time-slipping problem. O.B., a nickname for Ouroboros we learn Loki gave to him when he time-slipped into the past, becomes invaluable in helping them. In episode two of Loki, O.B. gives Mobius and Loki the TVA Guidebook to help them.

Here’s How O.B. Connects to Victor Timely and Kang on Loki

In the fourth episode of Loki’s second season, “Heart of the TVA,” O.B. and Victor Timely meet at last. In fact, their meeting reveals an actual ouroboros of sorts for the pair. Timely was taken aback at meeting the man who wrote the TVA Handbook, the book that he received as a child, which inspired all his inventions and career. O.B., meanwhile, was having his own fanboy moment meeting Victor Timely. The man who inspired him to write the Handbook in the first place. As O.B. said, their meeting was “the snake eating its tail.”

Loki’s co-executive producer Kevin Wright said that O.B. is integral to the functioning of the Time Variance Authority. Even if we never saw or heard of Ouroboros in season one of the MCU show. Wright said, “His job is basically every piece of tech, every computer, everything that is running at the TVA… He either designed it, or he fixes it and keeps it running.” None of that sounds remotely like the Marvel Comics versions of Ouroboros. So far, it seems as if the MCU’s O.B. is tied far more to the mythological concept of the character than anything in the comics.

Hopefully, we’ll soon learn more secrets about Ke Huy Quan as O.B. when Loki season two continues on Disney+.

Originally published on October 2, 2023.

The post Who Is LOKI’s Ouroboros? Ke Huy Quan’s Character O.B. Ties Into Mythology and Marvel Comics appeared first on Nerdist.

In the latest chapter of Loki season two, we learned some pretty huge revelations about the relationship between former TVA judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and He Who Remains, a.k.a. Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), thanks to Miss Minutes. But what does it all mean, and how does it tie into some of the earliest Marvel comics? Buckle up, because the Ravonna and Kang romance is a very twisted affair.

Ravonna Renslayer and Kang Were Partners Before the Multiversal War

In episode four of Loki’s second season, Miss Minutes explains a crucial piece of Ravonna Renslayer’s history to her. Information she would not be happy to hear. She explains that Ravonna and He Who Remains were working together as partners during the Multiversal War and were likely romantic partners as well. At some point, he indicated she would lead with him in the aftermath. Together, they’d rule from the Citadel at the End of Time. But He Who Remains betrayed Ravonna. Remember when Victor Timely said he doesn’t work with partners? That seems to apply to He Who Remains as well. So he sends her back to the TVA and erases her memories along with the rest of its employees. As Miss Minutes explains to an angry Ravonna, she says “Maybe we don’t need him. Maybe we never did.” This leads Ravonna to attempt to take over the TVA herself, along with Miss Minutes.

The Complex Marvel Comics Love Story of Ravonna Renslayer and Kang the Conqueror

In the comics, Princess Ravonna Lexus Renslayer made her first appearance in Avengers #23, back in 1965. She and Kang have a rather complicated relationship, to say the least. She was the daughter of King Carelius, who ruled 40th century Earth. Kang tried to destroy any monarch who did not submit to him, like Ravonna’s father. But Kang fell in love with the stubborn and determined Princess Ravonna, and she also fell in love with him, admitting to it only before her death. In fact, she threw herself in front of a deadly blaster bolt meant for him, dying to save his life. But this was not the end of the Kang/Ravonna romance.

Another variant of Kang eventually plucked a version of Ravonna from the timeline moments before her death, while another Kang preserved her body in stasis, hoping to gain the power of Life (or Death) from the cosmic Grandmaster in a game. A Grandmaster who is far more powerful than his MCU played-by-Jeff Goldblum counterpart. He’d then use the Power of Life to revive her. Although he won the game, he chose the Power of Death to get revenge on the Avengers, instead of the Power of Life to revive Ravonna. Grandmaster revived Ravonna anyway, who was now furious and betrayed that Kang had chosen vengeance on his enemies over his love for her. The lovers were now mortal enemies.

In the Marvel Comics, Ravonna Renslayer Becomes the Terminatrix

Now hellbent on revenge, Ravonna eventually infiltrated the Council of Cross-Time Kangs. Not long after, she took on the very ’90s identity of the Terminatrix. She put Kang in stasis, much as he had done to her when she was presumed dead. She then fought a future variant of herself known as Revelation. After many time travel machinations and attempts at altering her own future, Ravonna and Kang were reunited. And she seemingly forgave him. Then, she literally stabbed him in the back. She went back in time to Timely, Wisconsin in 1903 to start things over with an earlier version of Victor Timely, hoping to rewrite their narrative.

He Who Remains Wiped Ravonna Renslayer’s Memories in the MCU

So how does all that comic lore inform Loki? Earlier in the season, we heard recordings of He Who Remains saying “Ravonna Renslayer, you are quite a marvel. I would be proud to lead with you. Thank you, for being on my team.” Now, we know these very words to her were spoken by He Who Remains after the Multiversal War. But He Who Remains betrayed her and sent her back to the TVA and enacted Protocol 42, which saw her and all the other TVA employees have their memories wiped. It’s also why Agent Mobius doesn’t remember He Who Remains. He wiped Mobius’ mind of all knowledge of him and replaced it with false memories of the Time Keepers. We’ll see how this anger and betrayal leads to a changed, and more dangerous, Ravonna Renslayer in the remainder of Loki’s second season. Maybe we’ll see the Terminatrix after all.

The post What Is Miss Minutes’ Secret About Ravonna Renslayer in LOKI? appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back, Rick and Morty fans! Or should we say Rick and Jerry fans? This week’s episode saw the father and son-in-law duo set off on an existential buddy comedy/body horror adventure where the very concept of self is brought to question. Dan takes a closer look at this body swap gone wrong on today’s episode of Nerdist News!

More Horror News: https://nerdist.com/topic/horror/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: Adult Swim

The post Rick and Morty and the Illusion of Self | S7E2 The Jerrick Trap appeared first on Nerdist.

Disney’s animated villains are really good at using music to express how bad they are. From Ursula’s “Poor Unfortunate Souls” in The Little Mermaid to Gaston’s self-titled track in Beauty and the Beast, Disney evildoers prove again and again that, despite being horrible, they do know how to sing. Now the Mouse House has given us a preview of their next antagonistic number. It’s an early listen to a charming baddie’s big number sung by a charming Hollywood favorite. Disney has shared an early listen/look of Chris Pine performing its latest villain song “This Is the Thanks I Get?!” from Wish.

Anyone who watched the big screen adaptation of Into the Woods knows Chris Pine should be in way more musicals. Now his latest chance to show off his theatrical vocal chops will come in Disney’s Wish. He voices the seemingly benevolent King Magnifico, a dashing ruler who grants his subjects wishes.

As “This Is the Thanks I Get?!” shows, all the monarch asks for in return is a little gratitude. Well, that and total control over his mostly unsuspecting subjects who don’t realize he’s a power-hungry monster.

We both love and hate him already.

Disney also shared a behind-the-scenes video of Chris Pine recording the Wish song, written by Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice.

In a press release screenwriter and executive producer Jennifer Lee, chief creative officer for Walt Disney Animation Studios, also offered insight into the King and his big song. “He’s charismatic; he’s handsome—and he knows it—but I think he truly believes their wishes are safest in his hands,” she says. “So when [the film’s protagonist] Asha exposes the flaw in his philosophy, he feels under-appreciated and threatened.”

He’s not getting any sympathy from us! Neither King Magnifico nor Chris Pine. Not when both can believably sing, “I can’t help it if mirrors love my face.” That might be true, and it might sound good, but saying so in song is something only a villain would do.

Wish comes to theaters on November 22.

The post Disney Shares Chris Pine’s WISH Villain Song ‘This Is the Thanks I Get?!’ appeared first on Nerdist.

The Infinity Stones were the greatest movie MacGuffins of all time, in the forefront of the first 22 MCU films. Thanks to Thanos’ quest, even your grandma knows about these all-powerful gems, created at the dawn of time. Well, Thanos may have destroyed the stones in Endgame, but now you can own the next best thing. At San Diego Comic-Con in 2022, Marvel and East Continental Gems announced the launch of the official Infinity Collection of Gemstones. And now, the time has arrived to begin buying… If you have a Tony Stark-sized fortune at your disposal anyway. The set is valued at $25 million.

The real-life Infinity Gems will be on display in New York for a limited time at the ECG Concept showroom. Fans can purchase the Infinity Gems, but ECG will also have more affordable options available. They’ll reveal the Jarvis Series of gems which are 2-carats and start at $225 each. Other MCU-inspired collectibles at the store will include mini Infinity Gauntlet statues and an Eye of Agamotto.

Click To View Gallery

The Most Powerful Rocks in the Known Universe

Each of the Infinity Stones are remnants of singularities that predated the Universe. Of course, their values in the Marvel Universe cannot be imagined because of the powers each stone carries. But this collection is primed to become one of the most valuable Marvel collectible items. The six stones combined are over 150 carats and come with a total estimated value surpassing $25 million. In a statement, Paul Gitter, SVP, Marvel Consumer Products said the following.

Fans and collectors are a very important consumer for Marvel, since they truly live the Marvel lifestyle every day and are always seeking to connect with the brand in new and unique ways. We feel this authentic gemstone collection is cool and unexpected and extends the reach of the Marvel brand

Each of the Stones will be displayed in an exclusive Infinity Gauntlet customized to house these gems. Gentle Giant Ltd created the Gauntlet. They are the industry leader in the high-end collectible toys and consumer products sold throughout the world. Below is a description of each of the real-life stones and what they represent in the Marvel Universe:

The Time Stone

The Time Stone is a Colombian emerald that is rare and brilliant in color. Experts suggest they minded this stone at the turn of the century. Somewhere in a location that produces the most desirable emerald green. Documented by four prestigious gemology laboratories, this gem has no treatment, nearing 23 carats.

About the Time Stone in the Marvel Universe. This unique Marvel artifact is at the center of the Marvel Universe itself. The Time Stone has the ability to manipulate time, even in places beyond time.

The Space Stone

The Space Stone is a 30-carat sapphire from the island of Madagascar. Here is what we know about the Space Stone in the Marvel Universe. It allows its user to exist in any location, and move through different realities. Also, it allows one to warp or rearrange space, and teleport across planes regardless of the laws of physics or magical barriers. It even allows for omnipresence.

The Reality Stone

The Reality Stone is a 15-carat oval-shaped, natural ruby from Mozambique, Africa. In the Marvel Universe, things that would normally be impossible to realize are made possible with the Reality Stone. And on a universal scale. In other words, aside from the power to will anything in or out of existence, it can retroactively create alternate realities around those changes.

The Power Stone

The Power Stone is a 35-carat oval-shaped, natural amethyst. About the Power Stone in the Marvel Universe – The biggest mystery of all the Stones may be the Power Stone. The Power Stone allows its users to access and manipulate all forms of energy as well as enhance their own physical strength and durability. At full potential, the Power Stone can even grant omnipotence!

Notably, this jewel also boosts the effects of the five other Stones; it’s like a kind of key to start the engine of the Infinity Stones as a single collective force. The ultimate power behind the Power Stone—and why it sits at a place of honor on the Infinity Gauntlet—does not necessarily come from the Stone itself, but from how the Stone interacts with the others.

The Soul Stone

The Soul Stone is this cushion-shaped, spessartite, exceeding 35 carats. About the Soul Stone in the Marvel Universe – The first to appear of all the Stones, the Soul Stone served as inspiration for all the rest. It can manipulate the soul and essence of a person, control life and death, and contains a pocket dimension called the Soul World.

The Mind Stone

The Mind Stone is a high clarity, intense color rectangular brilliant cut yellow diamond, close to 35 carats. About the Mind Stone in the Marvel Universe – The Mind Stone allows its user to enhance their mind, awaken or heighten psionic abilities like telepathy and telekinesis, and—when combined with the Power Stone—even access all minds in existence concurrently. In the spirit of the Mind Stone, we’re taking a look at the minds responsible for some of the most significant Infinity Stone stories ever!

No word yet on if purchasing all the stones and getting a gauntlet to go with them will unlock the powers of the universe for its wearer. Maybe you can find out if you visit East Continental Gems’ showroom. Get all the details here.

Originally published on October 26, 2022.

The post The $25 Million Infinity Gem Collection Is Coming to New York appeared first on Nerdist.

We’re not absolutely positive what makes a haunt happy, but cocktails probably help. That means the ghosts aboard the Disney Treasure will be delighted because the cruise ship will feature the first-ever bar inspired by the Haunted Mansion. The beloved Disney Parks attraction has exactly the right vibe for a cozy bar with its spooky Victorian style. And from the looks of photos, the Haunted Mansion Parlor nails the atmosphere. We can’t wait to be some of the many foolish mortals who sit at this bar.

It’s been quite the year for the Haunted Mansion. The ride inspired a new film adaptation over the summer, and Hatbox Ghost is making his way to Walt Disney World. And now a Haunted Mansion bar! Disney Cruise Line shares that the Haunted Mansion Parlor focuses “on the story of a jovial captain who entered the ghostly realm after a disastrous dinner with his beloved fiancé.” Composer Shruti Kumar wrote a custom musical arrangement inspired by the ride to further set the mood. Walt Disney Imagineering is bringing the illusions to the party, too, with characters from Haunted Mansion rides around the globe haunting the bar.

We can see the iconic purple wallpaper around the Haunted Mansion bar. The space has a number of decor touches that look to be right from the ride. Then you have the three hitchhiking ghosts appearing in a window behind the bar. We wouldn’t be surprised to see other familiar ghouls show up there.

The Haunted Mansion Parlor will serve craft cocktails and sell souvenirs—a music box, a mantle clock, and a parlor mirror—and a sculpted mug. In other words, yes, we will leave one whole suitcase empty just for our Haunted Mansion bar haul. Flip through the gallery below to see them all.

Click To View Gallery

You can wrap your ghostly hands around these cocktails when the Disney Treasure sets sail in December 2024.

The post A Haunted Mansion Bar Is Coming to Disney’s Next Cruise Ship appeared first on Nerdist.

What is canon and what is not to the MCU has been a topic of fervent fan debate for years. Is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which referenced the events of Avengers, actual MCU canon? What about the former Netflix shows like Daredevil, which also made mention of Avengers like Captain America and Thor? Well, we now have an answer to that question from the guy in charge, Kevin Feige. In his introduction to the book Marvel Studios: The Marvel Cinematic Universe—An Official Timeline, he wrote the following:

On the Multiverse note, we recognize that there are stories—movies and series—that are canonical to Marvel but that were created by different storytellers during different periods of Marvel’s history. The timeline presented in this book is specific to the MCU’s Sacred Timeline through Phase 4. But, as we move forward and dive deeper into the Multiverse Saga, you never know when timelines may crash or converge (hint, hint/spoiler alert).

FYI, our own Editor-in-Chief Amy Ratcliffe cowrote that book.

So, in short, everything utilizing Marvel characters, whether produced by Marvel Studios or not, is part of a branched timeline in the overall Marvel Multiverse. Some we already knew about. The original Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, and the Marc Webb Amazing Spider-Man films? No Way Home confirmed them as Multiverse canon. Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness confirmed Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, and Deadpool 3 is set to canonize Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. Even if these are variants of the Fox X-Men films, it indicates all those movies are also Multiverse canon.

Also, with clips of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s respective Peter Parkers in Across the Spider-Verse, not to mention the appearance of Donald Glover in his MCU role as the Prowler in that film, those animated films also exist in the overall MCU Multiverse tapestry. Will movies like Ang Lee’s Hulk, Sony’s Ghost Rider films, and others get included in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty or Secret Wars? Well, Jennifer Garner as Elektra in Deadpool 3 suggests it’s all on the table now. Heck, why not Howard the Duck? Stranger things have happened.

Right now, the MCU is the highest-grossing film franchise of all time. By a lot too, with $29 billion dollars total. By contrast, the #2 slot goes to the Star Wars franchise, which is a distant second at $10 billion. But if the MCU now includes pre-Marvel Studios films? Oh man, then does that number ever go up. The mutant franchise at Fox adds $10 billion to that sum. The non-MCU Spider-Man films? About $8 billion total. Even the Fantastic Four films have collectively made $800 million. Throw in a couple of Blade films, we’re talking about a franchise that has made some $50 billion dollars. Easily the biggest success story in Hollywood history. And a record we’re likely never going to see surpassed in our lifetimes. In the meantime, we’re just excited to see Hugh Jackman take on Tobey Maguire while Deadpool just laughs at them both.

The post Kevin Feige Confirms All Marvel Films and TV Shows Are Part of the MCU Multiverse appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back to the TVA, Loki fans! This week’s episode sees the return of a familiar face, but who exactly is Victor Timely? Dan Casey heads to the World’s Fair to find out whether this variant is friend or foe on today’s episode of Nerdist News!

More Marvel News: https://nerdist.com/tags/marvel/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: Marvel

#NerdistNews #Marvel #Loki #MCU

The post Who Will Emerge the Victor on Loki? appeared first on Nerdist.

In the third episode of Loki season two, Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief and agent Mobius travel to the 1893 World’s Fair, in an effort to find a variant of He Who Remains. In the World’s Fair pavilion for the country of Norway, they see wooden carvings of their ancient gods. There’s Odin, Thor… and Balder the Brave. In the MCU series, Loki scoffs at Balder’s inclusion in the pantheon, saying “nobody cares about Balder.” But whatever Loki says, in Marvel Comics, Balder is indeed a key member of Thor’s supporting cast who has been conspicuously absent from the MCU. With confirmation now that Balder exists in the MCU, we never know when he might appear in the flesh. But just who is Marvel’s Balder the Brave?

Here’s the comics history of Balder, why he wasn’t in the MCU until this Loki season two mention, and how Balder nearly made his MCU debut previously.

The Marvel Comics History of Balder the Brave

Long before his Loki appearance, Marvel Comics introduced Balder the Brave in one of the earliest Thor stories, 1962’s Journey into Mystery #85. This story was written and illustrated by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who created Balder. This issue not only introduced Balder, but also Loki, Odin, Heimdall, and most of the other Asgardian gods. For years, Marvel Comics portrayed Balder as Thor’s trusted friend and battle companion, even though Balder was described him in Norse mythology as Thor’s brother. (We’ll get to that.) In Marvel’s comics, Thor and Balder trained together growing up, and no one was a fiercer ally to Thor.

The Marvel Powers of Balder the Brave

Like all of Marvel’s Asgardians, Balder’s abilities include heightened strength, speed, and invulnerability, but he also controls vast light powers. Only Thor was arguably a better warrior than Balder. In addition to the other powers, Balder can create powerful light blasts, manipulate light to appear invisible, and make clouds of mist. And just as Thor has his enchanted hammer in the Marvel universe, Balder has an enchanted sword Svraden, that allows him to teleport.

Because of Odin’s paranoia regarding Balder’s prophesied death triggering Ragnarok, he had his wife Frigga place an enchantment on him. One that would make him invulnerable to all harm, at least while in the Asgardian realm. The belief was that if they could not kill Balder, it would not trigger Ragnarok.

Balder the Brave’s One Weakness and Loki

Balder did have one very odd weakness, however. Balder the Brave remained vulnerable to, of all things, mistletoe. So often, his enemies laced arrows and other weapons with it hoping to do harm to the Asgardian warrior. Loki, of course, discovered this weakness in Balder, and sought to exploit it and kill Baldur, but was ultimately waylaid in his attempts.

We wonder if the MCU Loki has created a similar weak point for the MCU version of Balder. Loki exploiting Balder’s aversion to mistletoe sure would make for an interesting Loki Marvel Christmas special.

Is Marvel’s Balder Thor’s Best Friend or Thor’s Brother Like in Norse Mythology?

In the 616 universe of Marvel Comics, Marvel did not portray Balder as a Prince of Asgard like Thor or Loki. He believed himself to be a foundling child, taken in as a ward of the Asgardian court. And that was the official company line on Balder for many decades, Balder was Thor’s friend but not his brother. It wasn’t until Thor Vol. 3 #10 in 2008 that Marvel Comics continuity lined up more with Norse mythology with Balder.

Although Balder believed he was only Thor’s friend and a ward of the Asgardian court, he was, in fact, the first son of Odin and Frigga. Odin abandoned him out of fear because the King of Asgard had premonitions about how Balder’s death would cause Ragnarok, the end of all things. He later regretted that decision and took his child back into the court. But he kept his true parentage a secret.

Thor and Balder fought together in many, many battles. And Balder has died and returned to life several times (as have all the Marvel Asgardians). He’s been a stalwart member of Thor’s cast of characters since the earliest days. At the peak of Thor’s comics popularity, under the direction of writer/artist Walter Simonson, Balder the Brave even received his own Marvel mini-series. In more recent years, he’s even been the King of Asgard itself… at least for a brief time. So if he’s so crucial to the overall Thor mythos, why then no Balder the Brave in the MCU?

Does Balder the Brave Appear in the MCU? His Mysterious Absence, Detailed

When Marvel Studios introduced Chris Hemsworth’s Thor in 2011, they managed to introduce most of his most well-known comic book family and supporting cast. There was Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, of course, but also their parents, Odin and Frigga, Heimdall, the Warriors Three, and Lady Sif. But there was one big omission from the comics in the MCU, and that was Thor’s best friend (and sometimes brother) Balder the Brave. A major character from the earliest Thor comics, Balder previously went unmentioned and unseen in any MCU project. This has led many to believe Balder didn’t even exist in the MCU. But now, thanks to Balder’s mention on Loki, we know that’s not true. Balder the Brave has officially appeared in the MCU and he is even part of the main MCU continuity.

But why didn’t Balder the Brave appear in Marvel’s cinematic world until now? There’s never been a concrete answer for Balder’s MCU omission. However, one can guess that Kevin Feige thought another sibling would muddle the rivalry of Thor vs. Loki. Although the MCU could have made Balder just a good friend, the role of the loyal companions was essentially filled by the Warriors Three and Lady Sif. Perhaps the MCU thought of Balder as just superfluous? It’s unknown, but until the third episode of Loki season 2, Balder the Brave just didn’t exist in the MCU’s version of Asgard.

Daniel Craig Almost Played Balder in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

When Marvel Studios was developing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we almost got an MCU appearance of Balder the Brave at last. In fact, he was nearly played by James Bond himself, Daniel Craig. Craig was all set to play Balder as a member of the Illuminati on Earth 838. And that would have officially confirmed that the character existed in the greater Marvel multiverse. Elizabeth Olsen also confirmed in interviews that she saw the concept art of Craig as Thor‘s Balder the Brave. Everything was ready to go, until Craig dropped out due to concerns over the pandemic filming. But he was this close to appearing in the MCU.

A Balder Confirmation in the MCU’s Disney+ Series Loki Might Lead to His Arrival 

Even though evidence of Balder appeared before Loki in a branched timeline in the 19th century, he recognized Balder’s statue and knew exactly who he was. And since the Loki of the series is a variant that branched from the Sacred Timeline, it means Balder exists in the main MCU version of Asgard. But where is he? Balder certainly wasn’t on Asgard during the first three Thor movies and didn’t get a mention in Love and Thunder.

Given that we almost got Balder in Multiverse of Madness and his big name drop in Loki, it feels like Balder the Brave is gearing up for an MCU arrival at last.

The post LOKI Makes a Classic Thor Character MCU Canon appeared first on Nerdist.

Episode three of Loki season two on Disney+ introduced us to a variant of He Who Remains. As a child, this variant, Victor Timely, received a TVA instruction manual in the year 1868. This acquisition of future knowledge led him to become an inventor. In Loki, we meet adult Victor Timely at the Chicago 1893 World’s Fair, where he is presenting his rudimentary version of the Temporal Loom. Timley gets caught up in the time-traveling shenanigans of Loki and Mobius, who travel to his branched timeline to find him. But how is the MCU’s Victor Timely different from the one found in Marvel Comics? So far, the Victor Timely in Loki is a totally different character from his Marvel Comics counterpart—aside from both being variants of the despotic Kang the Conqueror.

Victor Timely, the Victorian Era Marvel Comics Kang Variant

In Marvel Comics, the Victor Timely variant of Kang the Conqueror first appeared in 1992’s Avengers Annual #21. Writer Peter Sanderson and artist Rich Yanizeski created him. In that issue, we learned this Kang variant traveled back to Wisconsin on January 1, 1901, the first day of the new century. Once there, he established the town of Timely. He named it after his newly assumed name, Victor Timely. This small town, with its quaint All-American Victorian feel, would serve as a 20th-century base for his future self. From this chronal vantage point, Timely would eventually evolve into the Prime Kang and make life miserable for the Avengers.

The relatively immortal Victor Timely became an industrialist, turning Timely into a boom town of industry. He became a business rival of people like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. As the 20th century unfolded, Timely faked his death repeatedly. He would then assume the identity of his own son Victor Timely Jr., then Victor Timely III, and on and on. He introduced very advanced technology to unsuspecting scientists of the time. Timely was the man who introduced the concept of androids to Dr. Phineas Horton. The same man eventually created the first android Human Torch in 1939. The Torch, in the comics, would also become the basis for the synthezoid Avenger, the Vision.

Timely, Wisconsin and Kang’s City of Chronopolis

Timely, Wisconsin also became the hub from which Kang would create the city of Chronopolis. Existing outside normal time and space, Chronopolis would serve as a hub for Kang’s conquest of all known time periods. Various eras of history intersected in Chronopolis, only perceivable to Kang himself. It eventually bled into the realm of Limbo, which exists outside of time. It’s something very similar to how the Time Variance Authority functions on Loki.  

The MCU Victor Timely and How He Differs from Marvel Comics’ Version

The MCU Victor Timely on Loki does not seem to be a Kang from the future who has settled in the past. That is, unless they throw some last-minute twist at us. From what we can tell, Loki‘s Victor Timely was born in the 19th century when Ravonna Renslayer and Miss Minutes interfered in his life and created the version of Victor Timely we see in 1893. From all indications, it appears the MCU’s Victor Timely belongs to that time and that he isn’t a future Kang who went back in time. The main similarity between the comics and the MCU is that Victor Timely is an assumed name. We may never know what the true birth names of the Kangs really are.

The MCU Victor Timely may actually evolve into Kang during Loki‘s run and may even be the same version from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. But for now, Victor Timley’s ultimate MCU fate and future are some of the big questions the Loki series sets up. We’re interested in what we’ll learn about Timely going forward.

The post How LOKI Season 2 Reimagined Marvel Comics’ Victor Timely appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back, Rick & Morty fans! The seventh season kicked off with new voice actors, returning fan favorite characters, and plenty of unfinished business. Dan Casey jumps through a portal to break down this coming of middle-age adventure on today’s episode of Nerdist News!

More Rick and Morty news: https://nerdist.com/topic/rick-and-morty/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: Adult Swim

#NerdistNews #RickAndMorty #Animation #AdultSwim #RAM

The post Rick & Morty’s Coming of Middle-Age Story | Season 7 Premiere appeared first on Nerdist.

Recently, Gargoyles was rumored as a feature film. But it now looks like we know what the plans are for Disney’s live-action take on the ’90s animated TV hit. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gargoyles is being reinvented as a live-action Disney+ series by Gary Dauberman and James Wan’s Atomic Monster. The two previously collaborated on the Annabelle franchise. Dauberman not only wrote Annabelle: Creation, but he also directed Annabelle Comes Home. Recently, he wrote and directed the remake of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. Dauberman will write, executive produce, and serve as the Disney+ Gargoyles series showrunner along with James Wan’s Atomic Monster.

Long before Disney+ existed, the original Gargoyles cartoon series ran for three seasons and 78 episodes, from 1994 to 1997. Despite seeming like a comic-book-based property, it was actually a totally original concept. Writer Michael Reaves spearheaded Gargoyles, along with future Young Justice showrunner Greg Weisman. It centered on a group of 10th-century gargoyles who were petrified in stone for 1,000 years. Eventually, they arrive in New York, perched atop some Manhattan skyscrapers. There, they finally awaken and become the defenders of the city. Actor Keith David played the lead Gargoyle Goliath. And a metric ton of Star Trek actors also lent their voices to the show.

Ever since the cartoon ended in ’97, Disney has attempted to revive Gargoyles in one format or another. The animated series’ original writers once wrote a script that translated the show’s first several episodes into live-action. In more recent years, even Jordan Peele came up with a Gargoyles script. Gargoyles makes sense for Disney+ to adapt as a series. It’s not Marvel or Star Wars, but it certainly appeals to a very similar demographic — those who grew up with the original cartoon on weekday afternoons. And with Dauberman and James Wan involved, we can expect something a little darker than the usual Disney+ fare.

We don’t know too much about the Gargoyles series yet, but Variety has shared the following logline:

Based on the cult classic Disney animated series, Goliath is the last of a heroic race of gargoyle warriors who once lived among mankind. Free from a centuries long curse that turned him into stone, Goliath struggles to solve the mystery of his past while watching over modern-day New York City alongside police detective Elisa Maza.

We can’t wait to see how this take on the original unfolds.

Originally published on October 16, 2023.

The post GARGOYLES to Become a Disney+ Live-Action Series From James Wan and Gary Dauberman appeared first on Nerdist.

I’m starting to think being Kris Kringle is not exactly a walk in the North Pole. Sure, there’s the adulation from millions and millions of kids around the world. And yes, St. Nick gets all the credit despite only really working one day a year while loyal servants toil the other 364. That’s all great. Obviously. But on the other mitten there’s always something! Sometimes you’re forced to find a spouse if you want to keep your job. Other times Jack Frost comes calling. And family, am I right? As if all of that isn’t enough, the trailer for season two of The Santa Clauses reveals that sometimes a Mad Santa will show up unexpectedly to reclaim his old job.

That doesn’t make the job of Santa sound very enticing, but it should make for a good season of the Disney+ series.

It’ll be yet another fraught holiday season in the North Pole this year, as Scott Calvin will once again need to deal with the strangely serious matter of succession. Here’s Disney+’s official synopsis for season two of The Santa Clauses:

The Calvin family is back in the North Pole as Scott continues his role as Santa Claus after retirement plans were thwarted when failing to find a worthy successor in season one. Now that Scott and his family have successfully saved Christmas, Scott turns his focus towards training his son Calvin to eventually take over the “family business” as Santa Claus.

As The Santa Clauses season two trailer reveals, Father Christmas will have bigger concerns than just training his nepo baby. The Mad Santa is coming and he seeks (sweet) revenge against the “fraud” who has his job. Not ideal for either Santa, but getting fired is better than losing your job because you fell off a roof and died.

Like I said, being Santa isn’t easy. Minus the part where you get to meet Tracy Morgan. That’s pretty awesome.

The Santa Clauses stars Tim Allen, Elizabeth Mitchell, Austin Kane, Elizabeth Allen-Dick, Devin Bright, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, and Eric Stonestreet as Magnus Antas, a.k.a. The Mad Santa. Season two premieres with two episodes at Disney+ on Wednesday, November 8.

The post ‘Mad Santa’ Wants His Job Back in THE SANTA CLAUSES Season 2 Trailer appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back to the TVA, Marvel fans! With Loki’s time-slipping under control, the god of mischief’s attention turns to more important issues about existential questions and the truth of the TVA. Dan Casey heads through a time door to take a closer look at whether the TVA could be the true villain of the series in today’s episode of Nerdist News!

More Loki News: https://nerdist.com/tags/marvel/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: Marvel

#Nerdist #Loki #Marvel #MCU

The post Is the TVA the True Villain of Loki? appeared first on Nerdist.

In October 1923, Walt and Roy Disney began the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studios. A century later, those cartoons have blossomed into literally thousands of beloved animated characters, all known across the globe. To celebrate, Walt Disney Animation has created a special short film that unites 543 of those characters, called Once Upon a Studio. When it came to the voices for the 9-minute short, Disney wanted it to sound as authentic as possible. And that included Robin Williams’ iconic turn as the Genie in Aladdin. But how to create Williams’ voice without resorting to using dreaded A.I.? The answer lay in the Disney Vault.

According to Variety, there were many unused outtakes from Robin Williams’ recording sessions for Aladdin from the early ’90s that Disney could use, enough to incorporate the Genie into a scene for Once Upon a Studio. But Disney had to get permission from his estate to use them. Once Upon a Studio directors Dan Abraham and Trent Correy approached the Williams estate and said, “This is what we hope to do. Eric [Goldberg], who originally animated the genie is on the show, and he’s going to be part of it. And it was wonderful to see that happen.” Luckily, the estate agreed, and Genie appears in all his glory, sounding just as he did in 1992.

It was never a sure thing that the Williams estate would say yes. Back in the ’90s, many “Talking Genie” Aladdin toys were recalled, as they used Robin Williams’ voice without his permission. He made it explicit that he didn’t want his voice used for any Aladdin-related merchandise, only the film. Because of this, Disney replaced him with The Simpsons‘ Dan Castellaneta for The Return of Jafar VHS movie. After an eventual public apology from Disney, Williams returned for 1996’s Aladdin and the King of Thieves. And Disney and Williams buried the hatchet. In any event, Robin Williams remains the Genie for this special project, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Once Upon a Studio debuted on ABC on October 15 and is available on Disney+ starting October 16.

The post How Robin Williams’ Genie Returned Without Using A.I. appeared first on Nerdist.

The second episode of Loki season two introduced a reference to a very obscure character from the pages of Marvel Comics—the murderous and monstrous Zaniac. We actually learned in Loki season two’s second chapter that TVA Hunter X-05, played by Rafael Casal, actually was an actor who portrayed Zaniac in 1970s movies. It’s something he did when he escaped into the past of the Sacred Timeline. But who is this long-forgotten Marvel baddie? Here’s the comic book history of the killer called Zaniac.

In the comics, Zaniac was a villain who first appeared in Thor #319, back in 1982. Created by writer Doug Moench and artist Keith Pollard, this wild villain remains a relatively obscure one from the God of Thunder’s pantheon of bad guys. While most of Thor’s main villains are other mythological beings, occasionally, he battled a more Earth-bound villain like Zaniac. Although, Zaniac’s powers came from otherworldly forces. So god or not, he was definitely more than a mere human.

Who Is Zaniac in Marvel Comics?

In the late 19th century, Dormammu, Lord of the Dark Dimension and mortal enemy of Doctor Strange, exiled an entity to Earth to possess a mortal human to be his agent of chaos. This being attached itself to a deformed and shunned man named Tom Malverne, a man harboring bitter resentment for the way the world treated him. With the power of this entity within him, Malverne went on a murderous rampage in 1888 London, where he butchered five women. He became the serial killer we know as Jack the Ripper. Once the person it possessed died, the entity continued to possess as the decades went on.

Also, this is the basic idea for the original Star Trek episode “Wolf in the Fold.”

Zaniac Fights Thor

This brings us to the modern day. A movie star by the name of Brad Wolfe was filming a slasher movie at the University of Chicago, which was where many early experiments for the Manhattan Project took place. While in costume as the film’s slasher villain, the Zaniac, Wolfe found himself trapped in a nuclear explosion. A pyrotechnics accident on set triggered residual radiation from the Manhattan Project experiments of the 1940s, causing this explosion. Wolfe gained incredible super strength and could create energy knives with a thought. Clad in the killer’s movie costume, he became the Zaniac.

The Entity drove Wolfe to madness; it also amplified Wolfe’s already inherent misogyny. He began to act out the movie’s plotlines. He kidnapped Shawna Lynde, a friend of Thor’s alter-ego Dr. Donald Blake. Thor saved Shawna from Zaniac, but Zaniac got away. He then attempted to act out the movie’s ending in real life, which involved murdering dozens of innocent women. Victims he called his “pretty pretties”. Luckily, Thor ended Zaniac’s plans. Zaniac only appeared a few more times, and Marvel killed him off in 1986’s Thor #372, a story where the Time Variance Authority appears.

How Zaniac Ties into Loki Season Two

In the second episode of Loki’s second season, we found outTVA hunter X-05, upon learning the truth about the Timekeepers, retreated into a new life on the Sacred Timeline, in the year 1977. He used the name Brad Wolfe, which might have been his true name. Much like the comics, this Brad Wolfe was a movie star. He played a character named Zaniac in a film of the same name. However, the similarities ended there with his comic counterpart. Zaniac was just an acting role for MCU Brad, not a being who possessed him. Loki eventually takes him back to the TVA as a prisoner. Will his Zaniac past come up again? Maybe when Marvel Studios does Wonder Man we’ll learn the superhero/actor is now starring in a modern reboot! We definitely think that would be a fun connection.

Originally published on July 31, 2023.

The post Who Is Zaniac, the Thor Villain Appearing in LOKI Season 2? appeared first on Nerdist.

In a perfect world we’d be waiting for a very specific movie this fall. We’d be waiting for the premiere of a followup to the 2022 MCU Halloween special Werewolf by Night. The creepy black-and-white tale of monster hunters and their prey remains one of the franchise’s best and most original post-Infinity Saga releases. But while we don’t live in a perfect world, it’s not all bad either. Disney+’s 2023 “Hallowstream” lineup will include the newly announced Werewolf by Night in Color, a special version debuting this October.

And it now this colorful rendition has a scary good trailer.

Hulu subscribers can now catch the original Werewolf by Night on the streamer. Disney added the special starring Gael García Bernal to the site as part of its “Huluween” collection. But customers of the Mouse House’s flagship streaming service will be getting a very different version on October 20.

Marvel Studios’ Werewolf By Night in Color will give viewers an opportunity to see the film in a whole new way. Disney is giving its spooky story a companion version that comes in “vibrant color.”

On Twitter X, director Michael Giacchino said they “spent a lot of time working on this color version” because they “wanted to pay homage to the incredible vibrant color in horror films like the ones Hammer made.” Giacchino said the result is “a whole new look for the film.”

Prior to this trailer we had only seen colorized images from the set thanks to the behind-the-scenes doc Director By Night.

Before we learned of this colorized version we were planning to rewatch the black-and-white original a couple times anyway. Now? We’re still going to do that, we’re just also going to enjoy Werewolf by Night in Color.

Hopefully next year we also have a second original movie to enjoy, too. That won’t make the world perfect, but like this special colorful version it will get us one lycanthrope step closer.

Originally published September 15, 2023.

The post Marvel’s WEREWOLF BY NIGHT IN COLOR Special Scares Up First Trailer appeared first on Nerdist.

Loki‘s first season established the TVA as a place outside of normal time and space. He Who Remains and his servants didn’t age over eons inside the Machiavellian bureaucracy. Mobius wasn’t even sure exactly how long he’d been protecting the Sacred Timeline, since “time moves differently” at the TVA. Combined with Multiversal War, the Citadel at the End of Time, Variants, branches, and pruning it was a lot to make sense of. Now Loki‘s second season is showing we didn’t even know as much as we thought.

What exactly is going on with time at the Time Variance Authority? What does all this new information mean for the MCU’s multiverse? The TVA’s own past, present, and future? Here’s what every episode of Loki season two has revealed about how time does—and sometimes doesn’t—work in the strange world of the TVA.

Episode 1

Time Slipping

Time slipping is when someone is violently ripped through the past, present, and future. It’s supposed to be impossible inside the TVA, a place where magic doesn’t work and countless Infinity Stones are nothing more than colorful paper weights. O.B. and Mobius solved Loki’s time slipping problem by extracting a pruned Loki out of “every strand of time and space.”

The TVA’s Own Linear Timeline

Loki’s time slipping explained why Mobius didn’t recognize the God of Mischief at the end of season one. It also revealed the TVA still has its own self-contained timeline. The organization exists outside of normal time and space, but people in the TVA still live a linear timeline with a past, present, and future.

When Loki went into the past he went into the same TVA’s own past. That was a period when He Who Remains didn’t hide his identity from his workforce. When Loki went into the future it was the same TVA’s future. His travels through TVA time also made it possible for Loki to help save himself from time slipping. He told O.B. about his problems in the past, which made it so O.B. in the present had the Temporal Aura Extractor ready to go.

Mobius attached the Extractor to the most important device in the TVA, machine that weaves entire branches together.

Temporal Loom

The “heart” of the TVA is the Temporal Loom, a device that refines raw time into a “physical timeline.” The death of He Who Remains caused the Sacred Timeline to branch off. Those new strands then began to overload the Temporal Loom, which is not designed to handle that many strands at once.

Read More About Loki Season 2 Episode 1

• How Loki’s Season 2 Premiere Explains Season 1’s Ending
• Does Loki’s Season 2 Premiere Have A Post-Credits Scene?
• Loki’s Post-Credits Scene Ties Into A Classic Thor Comics Location
• Loki’s Temporal Loom: What Is It And What Are Its Marvel Comics Inspirations?
• Who Is Loki’s Ouroboros? Ke Huy Quan’s Character O.B. Ties Into Mythology And Marvel Comics

Episode 2

The Secret Brad Wolfe Life of Hunter X-5

The season premiere saw heavily armed TVA hunters under General Dox’s command go through a Timedoor. Episode two revealed their mission was to blow up all the new branches. One of the Hunters who went on that mission originally was X-5, but Mobius learned he’d abandoned his post entirely in the second episode, which took place immediately at the first within the TVA’s own timeline.

That’s not how much time had passed for X-5, though. He’d left the TVA to make a life for himself as a actor on the Sacred Timeline in 1977 London.

X-5, now known as famous Zaniac star Brad Wolfe, had much longer hair than he had in the first episode. Between his notoriety, success, and lengthy follicles it was clear he lived a long time on the Sacred Timeline even though very little time had passed for his former colleagues in the TVA. The same was true of Sylvie. Despite killing He Who Remains just days prior within the TVA’s own timeline, she’d already established a life on a new branch in 1982 Oklahoma.

Time Discrepancy Between the TVA and Normal Life

The implications of this time discrepancy between normal life and the TVA are terrifying. Someone could theoretically leave the TVA, live an entire life on a branch for many years, and then return to the TVA mere moments after they originally left it. What kind of damage could someone do to the Sacred Timeline if they could do what they wanted for decades before the TVA even knew they were gone?

We’ll have to wait for future episodes to find out. That’s also when we’ll learn whatever else it is we don’t already know about time in the TVA.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post How Time and Time Travel Work in LOKI’s TVA appeared first on Nerdist.

Welcome back to the TVA, Marvel fans! The second season of Loki is finally here, and the premiere might have just changed everything we know about time travel in the MCU! Kyle Anderson breaks it all down in today’s episode of Nerdist News!

More Marvel News: https://nerdist.com/tags/marvel/
Watch more Nerdist News: http://bit.ly/1qvVVhV

Follow Us:
Facebook https://facebook.com/nerdist
Twitter https://twitter.com/Nerdist
Instagram https://instagram.com/nerdist/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdist

Image: Marvel

#NerdistNews #Marvel #Loki #MCU

The post Loki Just Changed Time Travel in the MCU appeared first on Nerdist.

The chaos of Loki‘s season two premiere began during season one’s finale. When Sylvie killed He Who Remains she upended both the Sacred Timeline and the entire TVA. And yet, the rogue Variant responsible for all that turmoil didn’t appear during season two’s debut until it was already over. A post-credits (more specifically a mid-credits) scene in Loki season two’s first episode revealed where Sylvie headed after leaving the Citadel at the End of Time. She went as far away from the royal court of Asgard as possible. At the very end of Loki’s first episode, Sylvie travels back to 1982 and visits a McDonald’s in a small Oklahoma community on a branch of reality that only exists because of her. This Loki season two, episode one post-credits scene location already had major ties to Marvel Comics. Now it’s home to one of the MCU’s most beautiful scenes.

What Happened in Loki‘s Season 2 Premiere Post-Credits Scene?

Sylvie ended Loki‘s first season in He Who Remains’ Citadel. At the time, she also had the dead TVA’s leader’s TemPad, which was how she opened up a Time Door to kick Loki through. Loki thinks that TemPad might have unique abilities (and he’s almost certainly right).

So what exactly did Loki‘s post-credits scene reveal to us? Well, in its only after-the-credits moment, the show’s season two debut shows us where Sylvie went next after the events of Loki season one. In it, we learn that Sylvie used a Time Door to go to Earth on a new branch that broke from the Sacred Timeline after she murdered He Who Remains. That place was Broxton, Oklahoma, in the year 1982. Her Loki armor would have stood out even in the 21st century, but she made for quite a spectacle when she walked into an ’80s-era American McDonald’s.

Sylvie had spent plenty of time on Earth before, but always under the worst circumstances. She successfully hid from the TVA inside apocalyptic events. Her best method of evasion involved mass casualties with no survivors. But in Loki season two’s post-credits scene, inside that normal McDonald’s, she saw peaceful Earthlings eating and laughing with friends. She then asked the young restaurant manager—who admirably did his job under strange circumstances—how “this works” so she could order food. When he asked her what non-rat and non-possum option she wanted to try, Sylvie smiled and said, “Everything.”

Why Did Sylvie Go to Broxton, Oklahoma on Loki?

Sylvie spent her whole life running from the TVA. The organization took her as a kid without ever telling her what her Nexus Event was. She spent decades fighting to survive, all while planning to bring down the TVA itself.

Once she seemingly did that by killing He Who Remains, she opted for a quiet, easy existence in a place that is the proverbial antithesis of an Asgardian god’s life. The place she sees in Loki‘s post-credits scene is also the antithesis of her own experiences. The TVA is a lifeless, emotionless bureaucracy of death where Variants and timelines are pruned to a Void where a monster eats them. The opposite of that is the quiet beauty and ease of a place like Broxton, Oklahoma on Earth in 1982, a time before cellphones and computers that never knew alien invaders.

Even that McDonald’s, a place totally unremarkable from any of the chain’s other locales, had a simple grace to it. A fast-food burger joint is as unpretentious as the TVA is arrogant. It’s a place designed for people to enjoy a simple pleasure that is so easy to take for granted.

But why Broxton specifically? Why an unincorporated community in Oklahoma’s Caddo County (a real place with less than 7,000 residents) versus the countless other similar locals on Earth? Because Broxton’s Marvel appearances aren’t just limited to Loki season two, episode one’s post-credits scene. Broxton was actually a major location in J. Michael Straczynski’s Thor comic series.

You can read more about Broxton’s Marvel Comics history and how it was briefly New Asgard in our own Eric Diaz’s deep dive.

What Was the Meaning of Loki Season 2’s Post-Credits Scene?

He Who Remains had Loki debating the merits of taking control of the TVA as a necessary evil. Sure, pruning Variants and entire branches might be awful, but isn’t the alternative worse? Aren’t some terrible sacrifices in the name of order better than all-out chaos?

It was easy for Loki to think that way because he never had to deal with being one of those sacrifices. But Sylvie had. She had her entire life stolen from her. She was a person with a home and a family, and the TVA took that away from her, just as it had to every Variant it pruned or stole to do its dirty work. A necessary evil is still evil, and it’s not even clear the TVA was necessary.

When Sylvie walked into that McDonald’s in Loki season two’s post-credits scene, she was finally free. No more running. No more TVA. And no more death. Instead, she found a simple life, the kind where you can sit down and eat a cheeseburger without worry. And while those people didn’t know it, they owed their entire existence to her, one brave individual who wanted nothing more than to let others live.

It was the culmination of Sylvie’s entire life. All that hard work fighting for survival and refusing to give in to evil led to a truly beautiful moment of hope and appreciation. And that was before she got to find out just how good Chicken McNuggets are.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and  Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post Does LOKI’s Season 2 Premiere Have a Post-Credits Scene? appeared first on Nerdist.

Loki‘s first season ended with He Who Remains dead, the Sacred Timeline in chaos, and Mobius not knowing who Loki was. It seemed Sylvie’s decision to kill the TVA’s leader upended the entire multiverse and all of time itself. Even worse, it seemed Kang the Conqueror or one of his Variants had risen to power amid all the upheaval. But the show’s season two premiere revealed that’s not actually what happened. Loki didn’t end up in a new TVA under a different ruler; he ended up in the same exact TVA’s past. How? Why? When? From time slipping to Temporal Looms, here’s what the premiere of Loki‘s second season revealed about the God of Mischief’s struggle to save both himself and everyone.

What Happened at the End of Loki Season 1?

Loki‘s season one finale revealed He Who Remains, the secret head of the TVA, wanted Loki and Sylvie to replace him. Loki came to believe the Time Variance Authority was a necessary evil after hearing about the Multiversal War. However, Sylvie wanted to free the infinite universe from TVA control. After a lifetime of running from hunters and agents she refused to even discuss taking over the TVA. Instead, Sylvie killed He Who Remains after kicking Loki through a Time Door.

When He Who Remains died the Sacred Timeline went haywire. Mobius and Hunter B-15 watched as a monitor showed the neat, orderly stranding of the multiverse began branching off into total chaos.

Moments later Loki found Mobius and B-15 in a different part of the TVA. He warned them about all the terrible Variants who would now be coming. Except the two TVA employees didn’t know Loki at all. It was as though they’d never met. In the midst of their confusion Loki saw the TVA itself had undergone a transformation. It now featured giant statues of someone who looked like He Who Remains.

Why Was Loki Time Slipping?

Loki‘s season two premiere clarified what actually happened in the show’s season one finale. The murder of He Who Remains did not reset the TVA, time itself, or the multiverse. His death did not cause anything that dramatic. At least not yet. When Sylvie kicked Loki through the Time Door he went to the same TVA’s own past. That’s why Mobius and B-15 didn’t recognize him at the end of season one. That’s also why Loki saw those massive statues. Earlier in the TVA’s history He Who Remains did not hide his identity behind robot Time-Keepers. His face was once everywhere, including on the walls inside TVA offices and in Ozymandias-sized public idols.

Loki thinks he might have ended up in the past because Sylvie opened that Time Door with He Who Remain’s special TemPad. O.B. thinks the branching overloading the Temporal Loom might be responsible. It’s possible one, both, or neither contributed to Loki getting ripped across time in the TVA’s past, present, and future.

As painful as it was to watch, though, Loki’s involuntary journey through time also helped Loki save himself. And it also taught us more about He Who Remains and the TVA’s creation.

What Did Loki‘s Season 2 Premiere Reveal About the TVA’s Past?

Loki listened to an old recording while trapped in the TVA’s past. It featured He Who Remains speaking to Ravonna Renslayer. On the tape He Who Remains said, “For us. For all time.”

After she answered “always,” He Who Remains said, “Ravonna Renslayer, you are quite a marvel. I will be proud to lead with you. You made a difference in this war. Thank you for being on my team.”

During season one of Loki, Renslayer did not know about He Who Remains. Clearly, though, she once knew him quite well. She not only fought for He Who Remains in the Multiversal War, she was marked to co-lead the TVA with him. But at some point after that conversation He Who Remains wiped the memories of Renslayer and everyone else in the TVA.

Loki correctly recognized He Who Remains wiped TVA employees’ minds more than once. None of them remembered the prominent He Who Remains paraphernalia that once adorned the organization. Present day Casey also had no memory of how the floor got cracked despite being there when it happened. That blind spot in Casey’s memory shows least one mind wipe happened after Loki showed up in the past, which is why none of the TVA employees remembered meeting him then. And Mobius also did not fully remember visiting O.B. 400 years prior. (Though it’s unclear if Mobius’ confusion is the result of mind wipes, forgetting the details of a four century old encounter, mixing up similar memories, or a combination of all those things.)

It’s not clear how often or why He Who Remains erased everyone TVA workers’ memory more than once.

Who Is Orobourous and What Is the TVA’s Temporal Loom?

Ke Huy Quan’s Orobourous (O.B. for short) is the lone employee of the TVA’s Repairs & Advancements division. He also wrote the TVA guidebook and is an expert on the device currently holding all of time together.

Despite the Sacred Timeline’s countless branches that began to sprout with the death of He Who Remains, the entire multiverse has yet to collapse. That’s because the Temporal Loom is barely keeping the multiverse from exploding. O.B. called that device “the heart of the TVA.” It refines raw time into a “physical timeline.” It’s not constructed to weave together so many new branches, though, so it’s overloading. To keep the TVA itself safe from that possible blowup, O.B. needed to close the building’s blast doors. But first Loki needed access to the Temporal Loom to save himself.

How Did O.B. and Morbius Stop Loki’s Time Slipping?

Time slipping should be impossible in the TVA since time works differently there. It’s a place that is timeless, as people working inside those walls don’t age over eons. Yet, Loki‘s second season has revealed the TVA still has its own linear timeline with a past, present, and future.

Loki’s time slipping also provided him with a solution. It sent him to the past where he met O.B. During that meeting—which O.B. notably only remembered when confronted with its existence—the technician was able to build the Temporal Aura Extractor, a device that ultimately solved Loki’s problem.

At great personal cost to his own skin, Mobius attached the Extractor to the Temporal Loom. When someone or something then pruned Loki—violently ripping the god from “every strand of time and space”—it sent him out of time. The Extractor then pulled him back into the present and crashing into Mobius. That sent them both behind the safety of the blast doors before they closed.

Without the Extractor in place Loki would have been “lost to time forever.” Instead he’s in the present with Mobius, B-15, and the other TVA employees who do not want to prune branches anymore. They know pruning timelines kills billions of innocent people.

Not everyone at the TVA agrees with this new approach. Dox and her band of heavily armed Hunters headed through a Time Door on a mission. B-15 thinks they’ve accumulated too much fire power to only be going after Sylvie, but what exactly they have planned is unclear.

What is clear is that a lot of what we thought we knew at the end of Loki‘s first season was wrong. Clearly we don’t/didn’t/won’t slip into the past ourselves after seeing the show’s season two premiere.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on  Twitter and  Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post How LOKI’s Season 2 Premiere Explains Season 1’s Ending appeared first on Nerdist.

In the post-credits scene in the first episode of Loki season two, we finally find out what happened to Sylvie after her killing of He Who Remains. She actually went to a branched timeline, in the town of Broxton, Oklahoma in 1982. She wanders into a local McDonald’s establishment and sees the customers just living their ordinary lives. So she decides to stay there. But why would an Asgardian god want to live in a small town in the American Midwest? Well, there actually is a comic book precedent for Asgardians hanging out in this particular Oklahoma town, believe it or not.

Broxton, Oklahoma Was Home to Asgard in the Thor Comics of J. Michael Straczynski

Broxton first appeared in writer J. Michael Stracyinski’s celebrated run on Thor, which began in 2007. After the events of Ragnarok and the death of all the Asgardians, they are all ultimately reborn once more. Only this time, the Asgardians are mortals with no memory of their godly lives. Thor eventually awakens to his true self and recreates the City of Asgard close to the town of Broxton, OK, a mere few miles away.

For some months, the ordinary citizens of the town had to contend with ancient and powerful gods who were living among them. Asgard actually floated above the ground, making it even more off-putting to the nervous Broxton residents. Thor actually paid for the use of the land with Asgardian treasure, even if it took him some time to do so.

Lady Loki First Appeared During the Broxton Era of Thor

Interestingly enough, Loki during his time in Broxton took the form of a woman. It was the first time they portrayed Loki as female, at least for an extended time. Since Loki is the God of Mischief, when he was reborn he took the form that they originally intended for Lady Sif. But the truth is, in comics as well as actual Norse mythology, they have always described Loki as genderfluid. So the Lady Loki we met in Broxton was actually the same Loki as the one we’d always known in a different form. Unlike Sylvie, who is a variant from another timeline. But it’s fitting that a version of the Trickster God that’s a woman resides in Broxton in both the comics as well as the MCU.

The Sad End of Broxton in the Pages of Marvel Comics

Hopefully, MCU Broxton receives a better fate than the one in the pages of the comics. Obviously, a floating City of Asgard nearby placed a huge target on the small town. The often corrupt company Roxxon, a longtime enemy of the Thunder God’s, started “investing” in Broxton. Sadly, the town became wrecked as a result. It was their evil CEO’s plan to blame the Asgardians for what befell the town. When the Asgardians finally left, they allowed their Everlasting Fountain and Bountiful Tree to remain there. But the town was later totally destroyed when the God of Hammers annihilated it just to spite his nemesis, Thor. Ultimately, this poor small American town paid the price for its association with these higher beings.

The “ancient Asgardian god in a tiny American town” was the basis for the first Thor film back in 2011. Only there, they changed it to a New Mexico town instead of one in Oklahoma. Thor: Love and Thunder also played with the concept of Asgard coming to a small human town and integrating. Now, Broxton has arrived in live-action thanks to Loki. Hopefully, nothing terribly sinister happens to the poor Broxton in the MCU, as it did in the comic books. It seems like a nice chill town. And that McDonald’s that Sylvie pops in gives us all the retro vibes we love. And yes, there actually is a real town named Broxton in Oklahoma, near Caddo County. Hey, if Marvel can use real big cities like New York and Los Angeles, then why not real small towns?

The post LOKI’s Post-Credits Scene Ties Into a Classic Thor Comics Location appeared first on Nerdist.