Loki: He Who Remains in Marvel Comics explained and his MCU future explored

(Image acknowledgment: Marvel Comics)

Loki installment 6 is now streaming, and the temper finis delivers on the promise of the previous episode's cliffhanger by delivery Loki and Sylvie past The Evacuate to meet who and what dwells at the end of time - but they seem just as surprised as viewers mightiness have been aside the indistinguishability of the soul they just there.

Spoilers ahead for Loki episode 6.

When Loki and Sylvie reach the Citadel at the Destruction of Time, they witness the being known as He Who Remains - World Health Organization is promptly discovered as the mastermind tail everything they've experienced with the TVA, Mobius, and Ravonna.

And American Samoa information technology happens, He Who Remains is a variant himself - but of a altogether different Marvel Comics character than the one from whom he takes his name

Though the MCU version of He Who Remains shares numerous key elements in common with his comic book counterpart, the theatrical role's adaptation brings in aspects of another tonality Wonder persona with an upcoming MCU future - Kang the Conqueror.

Kang isn't namechecked specifically, but He Who Cadaver is played aside Jonathan Major league, who will portray Kang in the upcoming Ant-Valet and the Wasp: Quantumania, whose likeness appears on a statue of Kang elsewhere in the episode.

And what's more, He Who Corpse shares his appearance and numerous distinguish character traits with one of Kang's most well-acknowledged comic book variants: Immortus.

The future of He Who Remains in the MCU Crataegus laevigata be tied specifically to Kang the Conqueror and his many an other variants (the umpteen participants of the war for the Multiverse laid out in Loki episode one's telling of the TVA's origins), but the character's comic book namesake has an interesting history all his personal, which may point to some big ramifications for upcoming MCU properties.

We'll excavate into it all right now.

WHO is He Who Remains?

page from Thor #245 — (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

As the God Almighty of the faux Time-Keepers and one of the dwellers of the Citadel at the End of Metre, the MCU version of He Who Remains shares most of what we acknowledge of his comic book counterpart's mysterious, covert history.

First appearing in 1976's Thor #245, the comic book personification of He World Health Organization Remains is not an aspect of Kang, but is instead the last remaining federal agent of the TVA (whose comic Christian Bible origins are also a bit different than their MCU adaptation), though he's not identified as organism part of the TVA in his first appearance.

He Who Cadaver creates the Fourth dimension-Keepers through a series of genetic experiments as a fashio to maintain the TVA's work without the once immense manpower of their now-inoperative organization. Simply his experiments go terribly wrong, and instead than creating beings with a directive to maintain the order of the timestream, He Who Remains unwittingly creates the correct opposite - the Metre-Twisters, beings of extreme written record power who are ordained to sewing chaos in crosswise As some timelines as possible.

When the Time-Twisters broke inexact and joined up with the villainous time-traveler titled Zarrko the Tomorrow Human beings, this drew the attention of Zarrko's longtime enemy Thor. With the Idol of Thunder and his paramour Jane Foster now embroiled, He Who Remains was able to prevent the Fourth dimension-Twisters from being created to begin with, and reboot them as the Time-Keepers - the three "quad lizards" seen in Loki as mindless androids low the ensure of the MCU's He WHO Remains.

Interestingly, there was a fourth, corrupted Clock time-Keeper which He Who Remains banished to ancient Egypt in roughly the same time period Kang was there regnant Eastern Samoa Rama-Tut, the time pharaoh - a connection that could come up once more when Kang takes a larger character in the MCU.

As for the Time-Twisters, a interlingual rendition of them from a fork-like world - let's call option them variants, shall we? - remained in existence, resurfacing time and again to challenge the Sentence-Keepers. They even once impersonated the Time-Keepers to recruit Kang's jilted old-hat-buff Ravonna as asymptomatic as Kang's future self Immortus, the same Kang strain that seems to sustain been one with He Who Stiff for the MCU who is himself a denizen in the Bastion at the End of Clock time in comics.

While He World Health Organization Cadaver has, fit, remained in the Wonder Universe, atomic number 2's only had a fistful of appearances since his entry indorse in the '70s - though as we'll explain, some of those stint comic book appearances could inform about mature ideas sexual climax up in the MCU.

He Who Remains in the MCU

Just corresponding in comic books, the MCU version of He Who Clay is disunite of the TVA, though instead than organism the last existing agent of the organization, He's seemingly its founder, and the 'man behind the mantle' for the Metre-Keepers, the Sacred Timeline, and the TVA itself.

Also As in mirthful books, the Metre-Keepers are the creations of Atomic number 2 Who Remains, though quite than genetically engineered time monitors, they're simulacrum designed to fool the agents of the TVA into adhering to his personal Sacred Timeline. The Metre-Keepers' sulky counterparts the Fourth dimension Twisters haven't appeared, just their discover was used for one of the TVA's time-manipulating weapons.

Speaking of which, that so-called 'Sacred Timeline' actually amounts to He WHO Remains' plan to maintain victory in the Multiversal war with his own variants from across fourth dimension and space by preventing their respective realities from forming, and to ensure his own survives - the indistinguishable mission shared by the Time-Keepers in mirthful books.

This is where the person of whom He Who Clay is a variant in the MCU becomes particularly important. Every bit He Who Stiff explains, the participants in the Multiversal war described in animated chassis in Loki episode 1 were all variants of He WHO Remains, all of whom arise the technology to traverse the Multiverse onetime in the 31st century.

Though he's non named specifically, Atomic number 2 WHO Remains is clearly established as a variant of Kang the Conqueror, a Marvel Comics villain who has conquered umpteen eras of many timelines, and who will be played by He World Health Organization Cadaver worker Jonathan Majors in Ant-Man and the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant: Quantumania.

In the MCU, He World Health Organization Remains appears to be sort of mashed-up with Immortus, a comic book variant of Kang WHO has frequently worked aboard the Meter-Keepers and Ravonna, who is Kang's ex-lover in comic books. Aside from being played by Jonathan Majors, he wears an outfit about exactly like that of Immortus (minus Immortus' giant helmet) and plays a role similar to that of Immortus in apparently keeping Kang the Conqueror in check.

Now, Helium Who Remains is apparently dead in the MCU, having been killed by Sylvie in revenge for her treatment by the TVA at his behest. But his future in the MCU, divagation from his variant self Kang's at hand introduction, English hawthorn lie in those last few appearances of He Who Stiff in humourous books (remember we said we'd come back to it?).

What If...?

page from Avengers Forever #9 — (Picture credit: Marvel Comics)

One of Atomic number 2 Who Remains' few comic Bible appearances took place every bit part of the story 'Timequake' - a thin five-issue event storyline told in the usually selfsame self-contained What If…? title (which shows alternate versions of popular Marvel Comics characters and stories) in which who else but Immortus and the Meter-Twisters attend war, resultant in bonkers ripples across multiple realities that lead to approximately of the title's strangest stories e'er.

What If…? is actually the next Disney Plus MCU show scheduled to get in on the streaming armed service now that Loki has wrapped. What If…? testament embody adapted as an animated series that sticks true to the comic Holy Writ source corporal's themes by screening brand-new, 'variant' takes on popular MCU characters and stories in every episode.

With Loki star Tom Hiddleston stating that the show "sets up a bunch of stuff in the MCU," it may be no happenstance that the specific issue of the 'Timequake' story in which He Who Stiff appears is coroneted 'What If the Watcher Saved the Multiverse?" - especially considering the war for the timestream shown in 'Timequake' is specifically fought betwixt characters who were adapted into Loki.

Could What If…? feature an overarching narration beyond each installment's individual alt-reality, perchance extraordinary in which the demonstrate's host Uatu the Watcher is actually the hero?

On the note of a warfare between incarnations of Kang, that brings us to He Who Remains' other leading appearance in Marvel Comics, in the story Avengers Forever. In Avengers Eternally, a team of Avengers gathered from sometime, instant, and subsequent come up together to intervene in a war between Kang and Immortus.

What are the chances that What If…? could lead to a team-up between some of the EL-Avengers featured in its episodes to convey involved in some aspect of a fight 'tween multiple variants of Kang, Avengers Forever-style? We know we've brought that news report up before (and we'll constitute honest, if Marvel Studios keeps plaguey it, we'll refer it again), but all the pieces are formally in place in the MCU for an adaptation.

No subject what comes next, it's clear that He Who Remains is alone the get-go of many MCU variants of Kang we'll see. And if the war between the Multiversal Kangs that seems to be on the sensible horizon goes anything like the many an ways it has away in comic books, we've got a whirlwind in store for us as the MCU gears high for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Wanderer-Man: No Way National, and Ant-Man and the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant: Quantumania - all of which seem to tie directly backmost to themes established in Loki.

Kang is one of the unexcelled time-traveling villains of all time.

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general drama book historian since 2011. I've also been the on-situation reporter at well-nig senior comic conventions so much as Comic-Jailbird International: San Diego, Unaccustomed York Comic Con, and C2E2. Open-air of comic journalism, I am the creative person of some weird pictures, and the guitarist of many grave riffs. (They/Them)