How the LOKI series will fit into the MCU timeline

Even though The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is only halfway done and Loki doesn’t begin until mid-June, Disney has ramped up the marketing for the third Marvel Studios series on Disney+.

A mix of WandaVision and FAWS?

Fans have been constantly comparing WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier ever since the latter began, and are sure to do the same with Loki once it starts. While the first two Marvel Disney+ series are starkly different from one other, the footage of Loki that has been released so far makes it seem like the show will, in some respects, be a remix of the two that came before it.

Part of what made WandaVision so popular was its element of mystery. People were coming up with theories based on every line uttered and combing through every frame of each episode for Easter eggs. Many turned out to be red herrings, or simply cases of fans reading into things that weren’t meant to be read into, but there were plenty of seeds deliberately planted and circled back to before the series was over.

Why so mysterious?

Loki appears to be doing this as well; there are a lot of small nods to other projects – Marvel and not – in the background of many scenes in the trailers – and yes, they seem to have been put there deliberately. The trailers have also worked to not give too much of the show’s plot away; so far they’ve told us a bit more than WandaVision’s did, but haven’t let on nearly as much as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s promotional material.

The structure of Loki, however, is the same as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier – six episodes that are each roughly an hour long, as opposed to WandaVision’s nine episodes with varying lengths. Loki may prove to be a medium between the two shows again, though; The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is feeling like a really long movie, while WandaVision was firmly rooted in its TV series vibe and truly embraced it. Loki may have the same rollout style as the former, but the concept of going on various time travel adventures may lend itself to a more episodic style of storytelling.

Like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki appears to be quite action-heavy with some drama thrown in, the latter seeming to come in the form of Owen Wilson’s Mobius M. Mobius sitting the titular character down and discussing his life with him. But as with WandaVision, magic is obviously going to be at play and the series will obviously be more fantastical than grounded in a realistic setting.

Loki and the multiverse of madness

Right now, it appears that the Loki series will operate very much as its own thing barring a few scenes which seem to show the God of Mischief visiting the time periods of a couple of older Marvel movies (namely, Thor and The Avengers). But that doesn’t mean the series won’t tie into future MCU projects. It has been confirmed that there will be connections to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, though details on that front seem to be mum at the moment. It’s possible that the branched timelines of Loki will cause chaos and function as the “multiverse” that Strange will be dealing with in that film, but again, it’s all being kept very hush-hush.

For now, Marvel fans can look forward to a combination of the best parts of WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier when Loki premieres on Disney+ June 11.