MCU Theory: The Loki Variant Is Secretly An Asgardian Sorcerer

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Marvel’s Loki episode 2 “The Variant”.

Loki episode 2 introduced viewers to a variant most people are assuming is Lady Loki – but she could actually be an Asgardian sorceress, the Enchantress. The MCU is embracing time travel like never before, with Loki introducing an organization known as the Time Variance Authority whose job is to police the timeline. The TVA prevents the emergence of a new Multiverse by destroying branched realities before they can become established, arresting the people who deviated from their Sacred Timeline on behalf of three powerful beings who call themselves the Time-Keepers.

But it seems a variant of Loki has taken umbrage with the Time-Keepers and the TVA, and is attempting to destroy the Sacred Timeline. Played by Sophia Di Martino, this variant has been setting up routine nexus events in order to ambush TVA field agents and steal their reset charges, the devices they use to destroy the branched realities. Her plans escalated in Loki episode 2, with the variant dropping these primed charges throughout the timeline in order to create a new Multiverse. Now she’s set her sights on the Time-Keepers themselves, having discovered their location by probing the mind of a TVA agent she captured.

And yet, this variant doesn’t appear to be the Lady Loki of the comics. Rather, she instead seems to be a composite of several comic book characters – making her a unique threat to the trickster god and the entire timeline.

The Variant Doesn’t Appear To Be Lady Loki From The Comics

In the comics, Lady Loki was an incarnation of Loki created as part of the Ragnarok Cycle. The God of Mischief’s spirit took possession of the human body originally intended for the reincarnation of the goddess Sif, and reveled in the discomfort she caused Thor as a result. But the MCU’s Loki variant looks nothing like the Lady Loki of the comics, with Sophia Di Martino even dying her naturally dark hair blonde in order to play the part. This is all the more striking when viewers remember the MCU’s Phase 4 has embraced comic accurate superhero costumes, so it would be expected that Di Martino would visually resemble the woman she’s playing.

Loki episode 2 included an important scene in which Mobius briefed TVA Minutemen on the powers they could expect from a Loki variant. According to Mobius, the majority of Loki variants possess a wide range of abilities, that “generally include shape-shifting, illusion-projection“, and, as Loki clarified, “duplication-casting.” But Di Martino’s variant clearly possesses very different powers, using skilled enchantments to probe the minds of others and possess their bodies as puppets. The traditional Loki seems to have needed the Mind Stone in order to affect the minds of others, so this doesn’t look to be an ordinary Loki.

The Loki Variant’s True Name Has Been Teased

Fortunately, Marvel has offered an important clue in the most unlikely way possible; through foreign translations of Loki episode 2’s end-credits. In English, Di Martino’s character is simply credited as “The Variant,” but in other languages she’s been given a name – Sylvie. In the comics, Sylvie Lushton was the second sorceress to go by the name Enchantress, a being created by Loki as part of a trap against any team who called themselves “Avengers.” She thought she was an ordinary human being who had woken up one day with magical powers, but in reality, this Enchantress was created to infiltrate any team of Young Avengers and serve as Loki’s unwitting mole, while her personality was designed to cause friction. The powerset Di Martino’s variant possesses is far more akin to Enchantress’ than Loki’s – and Enchantress has blonde hair to boot.

But Marvel doesn’t typically play things straight, of course. In one scene in Loki episode 2, specifically at 00:18:08, the TVA’s Loki flips through files related to different variants of himself and his main timeline. The scene’s focus is on the destruction of Asgard, Ragnarok, but the page before that pertains to a very interesting Loki variant named “Sylvie Laufeydottir.” There’s no way this is a coincidence; clearly it serves as blink-and-you’ll-miss-it setup for Di Martino’s Sylvie, revealing she originates from a timeline in which Laufey had a daughter not a son (the file identifies Sylvie as female, suggesting this isn’t just a case of Loki being gender-fluid).

Presumably, Sylvie was taken to Asgard as a baby and adopted by Odin, but her experience there would have been very different to Loki’s; while Asgardian legends tell of the heroic Valkyries, in the modern era Asgardian society doesn’t appear to have encouraged women to serve as warriors, Sif being the only high-ranking woman serving alongside Thor. To all intents and purposes, then, Sylvie might as well be a completely different person, perhaps not driven to compete with Thor in quite the same way. She’s essentially a mash-up of two comic book characters, Lady Loki and Sylvie Lushton. Dialogue has already pointed to this, with Loki complimenting her on the quality of her “enchantments.“

How The Enchantress Became A Threat To The TVA

The TVA file on Sylvie Laufeydottir is crucial, because it also suggests how the variant has become a threat to the Sacred Timeline. The TVA must have come across her before, presumably while investigating the cause of the branched timeline she originates from. They would have expected to encounter a variant of Loki, but they’d have been looking for standard Loki powers, and episode 2 already confirmed TVA agents lack the psychic defenses to resist Sylvie’s enchantments. She could have plundered one of their minds, learning of the Time-Keepers and the technology of the TVA, and stealing some of their technology to escape her branched timeline before it was destroyed. The file Loki looked at didn’t mark the Enchantress variant as “Apprehended,” meaning she was certainly never captured and brought to the TVA’s mysterious city – where her magic would have been useless.

The interesting question, of course, is whether or not the Enchantress still has allies among the TVA. TVA agents appear fanatically loyal to the Time-Keepers, so much so that it frankly feels like brainwashing. The Enchantress’ mind probe could have freed a member of the TVA from this brainwashing, causing them to go rogue. That would explain how Sylvie has come to understand the timeline so well, even recognizing blind spots in the Time-Keepers’ monitoring of the timeline. The most likely candidate for such a role is Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ravonna Renslayer, Mobius’ superior, who is expected to play a key role in the MCU going forward. In the comics, Renslayer has strong ties to Kang the Conqueror, a time traveling warlord due to appear in Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, and Mbatha-Raw has described Loki as Renslayer’s origin story.

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Loki is more akin to a mystery story than anything else, but in this case, the clues seem to lead to a fairly clear conclusion; that Sophia Di Martino is not really Lady Loki at all, but rather is more of an Enchantress. If that is the case, then she’ll surely give Loki a run for his money, because their powers are different enough to cause one another major problems. Betrayal will certainly be in her nature just as it is in Loki’s, meaning the two will ultimately turn on one another – even if their agendas briefly coincide.

Loki releases new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.

About The Author

Thomas Bacon
(4899 Articles Published)

Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers, as well as a Peer Mentor for new writers and a member of the Care Team, offering support and a listening ear to members of the Comics group. A lifelong fan of major franchises including Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Marvel, Tom is delighted his childhood is back – and this time it’s cool. You can find him on Twitter @TomABacon.

A graduate of Edge Hill University, Tom remains strongly connected with his alma mater as a volunteer chaplain. He’s heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will swiftly learn he’s into British politics too.

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