Warning: SPOILERS for Loki episode 6, "For All Time. Always."
With Loki season 1 coming to an end, audiences can now take a look back and speculate whether the trailer shots that never appeared in the actual series are an essential part of the upcoming season 2 or just discarded footage. When the Avengers time-traveled to the Battle of New York to retrieve two Infinity Stones, Loki's escape with the Tesseract set up a new adventure for the 2012-era God of Mischief and, perhaps, a new hint at the multiverse. Loki subverted expectations and featured the most heroic (and tragic) depiction of the God of Mischief so far, plus the biggest step toward the MCU's multiverse before Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Some pieces of misdirection in the Loki trailers include a heavy emphasis on Loki as D.B. Cooper, Mobius and the TVA blaming Loki for "breaking the timeline," and Loki being as arrogant and selfish as ever. Promotional footage made it seem as though the mysterious hooded figure would be the main antagonist of the series, as well. This was quickly disproven when it turned out to be Lady Loki, a.k.a. Sylvie, who joined forces with Loki and became a co-protagonist as early as episode 3. President Loki was also set up as an identity the main variant Loki would eventually adopt, but was then proven to be an entirely different variant altogether.
All of these tricks helped keep fans on the edge of their seats. Even after five episodes, the main villain of the series was still a matter of heated discussion, with many theories supporting one version of Kang the Conqueror and others a King Loki variant that had been teased in the teaser trailers. In the end, the trailers didn't lie, per se, as only very few major moments were cut or altered in the final product, but Loki's clever misdirection still proved crucial for the mystery that surrounded the series and the many surprises it delivered.
The concept of 2012 Loki wreaking havoc throughout different points in the timeline suggested the God of Mischief was back in all his destructive glory. Since Loki was still fixed on his "glorious purpose" during his arrival at the TVA, the shots in the trailer that depicted "King Loki" in Asgardian royal garb in front of a throne teased his rise to power, perhaps as a fruit of another one of his betrayals.
But after being humbled by the tragic events he was destined to experience later down the Sacred Timeline, Loki quickly pursued a more heroic path as a TVA consultant. So, if the royal-looking Loki from the trailers wasn't the result of his impending transformation into the King of Asgard and the Nine Realms, it could have been a more stubborn variant who somehow achieved his goals. After all, the Loki variants who inhabit the Void offer infinite possibilities, and Mobius' comment that the TVA has pruned more Loki variants than anybody else's made it likely that a King Loki was secretly running the show, perhaps as the mysterious figure who lived in the castle at the end of time.
Loki episode 6 confirmed that He Who Remains created the TVA as an honest way to protect the flow of time and keep his more villainous variants at bay. Before Loki and Sylvie met him, Miss Minutes offered them the chance to achieve their biggest dreams if they walked away, including the glory of the Asgardian throne. By the end of the finale, Loki ended up alone, lost, and forgotten—all the opposite to what the trailer scenes featuring King Loki suggested, but they never made it into the show. Despite how much Loki deserved redemption after finding a friend in Mobius, love in Sylvie, and a truly glorious purpose in protecting the multiverse, ending the show with a beaten-down Loki makes more sense than having him back at his most ambitious self.
Another cut scene featuring Loki's traditional Asgardian clothes teased the opposite of the "King Loki" footage. Loki appears to be back at the Stark Tower, judging by the wall panels behind him. He doesn't have the same mischievous look in his eyes that he had in The Avengers and he lacks the facial wounds he had before being arrested by the TVA. Loki seems to reflect on the situation he's in, uttering "glorious" as if he was pondering about the "glorious purpose" he sought during his battle with the Avengers, but this time changed by the lessons he learned with the TVA.
These clues tease a possible scene where Loki is sent back to the Stark tower in 2012, suggesting a bookend to his character arc in the series. This scenario would likely have worked if Loki season 1 had received a close-ended conclusion, albeit the alternate-timeline Avengers meeting a heroic Loki would probably have caused a new Nexus event that would have threatened the Sacred Timeline once again. Regardless of how this ending would have been explained, the show's tragic finale fits better with the promise of Loki season 2, as the God of Mischief now has even more problems to fix and more lessons to learn.
As is tradition with MCU trailers, various shots were altered to conceal major reveals. Some recent instances of this trick have been the absence of Smart Hulk in several shots from the trailers for Avengers: Endgame and the removal of Mantis and Doctor Strange in the Avengers: Infinity War trailers. Many shots in the Loki trailers were either digitally altered to remove Sylvie or filmed twice (once with only Tom Hiddleston and the second time with both Tom and Sophia Di Martino). Some of the shots featuring an uncovered Sylvie in the show were also replaced to depict her as the mysterious hooded figure in the trailers, and the Loki variants who receive Loki in the Void — Boastful Loki, Classic Loki, Kid Loki, and Alligator Loki — were removed from the trailers, where the opening scene of episode 5 was also altered to show the post-apocalyptic skyline in the same shot as Loki standing up after being pruned. The shot of Sylvie sitting down in Lamentis-1 that was thought to be Black Widow in Vormir was also modified to hide the impending apocalypse.
Removed shots and altered footage aren't unusual for a major title like Loki. What may make these changes special is the possibility of them reappearing in the future with a new meaning. Some have speculated that the scenes featuring King Loki and Loki back at the Stark Tower may be part of a Loki season 2 that has already been filmed, but the reality is that, like the God of Mischief, audiences will have to face the grueling flow of time to understand the multiversal madness that awaits Loki and the entire MCU in the future of Phase 4.
Loki season 2 will return on Disney+.
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