This Tiny Clue May Reveal The Real Villain Of Loki

There’s a lot of confusing stuff going on in Loki, but aside from all the trans-dimensional, timeline-hopping chaos, the big question is the same as every other Marvel show: Who will be the new major supervillain? The premiere episode ended by briefly showing the shadowy outline of a cloaked figure killing a group of Time Variance Authority (TVA) soldiers, so of course, fans are scrambling to try to figure out who’s under that hood. Leave it to Marvel stans to analyze every tiny detail, because a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it name in the end credits has the fandom convinced Lady Loki is the villain in Loki.

Before diving into the theory, let’s get into some background on Lady Loki. In the history of Marvel Comics, Loki has taken several forms — it’s actually one of the most iconic things about his character. During one arc in the mid-2000s, Loki inhabited a female body and went by Lady Loki. After Loki’s gender-fluidity was confirmed in a more recent comic, he revealed he could shift into his Lady Loki form at will. So basically, Lady Loki is really just... Loki.

That’s where a big element of this theory comes into play. At the end of the Loki premiere, Detective Mobius revealed that a variant version of Loki from another timeline was behind the murders of several TVA soldiers and was wreaking havoc across time and space. It only makes sense, then, that the hooded figure shown at the end of the episode must be some form of Loki.

Specifically, Marvel fans have been speculating about Lady Loki showing up in the series for over a year. Set photos of actor Sophia Di Martino, who was cast in an undisclosed role on the show, caused a lot of fans to theorize she’s be portraying Loki’s female form. Now, that theory is gaining even more traction, since eagle-eyed viewers noticed the name of a certain stunt performer, Sarah Irwin, was credited as “Variant Double” in the premiere’s end credits. Di Martino confirmed Irwin is her Loki stunt double during filming last year, which seems to suggest Di Martino’s character will be the one under that hood.

So, everything seems to be pointing to a Lady Loki reveal, but nothing’s for sure just yet. There’s another prominent theory that Di Martino could be playing the Thor villain Enchantress, but given the premiere’s revelation about a variant Loki being behind the mayhem, that doesn’t seem as likely anymore. Find out the truth when new episodes of Loki drop on Disney+ on Wednesdays.