Marvel’s new Loki TV series debuted its second episode this week and it ended on one doozy of a cliffhanger.
We finally learned the identity of the mysterious Loki Variant that has been running amock in the Sacred Timeline, or so we thought. An overseas credit listing may have spoiled who this new character really is.
At the end of episode two, the hood of the enemy Loki Variant was thrown back to reveal actress Sophia Di Martino. Given she was wearing a headpiece adorned with horns, many assumed Di Martino is playing Lady Loki.
However, one of Disney+’s credit listings for the foreign language dubbing of Loki listed this character under a different name.
The English-language credits have Sophia Di Martino at second billing playing “The Variant”. When you look at the Castilian Spanish credits the second character is listed as “Sylvie”.
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This seemingly small change actually has huge implications for Loki because the name Sylvie refers to an entirely different character in the Marvel universe.
Who is Lady Loki?
As many would know by now Loki’s trickster powers involve the ability to shapeshift and these powers have seen him take many forms over the years.
One of the first appearances of Lady Loki occurred in Marvel comics. Loki dies after the events of Ragnarok and is reborn in the form of a woman which continued for a number of issues.
Following on from this Marvel actually started showing Loki in a number of different forms and Lady Loki was one that appeared frequently. This lead to the more progressive idea that Loki is actually genderfluid, which is canon in the Disney+ series.
Who is Sylvie?
The name Sylvie relates to a completely different character from Marvel comics.
In the comics, Sylvie Lushton is the name of the second character known as The Enchantress (the first was an Asgardian known as Amora).
Sylvie began as a human woman who was secretly given magical powers by Loki and thus believed herself to be an Asgardian. She shows up in the Young Avengers and often appears to be an antagonist but is actually more morally conflicted like Loki.
Will the real Loki please stand up?
Following episode 2 of Loki, it would appear that Disney is bringing Lady Loki to the screen in the form of a Loki Variant. But that might all be a red herring after this Sylvie slip up.
Adding credence to this theory is the fact that Cailey Fleming is listed as playing “Young Sylvie” in Episode 4 of Loki, meaning we’re probably seeing Sylvie show up in some way in Loki.
There’s also the fact that Tom Hiddleston’s Loki referred to Di Martino as ‘Loki’ in the episode and she responded with “don’t call me that” which might indicate she has a deeper reason for not wielding the Loki name.
It’s unclear why the Time Variance Authority would be chasing a Loki Variant that isn’t actually a Loki Variant but maybe that’s all part of the Timekeepers’ plan.
Stay tuned to Loki every Wednesday to see if this theory pans out.