Loki can’t escape Jonathan Majors in second season trailer

The specter of Jonathan Majors looms large in the Loki second season trailer, both literally and figuratively. The first season of Marvel’s Disney+ series introduced Majors as “He Who Remains,” a variant of Kang the Conqueror, the villain set to define the next Avengers saga in the MCU. A lot has changed since that introduction—within the general Marvel sphere and in Majors’ personal life—but one thing remains the same, and that’s He Who Remains assuming the role of Big Bad.

After fracturing the Sacred Timeline at the end of the first season, Loki has lots of issues, including the fact that he’s “time slipping.” Unfortunately, the Time Variance Authority’s repairs guy (Ke Huy Quan) can’t fix it, although he does make for a delightful addition to the cast. There’s also the fact that his pal Mobius (Owen Wilson) doesn’t really remember him, or the fact that his love interest/variant Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) seems to have had a real change of heart about messing with the timeline. Then there’s the fact that a legion of Kangs the Conqueror have been unleashed upon the multiverse.

Majors’ role in the second season was teased in the post credits scene of his MCU theatrical debut, Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania. (The same scene, which apparently includes the Kang variant Victor Timely, appears briefly in the Loki trailer.) However, in the wake of that film, Majors was accused of domestic violence, and a more recent Rolling Stone report detailed even more allegations of abuse and volatile on-set behavior against the actor. Marvel has yet to make any comment on the situation, having hinged not just Loki’s second season but a major portion of the upcoming theatrical slate on Kang as the main villain.

Marvel Studios’ issues extend beyond Majors, however, as its post-Endgame content has been a mixed bag in terms of both quality and critical reception. Quantumania was one of Marvel’s most poorly received films ever, and critics have gone cold on the studio’s television output as well. Even Disney CEO Bob Iger has suggested that too many Marvel TV shows have diluted the brand. Loki is the first of the Disney+ shows to return for a second season—which could be an opportunity to turn the ship around with a show many MCU fans enjoyed, or a signal that even one of the franchise’s most beloved characters can’t cure what ails the studio. We’ll see how it pans out when the series returns on October 6.