Who Is Jonathan Majors’ New Character Victor Timely In ‘Loki’ Season 2?

Jonathan Majors‘ voice has only been heard during the first two episodes of Loki Season 2, but the actor made his presence known as he (awkwardly) dominated the third episode. After previously appearing in the Loki Season 1 finale as the ominously named He Who Remains, Majors embodied a different character this time around: Victor Timely. But what does it all mean

Die-hard Marvel fans first saw Victor Timely in the post-credits scene for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which featured Loki stating that Timely is a variant of He Who Remains. (That film also featured Kang the Conqueror, who is also variant of He Who Remains. — We think.) Variants are basically alternate reality versions of characters whose lives diverge in sometimes subtle or major ways on their respective timelines. The latest Loki episode also heavily implies that Victor Timely is a variant of He Who Remains, but there is a possibility that he may be the actual He Who Remains.

Like all things Marvel, Victor Timely can be tied back to the comics where he was an alias for Kang the Conqueror when he was lying low in Wisconsin, as time-traveling supervillains do. For the Loki series, Marvel decided to go a slightly different route, but the character has been a part of the show since the “30-page” pitch that producer Kevin Wright sent Tom Hiddleston.

Via Polygon:

“Once you set the stakes — and season 1 was so much setting of stakes: The multiverse is out there; war is coming. This really awful bad guy is going to be coming that Loki is afraid of, and if Loki is afraid we’ve got to take that threat seriously — it’s very fun as a storyteller to then go in the opposite direction. You’re expecting the worst; some sci-fi villain from the future. And the next version of this guy to pop up in our story is coming from the past, and he’s just sort of a eccentric, quiet inventor that maybe is, like, a bit out of time and out of place.”

If you’re suspicious of Victor’s motivations or if he’s really as bumbling as he seems, well, you’re supposed to be.

“Can Loki trust this guy” Wright told Polygon. “It pushes a lot of buttons for Sylvie; if she will be able to trust him, knowing what she knows. It gave us a lot of cool character drama to play with.”

Loki Season 2 streams new episodes Thursday on Disney+.