Was Peggy Carter Really in ‘Loki’ Episode 1?

Loki Episode 2 “The Variant” finally brought our Loki Variant (Tom Hiddleston) with the one who has been causing mayhem for the TVA: Sophia Di Martino‘s Lady Loki (or is it Enchantress?). Our Loki figures out that Di Martino’s Loki must be hiding in “apocalypses” throughout history, leading the team to the 2050 destruction of Haven Hills, Alabama. The small seaside town was destroyed in a Category 8 hurricane (which is not a thing — yet) and everyone sheltering in place at a RoxxCart superstore died tragically.

Loki is able to figure out that Variants can hide within these cataclysmic events because any chaotic choice made — whether it’s freeing goats before the destruction of Pompeii or stealing candy from the RoxxCart store shelves — would have no bearing on the future timelines, since no one affected would survive anyway. It’s a cool concept that opens up a door of possibilities for other timeline-changing Variants to pop up in future apocalyptic hellscapes.

But has Loki on Disney+ already introduced us to another MCU Variant? Some folks are theorizing that a Peggy Carter Variant popped up in Loki Episode 1 as an Easter egg. Did Agent Carter (Hayley Atwell) appear in Loki? What does that mean for the MCU’s canon? Did Loki just erase Marvel’s Agent Carter from existence?! And could Loki be teasing another major MCU Variant (or timeline villain)?

Here’s what you need to know about Peggy Carter popping up in Loki…

Was There a Peggy Carter Variant in Loki Episode 1?

Maybe? Eagle-eyed Loki viewers might have caught a glimpse of a Peggy Carter variant in the background of Loki Episode 1 “Glorious Purpose.” While Loki attempts to escape the TVA’s custody, he finds himself stuck in the labyrinthine hallways of the TVA. At 34:12 minutes into the episode, you can see a time door open behind Loki. An unknown Hunter escorts a woman who looks an awful lot like Agent Carter herself through the door.

So what gives? Was that a Peggy Carter Variant in Loki?

I’m leaning…yes? Look, if there’s one thing we know from Avengers: Endgame, it’s that Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) definitely changed the whole course of Peggy’s life when he went back to be with her. A key theme of Agent Carter (and what we thought was the canonical version of Peggy’s life) is that she has to pick herself up after losing Steve and keep going. She is even supposed to wed one of the Howling Commandos Steve saves in Captain America: The First Avenger and spend her life mourning the life she should have had. But Avengers: Endgame changed all that.

Perhaps the Time Keepers were fine with this new branch timeline that Steve created. Maybe Steve and Peggy kept his existence a secret for decades so as not to cause timeline chaos. Either way, Peggy’s life definitely has some timey-wimey issues that need addressing. It shouldn’t be surprising that there are Peggy Carter Variants out there. In fact, we should expect it. (Especially since one of the key alternate universe storylines Marvel has already teased in their upcoming Disney+ series What If? is one where Peggy takes the supersoldier serum.)

So lets just assume it’s a fun little Easter egg and not a prelude to my colleague Alex Zalban‘s darkly comic suggestion that Loki and the TVA erase all the pre-Disney+ MCU shows from existence. (They wouldn’t undo Agent Carter! WOULD THEY?)

That said, I don’t think that was actress Hayley Atwell, or else she would have been credited. It’s probably a stand-in who just looks like her. Or, it’s, yeah, just a lady with a 1940s haircut. Either way, it’s probably just a fun thing and not something that could effect the FUTURE plot of the MCU, unlike…Mobius’s rival Analyst…

Who is the Loki Analyst Who Went to Franklin D. Roosevelt High School? (And Is Franklin D. Roosevelt Spider-Man’s High School?)

Loki Episode 2 might have just introduced another Variant in the background or — at the very least — put fuel on our “Kang the Conqueror theory” fire. In a tense scene between Judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Agent Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson), we learn that Mobius isn’t Renslayer’s proverbial “Number One Boy.” There’s another Analyst she’s working closely with. One who has brought back a Snow Globe from San Diego and a pen from Brooklyn’s own Franklin D. Roosevelt High School.

Mobius is obviously jealous of this mystery Analyst, but who is he? And why is Franklin D. Roosevelt High School important in the MCU?

Erik Voss over at New Rockstars has a fascinating theory that the rival TVA Analyst might be none other than a Variant of Mobius himself. If so, as Owen Wilson himself would say, “Wow.” That would be cool? You know what else would be cool? If this other Analyst is…Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror!

Okay, I know this is going to be the theory that blows up in my face, but between the sculptures of the Time Keepers having seriously similar headgear to Kang, Kang’s canonical history pining after Ravonna Renslayer, and the little nod to “Franklin,” I think it’s Kang!

Franklin D. Roosevelt might sound like the high school Peter Parker (Tom Holland) attends, but it’s not! He attends Midtown High. So why harp on Franklin D. Roosevelt High School as a name? Well, one of Kang the Conqueror’s alter egos is Franklin B. Richards. Which isn’t like exactly the same, but it’s evocative.

Either way, Loki Episode 2 makes a heck of a lot more fuss about this rival Analyst for Mobius for it to not pay off.

While Peggy Carter’s background appearance could be a fun little Easter egg, the mystery Analyst is straight up foreshadowing some cool reveal. (As is the fact that Mobius loves jet skis so much a jet ski magazine appears in the Loki closing credits. Wave Magazine, baby! Mobius rides a jet ski or we cancel Disney+!!!)

So expect to meet this other Analyst, be he a Mobius Variant or Kang the Conqueror or someone totally different!

(I think it’s Kang. It’s probably Mobius.)

Where to stream Loki