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WARNING: Spoilers for Loki Episode 6 will be found below
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Heading into the Loki season finale, rumors abounded that Kang the Conqueror would reveal himself as the puppet-master behind the Time Variance Authority, and more importantly, the person behind the circumstances that brought Tom Hiddleston’s Loki Variant and Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie together. But while the show was peppered with numerous Easter eggs pointing to Kang, there was just as equally a chance that the series’ big bad would be a Loki. Thematically, it would fit with the show’s depiction of Loki as a survivor who’s doomed to be alone, and some seemingly savvy MCU fans didn’t think Marvel would just drop Kang into the final episode of Loki.

Surprise! That’s exactly what Marvel did, and the entire MCU is about to go through some things.

Played by Jonathan Majors, Kang has a long comic book history of being one of The Avengers’ most formidable foes as he’s shown no hesitation in tearing apart time and reality to crush his enemies. In the Loki finale, Loki and Sylvie match wits with a version of Kang who has been “pruning” the Sacred Timeline to prevent a Multiversal War from happening. He offers Loki and Sylvie a choice: Take over for him, keeping the timeline in order, or kill him and watch as the Multiverse tears itself apart. Sylvie chooses the latter, and it’s not going to end well, according to Loki head writer Michael Waldron.

Via Marvel:

“You had to leave a lot of meat on the bone in terms of how evil he could be, because that’s He Who Remains’ whole thing, that it’s not me who you should be afraid of,” Waldron continues. “‘It’s the other versions of me that are going to come.’ It was trying to really hint at that terrifying evil within without going all the way there.” In Waldon’s own words, he was just trying to write him as a “very charismatic sociopath.”

With the Multiverse officially unleashed, Kang’s conquering is already in motion as Loki arrives in a TVA that no longer recognizes him and now has a single statue of Kang looming in the background instead of the Time Keepers. While Marvel has only confirmed that Kang will appear in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, his presence will undoubtedly be felt in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. (It’s right there in the title.) The now-splintering Multiverse will only further fuel theories that Spider-Man: No Way Home will have some alternate reality shenanigans, and it’s a pretty safe bet that Marvel has been holding back its trailer until the events of the Loki finale unfolded.

Welcome to the age of Kang, folks.

(Via Marvel)

Baltimore hardcore band Turnstile — aka “the friendliest hardcore band on the planet” — are officially following up their 2018 record Time & Space with a brand new project. Eagle-eyed fans already caught wind of the release due to the band posting a local billboard announcing the record on their Instagram earlier in the week, but today marks the official announce along with new music. Glow On is coming out on August 27, and the lead single, out today, is called “Alien Love Call” and features Blood Orange. Another recently-shared new single, “Mystery,” will also be included on the record.

The band worked with producer Mike Elizondo on the album, and it was also co-produced by their own Brendan Yates. This full-length album follows up their recently-released new EP, Turnstile Love Connection, and includes the title track of that release. Along with his feature on “Alien Love Call,” Blood Orange also appears on the tracks “Lonely Dezires” and contributes vocals on “Endless.”

Listen to “Alien Love Call” above and check out the Glow On tracklist below.

1. “Mystery”
2. “Blackout”
3. “Don’t Play”
4. “Underwater Boi”
5. “Holiday”
6. “Humanoid/Shake It Up”
7. “Endless”
8. “Fly Again”
9. “Alien Love Call” Feat. Blood Orange
10. “Wild Wrld”
11. “Dance-Off”
12. “New Heart Design”
13. “T.L.C. (Turnstile Love Connection)”
14. “No Surprises”
15. “Lonely Dezires” Feat. Blood Orange

Glow On is out 8/27 via Roadrunner Records. Pre-order it here.

BTS is on top of the world right now, as “Butter” remains a No. 1 single and they just released “Permission To Dance,” which they wrote with Ed Sheeran. This is their second collaboration, following the Map Of The Soul: 7 song “Make It Right,” but BTS and Sheeran haven’t actually met yet.

The band made that reveal on The Tonight Show yesterday. Fallon asked about how “Permission To Dance” came together and RM responded, “‘PTD’ is a song that will get everybody’s heart pumping and dancing again. This is a, actually, gift of Ed Sheeran, of course, one of our friends. Mad respect, big love to Ed.” The host then asked about what it was like when they first met Sheeran, and RM responded, “We can’t believe that we haven’t met him yet and this is the second project with him, but we never met him.”

Last night was the first of a two-day BTS residency on The Tonight Show. They sang “Permission To Dance” in a pre-taped performance, while tonight will bring a performance of “Butter.”

Watch clips from BTS’ Tonight Show appearance above and below.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

On Tuesday night, Seth Meyers reunited with his former SNL “Weekend Update” deskmate Amy Poehler to present a brand-new edition of “REALLY!?! With Seth and Amy.” The evening’s big topic? The current space race—the one in which a handful of super-rich white dudes who actually do have the until-now largely theoretical “more money than they know what to do with” are dropping billions to build rockets to send their pampered asses into space in the most expensive dick-measuring contest of all time. Seth and Amy had some thoughts:

Seth: “Really billionaires!?! This is what you’re going to do with your unprecedented fortunes and influence? Drag race to outer space? If you’re trying to be more likable, this won’t work. It’s like if Tom Brady tried to be more likable by wearing a fedora and yammering about bitcoin. I mean really!?!

Amy: “Really! And you know what Seth, I miss the old billionaires. The ones that wore top hats and ate caviar with their hands. Now all these new guys do is intermittent fasting and they learn Krav Maga so they can dodge all those taxes. Like they don’t have 12 layers of security at all times. You know who isn’t going into space? Any women! Really!?! Yeah, we’re staying down here ‘cause we have to fix all the things. We have sh*t to do down here!

When the topic turned to Richard Branson—who kinda-sorta (but not really) declared himself the winner of this particularly pathetic space race by heading into the outer reaches of the atmosphere on Sunday, just about a week ahead of Jeff Bezos’s planned space odyssey—Seth had a few words for the Virgin head honcho: “You didn’t go to outer space! You just went pretty high for a plane! You went to outer sky! I mean, really!?! You’re the astronaut equivalent of driving by your ex’s house to see if the lights were on.”

But it was Poehler who pointed out the obvious symbolism of these billionaires’ rockets, noting that “we all understand the obsession with the rockets, right? Really!?! The rocket’s your dick, the skyscrapers are dicks. I mean, even Freud is like, ‘You don’t need me for this, right? You get it! Those rockets are dicks.”

You can watch the full clip above.

After months of rumors, Jennifer Carpenter’s Dexter return is now official.

The Hollywood Reporter confirms that the actress who played Dexter’s sister / love interest Debra (Dexter was doing incestous siblings before Game of Thrones made it cool) will be back for the Showtime limited series, alongside her real-life ex-husband Michael C. Hall. How is this possible, considering she [eight-year-old spoiler alert] died in the infamous finale? Probably the same way that John Lithgow’s Trinity Killer is back. Or maybe she’ll be Dexter’s new Dark Passenger. It’s best to keep it in the family, y’know?

Carpenter was initially hesitant to return, as she told the Reporter back when the finale aired in 2013. “[It would take] an extraordinary script many, many, many years from now,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s possible because people don’t come back from the dead.”

Dexter found a way.

Showtime’s 10-episode revival is set 10 years after Dexter went missing in the eye of Hurricane Laura. The character is now living under an assumed name in Upstate New York — far from his original home in Miami. Original showrunner Clyde Phillips — who oversaw the first four seasons of the series before departing the show — returns to serve in the same capacity.

There’s still no word on whether Doakes will join Dexter and Debra as characters from the original series to appear in the revival, which is expected to premiere in the fall. Maybe Showtime is keeping that a surprise (motherf*cker).

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

(WARNING: Massive spoilers for Loki will be found below, so get the heck outta here if you haven’t caught up on Episode 3.)

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The Loki season finale adeptly left the door open for so much (while confirming a Season 2), and in less than an hour, we received a lot to process. Strangely enough, this show pulled off a lot of exposition throughout while entertaining; much of that’s down to the silver-tongued capabilities of Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson. They made quite a team, which made one particular moment in the season finale feel like a gut-punch. No, I’m not talking about the greatest jumpscare in history, but rather, the moment when Loki realizes that he’s all alone. Again.

Actually, two moments contribute to this, but one hit me harder than the other. The first one, I guess, didn’t hit as hard because it felt predictable: Sylvie kissing Loki and then betraying him by thrusting him through a portal back to the TVA, so that he couldn’t stop her from taking on Kang the Conqueror (this was Jonathan Majors’ intro to the MCU as the new big bad before Ant Man and The Wasp: Quantamania). The consequences of this decision will be even worse than Star-Lord’s f*ck up with Thanos in Infinity War (which personally breaks my heart because I don’t want to dislike Sylvie and want to continue thinking that Star-Lord is the worst), and all this will carry over into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and probably Loki Season 2.

More importantly at the moment, it’s led to Loki’s crushed heart after opening himself up to another person. The twist, of course, is that Sylvie was supposed to be another Loki (even Miss Minutes thought so), so there were all sorts of jokes about Loki being in love with himself, but… Sylvie insisted that she’s not him (Enchantress, for real?). The “I just want you to be okay” was perhaps the first time we saw the trickster god really show himself, and dude was not having a good time here with the results.

Loki is so beloved that this was terrible enough to see, but then something even worse happened. That is, if you wanted to see Loki and Mobius ride off on jetskis into the sunset, that definitely didn’t go down. Instead, Loki dashed over to Mobius (and Wunmi Mosaku’s Hunter B-15) to inform them of Kang’s dastardly ways and how he was the villain pulling all the TVA strings. In addition, Loki perhaps wanted another hug, but instead, he got this: “Who are you?”

And that’s the moment when fans realized that the MCU is determined not to give Loki any lasting happiness, not even a morsel. He’s all alone now in what’s (thanks to Sylvie’s bad decision) clearly the Multiverse. People on Twitter couldn’t handle it.

If Marvel fans had one wish, it would simply be for Loki “to be okay,” but there’s Kevin Feige, pulling a Kang on us while we anticipate Season 2. Kinda brilliant.

Ed Sheeran has worked a bunch of different styles into his music over the years, from folk to dance-pop to hip-hop. One frontier he has yet to explore, though, is death metal, but he’s open to the idea.

He made that reveal recently, telling The Sun, “I was really into death metal as a kid. I listened to Cradle Of Filth and Slipknot and all that stuff. I’m not saying I could ever step into that world. I learned all those riffs on guitar as a kid. That’s something I’ve never thought about doing, but something I would not be opposed to creating.”

It didn’t take that long after that quote surfaced for Sheeran to get a response from Dani Filth, of the aforementioned Cradle Of Filth, a long-running metal group that, like Sheeran, hails from Suffolk, England. Filth shared a screenshot of an article about Sheeran’s quote and wrote on Instagram, “I’ll believe it when I see it. Fellow Suffolk lad could come good in the end. ‘Dracula’s Castle On The Hill’ anyone?” The post also tags Sheeran and features a bunch of hashtags, including “#suffolklads,” “#sadhabit,” and “unlikelycollaborators.”

Perhaps the closest Sheeran has come to making metal music so far was a 2015 sketch on The Tonight Show, when he re-branded as Death Sheeran and covered songs by Slayer and Cannibal Corpse.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Here’s the good news: Loki is returning for season two. Of the three Marvel Cinematic Universe shows to premiere on Disney+, it’s the best suited for more seasons (WandaVision is over, while The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will return as Captain America and the Winter Soldier). It’s fun watching Tom Hiddleston be a god/rascal; Sylvie is a great addition to the MCU; and maybe we’ll see more Lokis. Which brings me to the bad news: there’s still no confirmation of an Alligator Loki spinoff… yet.

The season two announcement was made during the end credits of the season one finale, “For All Time. Always,” not unlike how The Book of Boba Fett teaser premiered during the final episode of The Mandalorian season two.

There’s no word on when Loki will return, but here’s what Marvel’s schedule looks like for the rest of 2021 and 2022.

September 3, 2021: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
November 5, 2021: Eternals
December 17, 2021: Spider-Man: No Way Home
Late 2021: Ms. Marvel
Late 2021: Hawkeye
March 25, 2022: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
May 6, 2022: Thor: Love and Thunder
July 8, 2022: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
November 11, 2022: The Marvels
2022: Moon Knight
2022: She-Hulk
2022: Secret Invasion
2022: The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

Loki should be in the Guardians special. He could play some holiday-themed tricks on Star-Lord. That’s something the entire family can enjoy.

Wednesday night’s Game 4 between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns very well could set the tone for the rest of the series. If the Suns can win and go up 3-1, it makes them overwhelming favorites to win the series and gives them a chance to wrap things up in a home Game 5.

If the Bucks win, however, this becomes a 2-2 series and perhaps gives Milwaukee a real chance at coming back. Winning both games at home is exactly what they need to do to make a comeback seem realistic, making Wednesday an essential game. To do that, they probably need another good outing from Jrue Holiday (who had 21 points on 8-for-14 shooting, including 5-for-10 from three) in Game 3 and a better game from Khris Middleton (who had 18 points on 6-for-14 shooting). For the playoffs, Middleton is averaging 22.8 points per game and 43.1 percent shooting and 34.2 percent from three.

The onus also seems to be on the Suns to make adjustments for Game 4. Giannis Antetokounmpo had a standout game in Game 3, dropping 41 points on 14-for-23 shooting and 13-for-17 shooting from the free throw line to with 13 rebounds and six assists. Antetokounmpo not only looked fully healthy despite hyperextending his knee 10 days ago, but he punished the Suns in a way he had not yet in the series. His Game 3 performance was decisive, aggressive, and the kind of outing that blew up any strategy that at least kind of worked for the Suns.

Now, Phoenix has to make adjustments to counter what Milwaukee did in hopes of slowing Antetokounmpo, at least a little bit. Otherwise, he easily could score 30-plus again, particularly if he makes his free throws.

Game 4 TV Info

Tip Time: Wednesday, July 15; 9 p.m. ET
TV Network: ABC

Game 4 Betting Lines (via DraftKings Sportsbook)

Series Prices: Suns (-250), Bucks (+200)
Spread: Suns +4.5 (-115), Bucks -4.5 (-105)
Total: Over 220 (-112), Under 219.5 (-109)
Money Line: Suns (+155), Bucks (-180)

Game 4 Player Scoring Props (via DraftKings Sportsbook)

Jae Crowder O/U 10.5 Points (Over -105/Under -122)
Brook Lopez O/U 10.5 (-125/+105)
Chris Paul O/U 21.5 (-120/+100)
Deandre Ayton O/U 16.5 (-110/-110)
Jrue Holiday O/U 19.5 (-110/-110)
Devin Booker O/U 27.5 (-120/+100)
Mikal Bridges O/U 11.5 (-120/+100)
Giannis Antetokounmpo O/U 26.5 (-125/-103)
Khris Middleton O/U 24.5 (-110/-110)
PJ Tucker O/U 5.5 (+110/-130)
Bobby Portis O/U 6.5 (-115/-105)
Cameron Payne O/U 6.5 (-125/+105)

With a resume that features collaborations with a number of artists across many genres, Ty Dolla Sign has solidified himself as one of the guest verse kings in the music industry. It’s a title that eventually pushed him to name his third album Featuring Ty Dolla Sign. With a long list of guest appearances that highlight his ability to find chemistry with whoever he shares a song with, Ty submits another example by standing beside Dwn2earth for a remix of his 2020 track, “Don’t Play With Me.” The original song is housed on Atlantis, a project Dwn2earth released last year, and the new update also comes with a new video featuring the duo.

In the visual, Ty and Dwn2earth bring their talents to a strip club where they spend most of the night throwing money into the sky. While they’re certainly enjoying their time there, the duo also takes a moment to issue a stern warning to the special woman in their respective lives. They ask that she moves cautiously and carefully consider her choices as anything that they deem disrespectful will not be tolerated.

The video arrives after Ty joined DVSN and Mac Miller on “I Believed It.” Ty and DVSN then promised a joint album for fans in the near future after releasing the song. As for Dwn2earth, he’s been fairly quiet since dropping Atlantis last summer.

You can watch the video for “Don’t Play With Me” above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.