Warning - This article contains major spoilers for the first episode of Loki.
Loki is set to expand an unexplored corner of the MCU since it will deal with the multiverse, Timekeepers, and alternate realities. The latest Marvel series will showcase the return of Tom Hiddleston's beloved character from the Thor franchise but with an intriguing twist.
This God of Mischief will be a variant that was introduced during the Time Heist of 2019's Avengers: Endgame. To recap, Tony Stark and Scott Lang were supposed to take the Tesseract from the 2012 version of the Avengers, but the plan failed, thus leading to Loki's escape.
The Disney+ series revealed that Loki's freedom was cut short due to the arrival of the Time Variance Authority. The organization, otherwise known as the TVA, is responsible for guarding the Sacred Timeline, and the show established that the titular character's escape is grounds for being erased from existence.
Now, the time travel-based series has finally shared an explanation as to why they didn't apprehend the Avengers during Endgame, giving fans the answer to this lingering question ever since the Time Heist's success.
TIME HEIST IS NOT A TVA VIOLATION
During the first episode of Loki, the titular character was involved in a trial due to his violation of the Sacred Timeline.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Judge Renslayer explained that this is part of the due process of the Time Variance Authority against violators like Loki, but the God of Mischief shared that they have the wrong person since he “suspects” that the Avengers should be on trial instead of him.
Loki said that he only came in possession of the Tesseract due to the fact that the Avengers traveled through time. The Asgardian even bargained that he would help the TVA catch them.
Despite that, Renslayer revealed that the Time Heist was “supposed to happen,” and Loki's escape was not.
THE TVA KNOWS THE AVENGERS' PLAN
Heading into Loki, one of the mysteries that fans are still trying to figure out is the lack of action from the TVA during Endgame, but it seems that everyone can finally rest as that question has been answered.
It is currently unknown if the whole world is aware of the Time Heist of the Avengers, but it's safe to say that the rest of the team and now the TVA knows that the team's plan is for the benefit of the Sacred Timeline. This is in line with Tom Hiddleston's earlier comment about the time-based organization when he pointed out that they “have predetermined what happens in the past, the present, and the future” of the MCU.
This means that the Time Heist was necessary, and the TVA knew that it needed to happen in order to save half of all life in the universe. The main difference between the Avengers and Loki is the fact that Earth's Mightiest Heroes hatched a plan to return the Infinity Stones to their proper timelines while the villainous Asgardian has no intentions to fix his mistake.
Steve Rogers managed to “clip the branches” when he returned every Infinity Stone to its proper places in the timeline. It's possible that the TVA chose to not meddle with Steve's actions since they would deem it as noble, thus leading to Cap's happy ending with Peggy Carter. Still, it remains to be seen if Loki will address Steve's part of the story.
The first episode of Loki is now streaming on Disney+.
