In just over two weeks, Marvel's third Disney+ original series Loki will premiere. With new footage and interviews now releasing on a near-daily basis, fans have already learned quite a bit about the show and there's still more to come.
The series will follow the version of Loki who escaped with the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame and is captured by the Time Variance Authority. The TVA is going to put him to work in fixing the broken timeline, which will send the God of Mischief off on some wild adventures in wildly different times and places.
Cast and crew are revealing more and more tidbits about the project as it approaches, including just how influential the TVA has been to the MCU as a whole and how Loki's time travel shenanigans lead to some introspection.
LOKI AS A TVA TIME PRISONER
In the Summer 2021 issue of Disney’s D23 Magazine obtained by The Direct, Loki actor Tom Hiddleston opened up about the series' concept of time criminals and the organization in charge of them: the Time Variance Authority, or TVA, for short.
Specifically, Hiddleston noted that the time institution "have predetermined what happens in the past, the present, and the future" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
"If you have done something to alter history or alter the course of the future, according to the TVA, you get pulled into their headquarters and processed as a time criminal. You could literally have done anything. The TVA is an organization that orders and polices the passage of time. They have predetermined what happens in the past, the present, and the future - in a straight line. And if you do anything that deviates from that, or creates an alternate branch of reality, you get hauled into the TVA and charged with crimes against the timeline, and you're a time prisoner. It will come as a surprise to no one that Loki is one of those time criminals. He has pushed the boat out. He's broken too many of his restrictions."
Loki director Kate Herron spoke on Loki's reaction to what he has caused, saying "With Loki taking the Tesseract, fans will see exactly what that action means and what a bigger ripple he's made in time doing that. It causes him to be more reflective about his actions and why he's done what he's done."
THE TVA WORKING OVERTIME
Fans didn't see Loki after he disappeared with the Tesseract in Endgame, but the streaming series is sure to start off by showing viewers exactly where he went and why it caused a rift in the timeline.
Herron's comments here are the first to imply the show will also reveal what the future looks like after his actions change it. Scenes that appear to depict a dystopian-esque New York City have been spotted in trailers, so it's possible this is the future Herron was hinting at.
Tom Hiddleston's comments about Loki "[breaking] too many of his restrictions" is also interesting, and may answer the question as to why the Avengers didn't get in trouble with the TVA for their time travel escapades in Endgame, but Loki is here. It's possible there is some wiggle room for people's actions to deviate slightly from the TVA's plan but not affect the future (or at least not in any meaningful way) so they are spared from being time prisoners and going on trial at the TVA.
Loki premieres on Disney+ June 9.
