We’re now gearing up for the Loki season 2 finale on Thursday and, after a strong run of recent episodes, we’re very curious as to how this will all wrap up. Those who’ve seen the episode have hinted that it’s going to be Kang-heavy, with the bombshell Variety article about Marvel Studios’ behind-the-scene chaos claiming that it “sets up Kang as the titular star of a fifth “Avengers” film in 2026.”
That may well be the case, but there’s been a careful series of breadcrumbs laid throughout season 2 that leads me to think a more shocking revelation could be on the way: that Loki himself — not He Who Remains — is the true creator of the TVA.
The official story so far
The official origin story of the TVA, as explained by He Who Remains in the season 1 finale, is that many Kang variants in the 31st century simultaneously discovered the multiverse. After a brief period of cooperation, their egos led them into a destructive multiversal war against one another.
A Kang variant named He Who Remains ended the war and realized that as long as there were alternate timelines, more Kangs would inevitably arise and continue the war. He created the Time Variance Authority, whose mission is to “prune” these timelines and prevent more Kangs.
When Loki and Sylvie encountered He Who Remains, he offered them an option: either kill him and risk a new explosion of Kangs, or take over the TVA. Sylvie concluded negotiations violently, thus beginning season 2.
A snake eating its own tail?
But is this the real story? After all, we’ve already had one fake origin of the TVA in the Timekeepers, so why not two? Over recent episodes, we’ve seen Loki grow very attached to the TVA and its members, arguing with Sylvie that it needs to exist.
We’ve also seen him gathering his friends Mobius, O.B., Casey, and Hunter B-15 from their places in the timeline, where they seem to have been living fairly content lives. As I pointed out in my article soon after the last episode aired, there are a number of hints that things are about to go wrong for each of them: e.g. Mobius’ son playing with matches and a comment that he’s in danger of “burning down the house” or B-15 being a New York doctor in 2012, the year of The Avengers‘ Battle of New York.
Loki has admitted to Sylvie he no longer wants to be alone and now that he’s beginning to control his time slips, it seems to make sense that he could kidnap and memory-wipe his friends and install them in the TVA while justifying it to himself as saving their lives. I mean, as Brad said, “Stop trying to be a hero man, you’re a villain. And you’re good at it. Do that”.
It’s also telling that O.B.’s laboratory in episode 5 has the same layout as his TVA workshop, meaning the seed of the TVA may spring from this very room and be built outwards. It’s worth remembering that while Loki is set in the same five rooms, the TVA is actually a gargantuan city, but with an infinite amount of time comes an infinite amount of potential growth.
Kang’s involvement
This theory does run into the problem that Kang is clearly heavily involved in the TVA, what with all the statues of him. But Loki having created the TVA doesn’t necessarily invalidate all of He Who Remains’ story.
What if Kang didn’t create the TVA, but instead discovered and seized control of it from Loki, molding it to his own ends through time-travel-based shenanigans? This would also explain why He Who Remains was so eager to offer control of it to Loki and Sylvie. If a Loki variant created it, they’d be perfectly suited to run it.
If Marvel Studios really has made its mind up to get rid of Jonathan Majors’ Kang in the wake of his legal troubles, this may give it an out. Sure, the Loki in Loki is much more heroic than most other versions, but if he begins to act for what he truly believes is “the greater good” he might be able to supplant Kang as some kind of multiversal god of time and end up as an antagonist that must be stopped.
Goodbye Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and hello Avengers: The Loki Dynasty? Perhaps the Variety article leak rules that dramatic option out, but I guess we’ll find out when the season finale airs on Friday. See you then!