First Official Teaser Footage of Loki Teases The Time Variance Authority
Donald Edmonds
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There were reports that Loki had not started filming and even reports of casting still happening for the Disney Plus show. However during the Super Bowl, we all got our very first tease of the upcoming Disney Plus series Loki alongside WandaVision, and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
Towards, the end of their Super Bowl spot, Tom Hiddleston as Loki is sporting a garb much like a prisoner. He says, “I’m going to burn this place to the ground.”
And the symbol on Loki’s prison uniform is a deep cut Easter egg for the comic book reader. TVA, albeit in a very stylized lettering, could stand for The Time Variance Authority. It’s an acronym for a very cosmic organization whose sole responsibility is to bring to justice those who mess with the time continuum.
In The Comics
The symbol on Loki’s prisoner uniform is an original creation just for the limited series. But the acronym in the comics dates back to Thor #372, which was first published back in 1986. Even then, they were only a brief mention.
But the Time Variance Authority is an organization tasked with correcting the timelines and ensuring any temporal interferences are kept to a minimum. Justice Peace played a large part in bringing in the Zaniac killer in the 1986 Thor storyline written by Walter Simonson with art by Sal Buscema. Their ranks even included Wade Wilson at some point.
The organization exists in the Null-Time Zone and monitors the events of the Multiverse. Faceless clones called Chronomonitors observe a timeline and report any happenings that may disrupt the timeline to the higher-ups. Minutemen or Justices are dispatched to eliminate or neutralize the threat to that timeline, thus removing any disturbances.
We don’t get this full explanation until Fantastic Four #353 in 1991.
In this issue, we get a full view of their operations; from their bureaucratic work to their enforcement, as well as the numerous realities they have disposed of. Their work is far from perfect, as the organization puts the Fantastic Four on trial for their time-altering in battling Doctor Doom, while ignoring Kang the Conqueror’s actions or the numerous times the X-Men have changed the timeline.
Speculation on the TVA in the Loki series
The synopsis for Loki reads:
“In Marvel Studios’ ‘Loki,’ the mercurial villain Loki (Tom Hiddleston) resumes his role as the God of Mischief in a new series that takes place after the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame.’ Kate Herron directs and Michael Waldron is head writer. Debuts on Disney+ next year—2021.”
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In Avengers: Endgame, we saw Loki in an alternate timeline escape the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s custody during the events of the first Avengers film.
This series, according to head writer and executive producer Michael Waldron, as explained in the Marvel Studios: Expanding the Universe special on Disney Plus will follow that version of Loki, “The show’s going to explore the questions we all have. Like where did Loki go after he picked up the Tesseract in Endgame.”
Director Kate Herron also stated, “We are taking Loki to an entirely new part of the MCU.” Feige even stated at San Diego Comic Con, “He goes to a number of places. I don’t want to spoil them.”
Executive Producer Stephen Broussard added, “There is a huge time travel component. There will be a man on the run quality to it. And we get the chance to explore more human sides of Loki.”
Supervising producer Kevin Wright gave us some more details saying, “We are finally going to see him on his back foot. This is him being put in a position where he doesn’t have all of the answers and has been thrown a curve ball by life.”
A previous synopsis for the show from The Hollywood Reporter described it as such:
“The trickster and shapeshifter pops up throughout human history as [an] unlikely influencer on historical events.
So the involvement of the Time Variance Authority makes more sense, as their role is to rope Loki in before he continues to influence historical events and radically change timelines.
Casting News Speculation
Firstly, this gives us more insight as to who Owen Wilson will be playing in the Loki series. He may very well be Justice Peace, and responsible for bringing Loki in to answer for his crimes of meddling with the timestream. Or he may be playing a faceless Chronomonitor, or even Mr. Alternity. However, I’m not taking Balder the Brave off the table just yet.
There are also rumors of Sophia Di Martino playing a female version of Loki, and sharing the screen with Hiddleston during the course of the show run. She could also be playing Enchantress, who we thought would show up during Thor: Ragnarok.
Honestly, it was a surprise that we had any footage to speak about for the Loki limited series with as much information as we were getting from its production. The only names listed on IMDB for the show are these three. More names will be added to the show roster as production continues. By then, we should have a better sense of the plot for this show.
Loki is scheduled to release on Disney Plus in Spring of 2021.
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