What Does Marvel's "Loki" Tell Us About The Future Of MCU

Marvel’s Loki has turned everything we know about the MCU on its head with the introduction of the TVA with their power and influence over the flow of time throughout all of Marvel’s movies so far.

With this new organization and the return of fan-favorite villain, Loki, it looks like more questions than answers will be arising as this Marvel series continues. So with this brand new perspective on the lives of some of our beloved MCU characters, there are some things you need to know.

Who is the TVA?

The TVA or Time Variance Authority is an organization that manages the flow of time and works to prevent any deviance from occurring from the intended plans they have for the multiverse.

In Marvel’s Loki the TVA manage the “Sacred Timeline”, which was formed from the amalgamation of multiple timelines into a single cohesive timeline in order to prevent a second “Multiverse War” from occurring and destroying all of reality.

The TVA constantly observes the Sacred Timeline only interfering when a Nexus Event occurs, a significant change in the timeline that could lead to the birth of a new unmonitored timeline that could cause another Multiversal War.

The TVA works to track down individuals that would cause the timeline to split, which they call Variants, and apprehend them before completely resetting the split in the timeline.

The TVA exists in a mysterious location outside of reality with the only way in or out being through the use of devices called TemPads which are used by the TVA to monitor the Sacred Timeline and travel through space and time in order to apprehend Variants.

We know that the TVA exists in a separate reality or dimension than that of the Marvel films since neither the Infinity Stones, the most powerful items in the MCU, nor Loki’s magic function while in the TVA.

How does the TVA affect the MCU?

With the TVA comes the confirmation of alternate realities and different timelines. Though the TVA works hard at ensuring there is only one primary timeline by the end of Marvel’s Loki our ‘God of Mischief’ may have found a way to turn the tables and unleash some havoc upon the multiverse.

With the existence of Variants and branching timelines, we may be finding ourselves beginning to see hints of seeing more characters from alternate realities begin to make their appearance in the main films. Old favorites may have a chance to return to the big screen once again through their alternate counterpart, serving as a new ally or deadly foe.

The existence of the TVA has also led fans to question the notion of free will in the MCU and whether characters bound to a series of predetermined events enforced by an army of time travelers are truly capable of making their own decisions.

However it should be noted that the existence of Variants themselves should act as proof that the TVA’s doesn’t take away from the free will of any character, rather it proves to show that the characters have an abundance of free will and that it is about of how they use it and how it affects the Sacred Timeline that matters.

The idea that the TVA completely resets undesirable timelines that don’t fit with the Time Keepers’ vision has also led to fans questioning whether anything that happened in the films had any real weight if their outcomes were predetermined.

Yet much about the TVA remains a mystery, including the extent of their authority in determining what events should occur and how well they can actually enforce their rule. In the first episode of Marvel’s Loki, it is shown that the TVA is not invincible with a mysterious Variant having overpowered and escaped from a group of TVA operatives.

What is the Marvel Multiverse?

The multiverse is the collection of all the different parallel realities that exist beyond the current universe and are near-infinite in number. Since the number of different universes contained within the multiverse is so innumerable they eventually came into conflict with each other, leading to the first multiversal war and the creation of the Sacred Timeline along with its guardians the TVA.

The multiverse has been an important part of Marvel's comics since they serve to give writers the freedom to create the content they want within Marvel's setting without interfering with the main storyline.

Many fans have constantly been excited at the idea of the multiverse coming into play in the MCU for a long time and now that it has been confirmed in Marvel's Loki people can't wait to see how it will play out in future movies.

Will Loki appear in future Marvel films?

With Loki stealing the Tesseract when the Avengers traveled back in time to 2012 and setting off the events that lead to Marvel’s series Loki the well-known Asgardian trickster has returned to the screen once more.

With Loki’s return to the MCU with his own series and his run-in with the TVA, it is possible that Loki will make a return appearance in one of Marvel’s upcoming films with fans believing that Loki will appear or at least have some influence in the upcoming Dr. Strange or Ant-Man films.

Loki’s actions in his series will have a large effect on the future of the MCU depending on how his actions will affect the TVA and with his wits and confidence Loki may prove to be too much for the TVA to handle but what will that mean for the Sacred Timeline? Will everything fall apart leading to a multiversal war of epic proportions or will the TVA’s propaganda be revealed to be a farce?

Regardless of what happens, we can expect Loki’s actions to have a massive effect on the future of the MCU which will probably play a massive part in Marvel’s Phase 4 of movies. The appearance of Variants in the MCU may also serve as a key factor in the upcoming events for Marvel’s films and series in the future.