Loki’s teaser trailer reveals the God of Mischief wearing prison clothes, and it suggests he’s been caught by the multiverse police. Marvel Studios recently unveiled the first look at their upcoming Disney+ series such as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, and the Tom Hiddleston-led show.
After dying at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War, viewers were reunited with the fan-favorite character in Avengers: Endgame thanks to the heroes’ Time Heist. The mission involved the surviving characters traveling to various points in the MCU’s history that had something to do with the Infinity Stones. And since The Avengers’ Battle of New York featured two elemental crystals, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) attempted to retrieve the Space and Mind Stone. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned and Loki was able to disappear with the Tesseract. This sets him on a new path which will be chronicled in his title series, Loki.
With a release date of spring 2021, work for Loki has begun. Marvel Studios’ big Super Bowl TV spot gave us our first look at the God of Mischief in his own Disney+ series. Not much is revealed in the clip aside from Loki himself sending a warning about “burning this place to the ground.” From the looks of it, he appears to be in isolation with only a single source of light - as if he’s in prison. It’s hard to gauge what’s the rest of his environment is in the clip considering that it’s essentially only a close-up shot of the character, but his clothes provides clues that could reveal who might have arrested him. Stamped on the right-hand side of his shirt are the letters “TVA”, which could mean Time Variance Authority.
From the pages of the Marvel comic books, the TVA is an organization responsible for protecting the timeline of the universe. This means that anyone who tries to alter the events of the past or future has to go through them. Of course, Marvel Studios can make some tweaks with regard to their adaptation, but what makes them tricky in print is that they don’t necessarily have absolute authority over those who attempt to meddle with time and reality, The TVA is comprised of faceless operatives, with its lower-ranked employees being called chronomonitors. Some of its known staff members are Mr. Alternity, Mr. Mobius M. Mobius, Mr. Paradox, and Mr. Tesseract. The inclusion of TVA in Loki makes sense considering that the show’s official synopsis teases God of Mischief popping out “throughout human history as [an] unlikely influencer on historical events.”
Looking at the promotional clip, Loki has a shorter hairstyle than when he disappeared with the Space Stone in Avengers: Endgame. In fact, it’s more reminiscent of his appearance in the first Thor movie. Given this, it’s possible that quite a bit of time has passed since he escaped. Perhaps, he has already been wreaking havoc, jumping from one era to another, which was what tipped off the TVA, resulting to them going after him. Otherwise, the Avengers’ Time Heist may have warned the organization, and by the time they were already deployed, only Loki remains as the time-traveling hero in the MCU.
With the events of Loki going to have implications for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, it’s curious if the TVA will also have something to do with the upcoming sequel film. After the Infinity Saga, the MCU seems to be doing a deep dive on alternate realities and timelines which were created in Avengers: Endgame. This could open an entirely new frontier for the long-running franchise; treading poses some risks especially regarding preserving continuity, but tackling something we’ve never seen before will keep fans interested in the film series moving forward.
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