Episode 5 of Loki on Disney Plus continues to ramp up the tension, as everyone’s favorite Asgardian trickster Loki and his alternate timeline counterpart Sylvie prepare to finally confront the creator of the Time Variance Authority at the end of time. However, as Marvel fans await next week’s final episode, one question remains on everyone’s minds: who is the enigmatic villain behind it all?
The mystery of the TVA’s true nature has been at the core of Loki since the show began, and the question of who or what is pulling the organization’s strings has loomed larger and larger with each passing episode — especially after the revelation that the TVA’s supposed creators, the Time Keepers, were nothing but mindless robots. Even now, with only one episode remaining in the season, the identity of the series’ true villain has yet to be revealed. However, that doesn’t mean that no clues exist to the mystery mastermind’s identity.
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One major fan theory is that Kang the Conqueror, a longtime enemy of the Avengers from the comic books, is the puppetmaster pulling the TVA’s strings. In the comics, Kang is a time-traveling warlord with ambitions of ruling all of time and space. Speculation about Kang’s role in the MCU has run rampant ever since the reveal that Lovecraft Country star Jonathan Majors would be playing the villain in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. To add even more fuel to the fire, in the original comics, several prominent characters in Loki — including Ravonna Renslayer, the Time Keepers, and the monstrous entity Alioth — have all been most prominently featured in stories centered around Kang. After all, Loki is a show about time travel, and Kang is Marvel’s most iconic time-traveling villain. He’s the obvious candidate to be the real big bad, right?
Not necessarily. While evidence may seem to point to Kang’s involvement in Loki, there’s been no foreshadowing towards his appearance. From the perspective of a comic fan, it makes perfect sense for Kang to be the creator of the TVA, but to casual fans, it’d be more than a little confusing to learn that the one behind everything is a character whose existence has never even been hinted at until the final episode. While an appearance by Kang in the season finale would definitely be exciting for comic fans, the fact that it would still come out of nowhere from a writing standpoint makes it less likely. WandaVision fans who remembers the controversy around the Mephisto theory probably think this all probably sounds familiar.
So, if not Kang, who’s the mastermind behind the TVA? Some fans have theorized that it could be a character we’ve already met, like Ravonna or Mobius — or even the cutesy cartoon mascot Miss Minutes — who’s been secretly controlling everything. Others believe that another comic villain could make an appearance, such as the otherworldly, all-powerful entity known as the Beyonder. Some have even proposed that the castle shown at the end of Episode 5 could be Castle Doom, home of the legendary Marvel supervillain Doctor Doom. And though Doom is no stranger to trying to control the multiverse, it’s unlikely that he’ll make his MCU debut as the creator of the TVA when no such connection exists in the comics.
However, there’s another popular theory for the true villain’s identity — one that would match up perfectly with the story that Loki has been telling for the past five episodes. What if Loki’s greatest enemy is none other than Loki himself? Or, to be more specific, yet another Loki variant from another timeline.
It may seem like a far-fetched idea at first. After all, the most recent episode already introduced plenty of new Loki variants, so would they really throw in yet another one at the last minute? However, looking at everything the show has shown thus far, all signs point to this theory being the most likely one.
Throughout the first two episodes, the main Loki’s ultimate goal is to break free from the TVA’s clutches and take control of the organization. But over the course of the series, Loki becomes determined to move beyond his villainous past and turn over a new leaf. Who would be better to provide Loki’s final test of character than another Loki who embraced his dark side and succeeded in his quest for power? In order to prove that he’s changed for the better, Loki must overcome the living embodiment of the villain he once was.
Plus, the reveal that another Loki has been controlling the TVA would explain why every variant the main Loki has encountered has been another version of himself. Not only does seeing alternate reflections of himself help emphasize Loki’s journey of self-discovery, it also prepares the audience for the revelation of the ultimate villain. Not to mention that it would make perfect sense for an evil Loki to obsessively target variants of himself, out of the fear that they might discover him and bring an end to his reign — and if Loki and Sylvie are any indication, that fear was a well-founded one.
But as probable as this theory may sound, there’s no way of knowing for sure who the true villain of Loki is until Episode 6 releases on July 14th. Until then, all fans can do is keep speculating on the answer to this mystery of mythic proportions.
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