‘Loki’ theory suggests that the TVA’s authority extends beyond the multiverse and into the afterlife

Loki season two is getting closer by the day and, judging by that awesome first trailer, it’s going to be a cut above other MCU TV shows. The first season established the Time Variance Authority (the TVA) as being practically omniscient, existing outside the boundaries of space and time, and with a mission to manage the flow of time and preserve the Sacred Timeline.

Their tech allows them to leap to any universe and “prune” any aberrant realities. But the MCU is an increasingly large place with all manner of sub-dimensions and afterlives, so for example, could the TVA take a trip to Black Panther‘s Ancestral Plane if they deemed it necessary?

Said question is being debated on r/MarvelStudios right now. After all, if the TVA can access various afterlives, the Quantum Realm, the Mirror Dimension, or the Dark Dimension, it raises some huge cosmological questions about the nature of the MCU’s various realities.

The top answer is that the TVA’s mission just doesn’t require them to go there. If a character dies and moves to an afterlife they cannot affect the sacred timeline to any reasonable degree, so the goings-on of these dimensions are “irrelevant to their mission”.

But, to look at it another way, this could “easily change on a writer’s whim.” This is the correct answer: if the writers decide the Loki story needs to delve into these afterlives and dimensions the TVA will suddenly have the power to do so.

That said, things are complicated enough in Loki without throwing more realities into the mix, so let’s just stick with alternative timelines for now.

Loki season two will premiere on Disney Plus on Oct. 6.