Marvel’s What If…? Theory Explains Why The TVA Didn’t Stop Ultron

It might be animated, but Marvel’s What If…? is still official franchise canon, with each installment unfolding in a different pocket of an infinite multiverse. This week’s episode rewrote the rules in a major way, with the Vision/Ultron hybrid conquering space and time, setting his sights directly on the Watcher.

We’re gearing up for an epic Season 1 finale, with the Watcher not only asking Strange Supreme for help, but resigning himself to the fact he’ll need to get his hands dirty and interfere. The upgraded Ultron sliced Thanos in half with consummate ease and broke through the very barriers of reality, making it one of the MCU’s most powerful villains yet, but many fans have been wondering why the Time Variance Authority didn’t get involved.

A new theory from TheDirect looks to provide some answers, and a compelling argument is made. He Who Remains created the TVA to oversee the Sacred Timeline, the only plane of existence he acknowledges. The Loki finale established that the multiverse was always there; it just needed regular pruning before it could branch off and start a second war.

The theory explains that the TVA and the Sacred Timeline were prisons built by He Who Remains to contain himself and prevent any of his rogue variants from making an appearance, meaning that no version of Kang exists in What If…?‘s realities. The time traveling warlord’s only real threat his himself, so not only is he unconcerned with Ultron’s bid for total dominance, he’s keeping as far away from it as possible to maintain his self-imposed exile that’s preserving all of time and space as we know it.