The Time Variance Authority is the rule of temporal law in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and they have a big role to play in “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
The TVA is an organization that exists outside of time and space and has charged itself with maintaining the Sacred Timeline in the MCU and “pruning” branches that could create an alternate timeline. The bureaucratic time cops have exclusively appeared in Seasons 1 and 2 of “Loki” but are making the jump to MCU films with “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
Here’s what you need to know about the TVA’s creation and history leading up to their latest appearance.
The Multiversal War
Long before the creation of the Time Variance Authority, a 31st-century variant of He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) named Nathaniel Richards discovered the existence of other timelines and universes. At the same time, variants of this variant were also learning about the Multiverse and began to meet each other. Initially, the variants shared their knowledge and technology to better one another’s universes.
Unfortunately, that didn’t last. Some variants saw the other universes as places to conquer. This play for power led the variants to start fighting in what became known as the Multiversal War. With whole universes at stake, He Who Remains utilized Alioth — seen in “Loki” Season 1 — to put an end to the war using the beast’s unique ability to consume time and space.
He Who Remains managed to end the war and put together what he deemed the “Sacred Timeline.”
TVA creation
Shortly after He Who Remains assembled the Sacred Timeline, he created the Time Variance Authority to protect it. Their goal was simple: guard the Sacred Timeline and prune any potential branchings that could create alternate universes.
He Who Remains employed an army of Variants to fill the ranks of the TVA. Once things were up and running, HWR decided to hide himself and the origins of the organization. He ordered his true second-in-command, Miss Minutes, to wipe the minds of all the variants working for the TVA and have them believe both themselves and the TVA were created by beings called the Time-Keepers for the sole purpose of protecting the Sacred Timeline.
He Who Remains exposed
The TVA operated outside of time and space as the de facto temporal law for an unknown length of time, successfully pruning variants and keeping the Sacred Timeline in order. That all changed when Thanos used the Infinity Stones to wipe out half of all life. Not accepting their loss, the remaining Avengers concocted a plan to travel back to various points in their past to gather the Stones and snap the lost half of life back into existence. In doing so, they accidentally allowed a 2012 version of Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to escape and become a Variant.
This Loki variant almost immediately crossed paths with the TVA, but rather than be pruned, he was recruited by Mobius (Owen Wilson) to help hunt another Loki Variant going by Sylvie (Sophie Di Martino). Despite the best efforts of the TVA’s “leader” Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Loki eventually sides with Sylvie, and the two of them discover the true origin of the organization.
They find themselves at the Citadel at the End of Time, confronting He Who Remains. The Nathaniel Richards variant explained to them the truth of the TVA and that he’s keeping incursions from other universes from happening. He gives them a choice: kill him and risk another time war or take his place as the real leader of the TVA. Loki doesn’t like the idea of another war but doesn’t manage to talk Sylvie into agreeing before she kills He Who Remains, which creates an overload of branching timelines.
Loki’s glorious purpose
“Loki” Season 2 picks up right after the death of He Who Remains. The Sacred Timeline is falling apart as variants are cropping up faster than they can be pruned. Meanwhile, Loki is time-slipping from past to present. Mobius takes him to Ouroboros (Ke Huy Quan) to help with the issue, but they learn the TVA is experiencing power outages because the Temporal Loom – a device built as a failsafe by He Who Remains – is being overloaded by the many branching timelines.
Despite Loki, Sylvie, Mobius and Ouroboros’ best efforts, they can’t stop the Loom from reaching a meltdown. Luckily, Loki learns to control his time-slipping right as it begins and spends tireless attempts trying everything he can to stop the meltdown but fails again and again.
After slipping back to the moments before Sylvie killed He Who Remains, Loki talks to the man who created the Loom and finally learns the only way to keep the TVA and the timeline intact. He returns to the moment of the meltdown and heads out to destroy the Loom himself. He gathers the scattered timelines in his hands as he ascends to the remnants of He Who Remains’ throne in the Citadel at the End of Time. There he resigns himself to sit and weave the infinite timelines together himself.
Following Loki’s sacrifice, the TVA’s mission changes from pruning variants to prevent timelines from branching to hunting down the more nefarious variants of He Who Remains.