WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Loki Season 1 finale, "For All Time. Always." now streaming on Disney+.
Kasra Farahani, the production designer for Disney+'s Loki, teased the existence of a fourth Time Keeper.
Three Time Keepers are represented throughout Season 1 of Loki, be it through statues at the TVA or robot puppets kept hidden for millennia. However, in the season finale, Episode 6, "For All Time. Always," when Loki and Sylvie reach the Citadel at the End of Time, there is a fourth Time Keeper statue shattered on the floor. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Farahani was asked to elaborate on this detail. "I can't say anything about it, unfortunately, but the answers will be forthcoming," Farahani said.
Along with the release of concept art from the series, Farahani explained his inspiration for the Citadel at the End of Time, the massive castle that housed the season's big bad, He Who Remains (played by Jonathan Majors). "I believe He Who Remains built it," Farahani said. "The biggest influence was probably Xanadu from Citizen Kane and Hearst Castle [the real-life inspiration for Xanadu] as a result. This eccentric person rattling around this big Citadel." Director Kate Herron has also recently stated that Majors' character was directly inspired by the man behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz.
The fourth Time Keeper statue isn't the only thing that's in disrepair in the Citadel. Rather, according to Farahani, the intention behind the Citadel's design was to look dilapidated, while He Who Remains' office was the only part of the castle in pristine condition.
"I pitched this idea that he'd retreated to the office at the time. The atrium, [where] you see the 13-foot-tall Sentinels of Time statues and the hall with the giant timepiece and the Timekeeper statues… there would be a sense that he had retreated from these places and they're in disrepair," Farahani said.
The Time Keepers were introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Loki Season 1 as cosmic beings responsible for ending the great multiversal war and creating the Sacred Timeline. However, it was revealed that they were nothing more than androids created by He Who Remains (voiced by Majors). While the fourth Time Keeper isn't mentioned in Loki, he does appear in a 2005 Fantastic Four comic titled Divine Time: Part 2, written by Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa. In the comic, he has been banished to Egypt in 2950 BC by the three main Time Keepers for an unknown reason and warns the Fantastic Four about Kang the Conqueror's son, Ramades.
The Citadel at the End of Time, as well as the destroyed Time Keeper statue, appears in the season finale of Loki. All six episodes are available to stream on Disney+.
Source: Vanity Fair