WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Loki Episode 1, "Glorious Purpose," now streaming on Disney+.
Following Avengers: Endgame's introduction of time travel to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Loki is delving deep into the laws of time, reality and the multiverse. The series' first episode, "Glorious Purpose," introduced the Time Variance Authority (TVA) and their all-powerful figureheads, the Time-Keepers. These godlike beings are seen in an animated video and as imposing statues in the TVA's headquarters but have not yet appeared in the flesh. And there might be a reason for that: The Time-Keepers may not actually exist, or at least not in the way Loki is leading its audience to believe.
It wouldn't be the first time a major new character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was revealed to be a red herring. Marvel likes to keep its audience guessing, subverting expectations by reimagining their comic-book lore. One of the MCU's most infamous twists was Iron Man 3's reveal that the villainous Mandarin -- one of Iron Man's arch enemies in the comics -- was a fictitious creation of the film's real villain, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), brought to life by bumbling British actor Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley). While this twist received a mixed response from fans, a similar reveal might be in store for the Time-Keepers in Loki, where it could be far more effective.
Episode 1 of Loki puts a great deal of effort into establishing the Time-Keepers without ever having them appear in person. When Loki first arrives at the TVA headquarters, he is made to watch an introductory video, explaining how the Time-Keepers merged many separate, warring realities to form the single Sacred Timeline. The animated video presents a comics-accurate depiction of the Time-Keepers, describing them as "all-knowing" while giving no explanation for their origins. When Loki is put on trial for his crimes against the Sacred Timeline, he asks to speak to the Time-Keepers and is told they are far too busy to meet with him. At this point, it's clear Loki is deliberately keeping the Time-Keepers out of sight.
As these major new characters are being kept hidden from the audience, while the TVA talks about them with the utmost reverence, treating the word of the Time-Keepers as the absolute law on which their every decision is based, it's not too much of a leap to assume there could be a twist in the tale. Loki himself points out the TVA's policing of all of space and time "at the behest of three space lizards" is "absurd." When he asks the judge at his trial about the Time-Keepers, he is told they are busy "dictating the proper flow of time." Then, when Loki asks the judge what she does, she almost stumbles over her words before claiming to "dictate the proper flow of time, according to their dictations." Already, it appears the role of the Time-Keepers in the TVA's activities is remote and somewhat redundant.
In the comics, the Time-Keepers were created by He Who Remains -- the final director of the TVA. Perhaps his MCU equivalent has not created the Time-Keepers but created the legend of the Time-Keepers in order to justify the TVA's activities and existence. If so, this would open the door to all kinds of possibilities about the true nature of time and the multiverse and the real reason for the TVA's existence. If the concept of the Time-Keepers was created by a far-future director of the TVA -- using their time-traveling capabilities to instill this idea at the organization's inception -- it could be that the organization's real purpose is merely to maintain the timeline that leads to that future director's existence/position of power. With multiple theories swirling around the MCU's multiverse, it could also be the case that the story of the Time-Keepers, who are said to have united the entire multiverse into a single reality, was created to conceal the continued existence of the multiverse and to help control the separation of different realities.
Whatever the reality of the Time-Keepers, they are surely being kept hidden for good reason. It's unlikely the truth behind these all-powerful cosmic beings is as straightforward, or as well-intentioned, as Loki's first episode implies. As Loki's adventures with the TVA continue over the course of the series, the truth behind this strange, timeless organization and its founders is sure to be further explored. And if there's one thing Marvel fans should know by now, it's to expect the unexpected.
Loki stars Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Sophia Di Martino, Richard E. Grant, Sasha Lane and Eugene Cordero. New episodes air Wednesdays on Disney+.