There's lots to unpack here.
Since the first episode of Disney+’s new Marvel show, Loki, fans have guessed there was a secret behind who runs the TVA. From the mysterious Time-Keepers who no one ever saw to the oddly restrictive concept of the “sacred timeline,” something seemed off. But as the series has slowly peeled back the layers of this onion, the entity pulling strings has remained a mystery. With only one more episode to go in Season 1, fans are still in the dark as to who the show’s main antagonist will be. But these Loki theories about the castle in the Void — and who resides there — round up the main suspects.
Warning: Spoilers for Loki Season 1, Episode 5 follow. Since Loki and Sylvie returned to the TVA in Episode 4, their quest to discover the person behind the bureaucracy has been frustrating. Sylvie believed if she found the Time-Keepers, she’d have the culprits. But the Time-Keepers turned out to be animatronic androids, false faces for the real power behind the TVA to hide behind. The discovery that pruning did not kill a person but rather sent them to the end of the universe seemed like it’d get Loki and Sylvie to the right answer, but all there was to be found was Alioth, a Time Monster who preyed upon anyone sent to it.
Sylvie guessed Alioth was a guard dog of sorts, the next layer of monster the person at the heart of this whole thing was hiding behind. When she and Loki took down the beast, the clouds fell away, and a castle appeared. But who resides in this castle beyond the end of time? Here are the most popular guesses:
All The Kang Theories Are Correct
The most obvious answer is that Kang the Conqueror will be the person Loki and Sylvie find. More than one fan has pointed out that the building inside these parted clouds appears to be Castle Limbo, Kang’s home that appears in the Thor comics.
That seems a logical conclusion considering all the other hints that Kang is involved here. Ravonna Renslayer, for instance, is his girlfriend in the comics. The Alioth is a monster associated with Kang as well. And fans even noticed a sign for Qeng Tower among the rubble on the desolate planet within the Void, another residence for Kang during his businessman-and-CEO impersonation days.
But Jonathan Majors, who has been cast as Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has insisted he will not be in Loki and that his first appearance in the world of Marvel won’t be until the Ant-Man’s sequels big-screen debut. So if it’s not Kang, then who is it?
Loki Has Discovered Castle Doom
With fans already sure that Loki’s main villain will be a big one, another major theory holding sway is that the show isn’t introducing Kang; it’s introducing the Fantastic Four.
Getting back the X-Men as part of the Disney-Fox merger has been the big headline-grabber for Marvel. However, the MCU has made it clear that rather than going directly to mutantkind without passing go or collecting $200; it will revive the Fantastic Four franchise, and so far, there’s been no word on casting or production.
That said, with a giant castle in the sky, fans immediately turned to one of Marvel lore’s most famous floating castles: Dr. Doom’s Castle Doom. The main Fantastic Four villain is assumed to be arriving in the MCU along with his heroic counterparts. Turning Loki into a backdoor entry for this franchise, much like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier presaged the new Captain America film, would be a significant step toward announcing a new movie.
Ravonna Is Queen Of This Castle
But forget about the movies. Loki already has an excellent villain right there onscreen: Ravonna Renslayer. She’s already lied, cheated, manipulated, and killed her way through the series’ first five episodes. Most importantly, in the comics, Renslayer is a significant villain in her own right. She may have gotten into villainy through dating Kang, but once that relationship was toast, she proved herself quite adept at stealing his kingdoms and ruthlessly running them herself. Loki doesn’t need to bring in any new faces for the show’s final episode when a perfectly serviceable Kang-adjacent villain will do nicely.
This Is Chronopolis
That said, why go with the obvious when fans could get an off-the-wall villain worthy of Loki in Miss Minutes, the Southern-accented controlling force behind all the files in the TVA? Everyone knows the administrative assistant is the most influential person in any org that requires filing, and Miss Minutes is the superclock on the job.
As for why she’d be in this castle, the show could make one last Kang reference before the bait and switch by calling this Chronopolis, Kang’s capital city. Who better to run Chronopolis than a walking, talking, time-keeping watcher on the wall?
It’s Been Loki All Along
After Loki has spent episode after episode introducing Lokis left, right, and center, from Lady Loki (Sylvie) to President Loki to Lokigator, why on Earth would anyone think the person behind all this chaos was anyone but a Loki? This is the show about the most narcissistic character in the entire MCU. He chases himself, he catches himself, he falls in love with himself, he gets in fights with himself, and he saves himself.
The main hero of Loki is Loki, the leading lady of Loki is Loki, and therefore, the villain of Loki could also be Loki.
Loki’s Season 1 finale will debut on Wednesday, July 14, on Disney+.
