A Loki Variance Authority Was The Original Plan for Episode 5

Loki head writer Michael Waldron has revealed the original plan for Episode 5 of the Marvel/Disney+ series, “Journey Into Mystery”, included a Loki Variance Authority. In the episode, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is sent to the Void at the End of Time after being pruned, where he meets a group of rogue variants – Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant), Boastful Loki (Deobia Oparei), Kid Loki (Jack Veal) and Alligator Loki. They eventually work together to escape the clutches of Alioth, a powerful cloud-like demon that’s also a comics’ deep cut.

The Void solved the mystery of where variants go when they are pruned by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) in order to keep the Sacred Timeline intact. A chaotic wasteland scattered with MCU easter eggs, The Void at the End of Time couldn’t be more different from the ordered bureaucracy and retro-futuristic aesthetics of the TVA. The setting for “Journey Into Mystery” was vital for revealing He Who Remains’ hiding place and giving fans a chance to meet some of Loki’s more unconventional variants.

Related: Loki Turns The God Of Mischief Into Phase 4’s Most Important Hero

Now, Waldron has revealed that Episode 5 of Loki wasn’t always set in The Void, but instead featured an alternate version of the TVA called the “Loki Variance Authority.” In an interview with CinemaBlend, the showrunner praised Tom Kauffman’s work as the writer of the episode and spoke about the “amazing stuff” in his first draft of Episode 5. Waldron additionally alludes to Kauffman’s work on Rick and Morty and his hilarious idea for a so-called “LVA”. Read his full quote below:

“Tom Kauffman wrote Episode 5 of the show. Tom’s a Rick and Morty writer; he was there from the first season Rick and Morty. He’s one of my great friends, and one of the funniest people alive. And his first draft of that script had so much amazing stuff. I think there was, at one point, a Loki Variance Authority, like an LVA with all the different Lokis who were down there.”

Seeing the Loki variants infighting in an abandoned cosmic wasteland is one thing, but seeing them all working as part of a “Loki Variance Authority” would surely have been extremely entertaining. Especially if it involved Loki variants mimicking TVA Agents like Mobius (Owen Wilson) and Judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). Kauffman’s connections to Rick and Morty also bring to mind the season 1 episode “Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind”, where both Rick and Morty visit the Citadel of Ricks and come across many of their variants from alternate dimensions.

The idea of multiple Lokis forming their own rival Variance Authority has a lot of potential, and it is disappointing that it didn’t make it into the final show. That said, it’s not impossible that something like that could happen in Loki season 2 as the characters deal with the consequences of the creation of the multiverse. Episode 5 of Loki still introduced fans to a whole range of Loki variants in a humorous and exciting way, even if they weren’t directly mocking of the TVA – as the show has proved, a Loki is far more likely to destroy democracy than thrive in it.

More: Why Loki Proves The MCU Can Last Forever

Source: CinemaBlend

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