So the TVA is Definitely Getting Destroyed in ‘Loki’ Season 2, Right?

Some teasers just give you a brief hint of what’s to come, or a faint whiff of the atmosphere in the film or show it’s promoting. The Loki season 2 trailer, on the other hand, is so crammed with clues and goodies that five days after it dropped, I’m still poring over the footage. Are Mobius and Loki going on dates? Is Loki talking to his younger self? Is Ravonna teaming up with Victor Timely? Has Sylvie gone punk? There’s so much!

Here’s another detail that I’ve been obsessing over: we get multiple clues that the Time Variance Authority itself is doomed. The plot synopsis describes season 2 as a “battle for the soul of the TVA,” but after watching the trailer, I don’t think that line is just referring to the power vacuum Sylvie created in season 1.

Before we get to the actual footage, though, let’s look at why it would make sense, story-wise, for the TVA to be destroyed.

For the Avengers to assemble, the TVA has to go

In the Loki season 1 finale, He Who Remains explains to Loki and Sylvie that as long as the TVA is in place, the war that destroys the multiverse can’t happen. The TVA—whether it’s led by He Who Remains or Loki and Sylvie—will keep pruning timelines to prevent Kang from ever rising to power.

However, we already know from the title of the next Avengers movie, Avengers: the Kang Dynasty, that Kang will probably rise to power and start destroying the multiverse. In fact, we saw in Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania that the war has already begun, with Kang demonstrating how his variants use incursions to destroy realities.

The Loki season 2 trailer could be hinting that Kang’s destruction will eventually reach the TVA itself, even though it exists outside of space and time.

What’s happening to the TVA in the Loki season 2 trailer?

There are two shots in particular that make me think the TVA is going to collapse in season 2.

The first is this shot of a TVA monitor turning into noodles.

In the image, you can see the edges of the monitor fraying and evaporating, with a visual effect similar to the timeslipping that Loki experiences in the trailer. This shot seems to suggest that whatever’s happening to Loki is going to start happening on a wider scale. (And if my hunch that it’s physically destroying the TVA is right, then that doesn’t bode well for our favorite frost giant.)

Then there’s that ominous message on the monitor itself: “Thank you for your service!” Doesn’t that have a note of finality to it? Something you might say to your employees shortly before they’re all wiped from existence?

The second shot is a very quick glimpse of Loki looking out the window in the TVA. In season 1, we saw that the TVA is a vast, seemingly infinite complex of buildings and other structures. In the trailer, darkness seems to be descending on all of it. (Please pardon the blurry shot—this moment is lightning fast and hard to capture.)

Loki definitely seems to be witnessing some kind of catastrophe happening outside the window, with the TVA winking out or being swallowed up by something.

There are other big clues that the TVA is breaking down, too.

How is Loki using his magic in the TVA?

In the beginning of the trailer, OB (Ke Huy Quan) reveals something very interesting: it shouldn’t be possible to timeslip in the TVA, and yet it’s happening to Loki. That right there is a sign that something is starting to break down.

Then, at the end of the trailer, we see Loki and Sylvie both using their magic powers in what looks like part of the TVA. They’re in a large, atrium-like room, full of time doors opening and closing, and they’re fighting off hunters using their signature blasts of green magic.

Except season 1 established, multiple times, that magic doesn’t work in the TVA. Loki can’t use his powers in the courtroom, and even the Infinity Stones are useless paperweights. If the atrium is indeed located in the TVA, then whatever force blocked Loki’s magic in season 1 has disappeared.

Marvel trailers are notorious for being misleading, so this theory could be completely wrong. Still, though, it would make sense for the TVA to start breaking down in He Who Remains’ absence—and it would make for a fantastic story.

We’ll get to the bottom of it on October 6, when Loki season 2 finally comes out on Disney+.

(featured image: Disney+)