How Loki Series Could Lead Into Marvel's What If..?

Go ahead and uncross your eyes, we know we say this with every Disney+ Marvel series, but this time it could happen. Marvel's Loki picks up after the character's swift departure in Avengers: Endgame and sees him in the clutches of the Time Variance Authority, the agency that protects and maintains the timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You see, Loki has messed with it after his Tesseract-enabled escape, altering the events of The Avengers. The TVA has only made limited appearances in the pages of Marvel Comics but one of the biggest moments for the group was in the pages of Marvel's What If...?, a series that is also coming to Disney+ as another TV chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

What we know about the What If...? show to date is that it will be the first animated entry in the MCU, and many of the cast members will reprise their roles for these alternate tales of their characters. Westworld and The Batman actor Jeffrey Wright will provide the voice of Uatu the Watcher, the show's narrator. In each issue of What If...? the comic, and presumably each episode of the series, Uatu would introduce the new alternate universe and what major change the reader can expect. In the pages of a few What If...? issues though, Uatu would make a note of his status in monitoring the multiverse while also pointing toward others that do the same thing, like the TVA.

In the pages of What If...? Vol. 2 issues #35 through #39, an actual serialized storyline took place in the typically standalone comic series titled "Timequake." This story saw Uatu cross paths with both the TVA and the three Time Keepers, characters who have been name-dropped in one of the clips from Loki. Though it seems unlikely that this exact story will unfold in the MCU (at least not this year), the building blocks of a crossover between Uatu and the TVA are immediately available to the two shows.

Could this happen? Possibly. The TVA will be a major factor in Loki and an explanation of how they work will no doubt tease the larger timeline and multiverse of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One way to do this is to tease one of the universes that we'll see in Marvel's What If...? animated series within Loki at some point. Alternate stories we know we'll see in the Disney+ series include "What if T'Challa was Star-Lord" and "What if Peggy Carter was given the Super Soldier Serum," and either of those very easily could be mentioned in an off-hand way in the Tom Hiddelston-starring series.

Like so many other potential opportunities that we've theorized about with Marvel's Disney+ shows and setting up the future, it could very well not pan out in the slightest. There is still a chance, however, especially since What If...? will be the next Marvel original to be released on Disney+, debuting right after Loki. It's an easy way to build anticipation for something that casual viewers may not think "matters" in the larger continuity at least, but also we can't predict the future, that's for Uatu and the TVA to monitor.

Loki debuts on Disney+ beginning Wednesday, June 9th.

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