Loki Writer Says Ravonna Renslayer Is Set Up as a “Complex Villain”

On Wednesday, Season 1 of Marvel Studios‘ Loki officially came to a close — and it did so in a way that fans are going to be speculating about a lot in the months ahead. Nearly every character in the series’ eclectic ensemble was left in a new status quo by the episode’s end, and Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) was definitely no exception. The Time Variance Authority judge played a key role in the events of Loki Season 1 — and her final scene appears to have set her on a new and fascinating path. Obviously, major spoilers for the Season 1 finale of Loki, “For All Time. Always.” below! Only look if you want to know!

Part of the episode saw Ravonna receive precious intel from Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) regarding the creator of the TVA, who would later be revealed to be Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). After being confronted by Mobius (Owen Wilson) about the ethics of the TVA and the nature of free will, Ravonna used a TemPad to leave the TVA and go to some unknown location/time — and when asked by Mobius about it, Ravonna said that she was going to hunt down the person responsible for free will.

While it’s unclear exactly what the future holds for Ravonna, this scene certainly seems to indicate that she’s going to go after Kang, something that would be an interesting take on their comic-accurate relationship. Initially a princess from the 30th century, Ravonna died in a conflict between Kang and the Avengers, after the cosmic conqueror had attempted to make her his bride. Ravonna died really loving Kang, and he placed her body in stasis, but chose not to bring her back to life when the opportunity was presented to him. Once Ravonna was woken back up, she learned of Kang’s behavior and vowed to get revenge on him — and it sounds like we could get a version of that in Loki Season 2.

“She has the making of a very complex villain that has her own set of principles and beliefs that drive her,” Loki head writer Michael Waldron recently explained to Marvel.com. “She doesn’t believe that what she’s doing is evil. She believes that the mission is for greater good, and Renslayer probably wishes that she never learned that the Time Keepers were fake, that they had just been able to keep doing this forever.”

“She’s the good soldier of the TVA, just a disciple to the bureaucracy,” Waldron continued. “Then it’s revealed to be a lie to her. Instead of that galvanizing her and making her question her life’s purpose, the way it did with Mobius, Renslayer wants to stay in power. She reacts more in anger.”

The finale also indicated just one version of Ravonna that could exist across the multiverse, with Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) discovering that a version of her is a teacher at Franklin D. Roosevelt High School.

“The idea that pretty much everyone in the TVA is a variant, and that there are other variants of Renslayer in different times, that was kind of mind blowing to me,” Mbatha-Raw added. “We just dipped our toe into [this] at the end of the show. But you realize that the Multiverse just is so epic. The possibilities are endless. There’s so much potential for what’s on the other side of that Time Door. And ultimately, she wants revenge with whoever put this whole facade together.”

Loki is now streaming on Disney+. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

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