WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Loki Episode 6, “For All Time. Always,” streaming now on Disney+.
While He Who Remains, a variant of Kang the Conqueror who created the Time Variance Authority, wields a time-twisting device during Loki’s Season 1 finale, director Kate Herron explained it’s not your average TVA TemPad.
“So basically, it’s meant to be a futuristic version of the TVA tech,” Herron informed The Hollywood Reporter. “So that was the fun idea of it. When He Who Remains tells his story about his other variants meeting, you see bits of the TVA technology. So our idea was that it does both things. With the TVA technology, you see that the Time Twister hooks into the TemPad, but it’s these two separate, clunky things. But whereas with He Who Remains, he has more advanced technology than the TVA So it has both functions, basically, which we see him use. The difference is that he’s in control of the twist; it’s twisting him. Whereas when we see the TVA use the Time Twister, it’s with a Time Collar as they’re controlling a prisoner.”
He Who Remains uses his tech to prevent Sylvie and Loki from killing him before he reveals the true history behind the TVA and make them an offer: replace him in overseeing the Sacred Timeline or kill him and unleash his many variants (Kang included) while potentially starting a second Multiversal War. Ultimately, Sylvie chooses the second option, stabbing He Who Remains and setting the stage for Kang to make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Herron said casting Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country) as Kang/He Who Remains was a “very surreal experience” and important to get right, given his pivotal role in Phase 4. “[Majors is] an amazing actor, and the thing that I love about him is that he’s this chameleon. He’s so different in everything he does, and that’s exciting, obviously, when you’re asking an actor to play a character who’s going to have a lot of different versions of himself.”
Loki Season 1 is streaming in its entirety on Disney+. Although Season 2 is officially happening, Herron confirmed she won’t return as director. However, she would like to work with Marvel on a different project in the future.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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