If you are a MARVEL fan, you may have seen the theory that has circulated around the internet. I will note that, in order to explain and debunk this theory, SPOILERS must be discussed. If you have not watched MARVEL’s 2012 film The Avengers or MARVEL’s Loki show, I recommend refraining from reading beyond this point if you do not wish to know any major spoilers for either.
Theory: The theory is that, in The Avengers film at 1:46:51, the scene goes as follows:
Thor and Loki standing toe to toe on the balcony of Stark Tower, weapons braced against each other, both angry and struggling.
Thor (angry): Look at this! Look around you!
Scene cuts to the background, showing aliens destroying and terrorizing New York.
Thor (angry): You think this madness will end with your rule?
Loki (looking concerned, turning to look back at Thor): It’s too late. It’s too late to stop it.
Thor (gentle but out of breath): No, we can, together.
Loki (appearing remorseful before smiling and stabbing Thor)
Fans on the internet have theorized that, in this brief moment, the Loki in the TVA who was struggling with controlling his time slipping had actually time-slipped to that very moment. Hence, Loki is concerned and remorseful but quickly covers it up by stabbing Thor, because, as much as he’d love to fix his wrongdoing, he knows that if he does, the timeline will branch and that whole timeline will be pruned. However, this is the only evidence in the entire MCU that suggests this, whereas multiple pieces of evidence suggest that it is incorrect.
Debunking: First, this film came out in 2012, and the Loki TV series came out in 2021. After watching the documentary of the first Loki season, it is confirmed by MARVEL that, while the TVA has been a briefly touched concept in the comics, choosing Loki to star as the main character was a decision made after Endgame, which came out in 2019. Time-slipping is only introduced in the second season, and in the documentary for that season it is also confirmed that MARVEL had come up with it while the season was in development. Therefore, MARVEL hadn’t even been thinking of the concept of time slipping until years after the making of The Avengers.
Counter Argument: Now, there is the fact that Loki wasn’t aware that the scepter could close the portal. That realization was made by Erik Selvig, the astrophysicist Loki used to stabilize the Tesseract and the portal. In this case, there was a sense of truth in Loki saying, “It’s too late to stop it.” Yes, it could have been stopped; however, he genuinely wasn’t aware. Nonetheless, the year gap between the movie and the developed concept of time slipping is too great to give this any meaning. Loki was merely using the faked vulnerability to drop Thor’s guard, stab him, and eventually escape and continue terrorizing New York. He even leaves the scepter with Thor as he escapes because he doesn’t fathom how powerful it actually is.
Conclusion: While it’s a fun theory, one well put together at a glance, it is easily disproved.
