Warning: SPOILERS for the Loki Season 2 finale, “Glorious Purpose,” are ahead!
Loki is certainly one of the wilder Marvel series out there, and the Season 2 finale wasn’t lacking in wacky and emotional beats. However, some Disney+ subscribers might have found themselves perplexed by where we left off with Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ravonna Renslayer, who started out on this show at one of the Time Variance Authority’s judges, but then went rouge and became an enemy to the TVA. Naturally fan theories have popped up about where Renslayer was last seen, but now Loki directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (who are working on Daredevil: Born Again next) have confirmed to CinemaBlend what really happened to her in the Season 2 finale.
Some have speculated that because the area where Renslayer was seen contained both a pyramid and a plate on the ground displaying the TVA’s motto “For All Time. Always.”, this meant that she was located in some version of the timeline-monitoring organization, and the pyramid signified that the Rama-Tut variant of Kang the Conqueror was going to appear before her. Well, this is way off, as Benson and Moorhead told our own Sean O’Connell that she was actually located in the familiar realm of The Void. Benson cleared things up first, followed by Moorhead sharing a joke answer he’d thought up:
Justin Benson: “I think I'm gonna be able to say it's The Void. She's in The Void. ... We like to think that The Void contains everything. Because everything on a long enough timeline gets pruned. And so, on an infinite timeline -- because the TVA doesn't exist. So we like to think that even that plate there, it just kind of expanded the mythology of The Void a little bit.”
Aaron Moorhead: “I wanted to say just a full on lie. Like, 'She went back to the time of the dinosaurs. You didn't catch it? Watch it again! There are dinosaurs in the background.’”
For the first half of Loki Season 1, it was believed that those who were pruned by the TVA were destroyed, but it turned out they were actually sent to The Void, a limbo-like point close to the end of time where these variants and aspects of their trimmed realities would be stuck for eternity. It was through The Void that one could access the Citadel at the End of Time, i.e. He Who Remain’s fortress, although one would have to make it past the creature known as Alioth. Taking Benson’s answer into account, it’s likely that Renslayer was looking at Alioth during her final seconds of screen time in the Loki Season 2 finale.
As those who followed along with Loki Season 2 will remember, Ravonna Renslayer was pruned by an enchanted Brad Wolfe, a.k.a. Hunter X-5, during “Heart of the TVA.” Although Loki, Sylvie and Mobius were able to escape from The Void, given how many people Renslayer alienated at the TVA and not having a TemPad in her possession, it seems like she’ll be staying in that realm permanently. Making matters worse, if that is indeed Alioth in front of her, then unless she hightails it in the opposite direction, she’s doomed.
In other words, the chances of Gugu Mbatha-Raw reprising Renslayer seem quite slim, but in a separate interview with CinemaBlend, producer Kevin Wright expressed optimism that we’ll see more of Loki, Sylvie and the TVA elsewhere in the MCU. Tom Hiddleston’s character seems especially likely given his new important role holding together the Marvel multiverse. While we wait for updates on this corner of the MCU mythology, make sure you’re caught up to speed on the slated upcoming Marvel movies and upcoming Marvel TV shows.
