Here's What You Need to Know About the Time Variance Authority on Loki

[Warning: The following contains light spoilers from the series premiere of Loki. Read at your own risk!]

It is no surprise that Loki (Tom Hiddleston) would steal the Tesseract from the Avengers and transport himself right into trouble, and that's exactly what the God of Mischief did in the Disney+ series that premiered on Wednesday. Mere moments after escaping New York and Avengers custody, Loki was apprehended by Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) of the Time Variance Authority and transported to what is essentially a prison outside of space and time. 

"[The TVA] is an entity that lives outside of time and space as we know it. So, their whole job is to make sure that time and space runs as it should," Mosaku explained to TV Guide. "And so If there's anything that goes awry if someone does something they shouldn't then the TVA, me and my people, come and gather you up, and sort you out because you guys [did] something wrong."

The Authority is overseen by a mysterious group known as the timekeepers, who are referred to multiple times in the first episode but who we have yet to see in the series. It is their sacred mission to protect the timeline, but thus far Hunter B-15 may be the only one actually trying to keep that mission afloat. From the get-go, Hunter B-15 has no time for Loki or his tricks, but as the wayward Asgardian prince appears to be useful to TVA agents higher up the food chain, B-15 finds herself to be the only one seemingly talking sense.

"It's fun playing someone who's almost on her own, trying to get people to wake up like 'Hey, hang on a second. He's done something wrong...why aren't we following the rulebook?'" Mosaku teased. "Everyone wants to explore who Loki is, and what's he going to offer them. No, let's just do what we need to do, do what we always do, and follow the rules." 

The first one in line to bend the rules is Mobius (Owen Wilson), a TVA agent who is hunting down a mysterious killer -- potentially also Loki -- who is wreaking havoc and murdering TVA hunters all over the timeline. 

"Of course using Loki comes with a big caution," Wilson warned about the partnership between the two. While we know that Loki can't be trusted, the jury is still out when it comes to Mobius and this mysterious agency that seems to be controlling the universe. "I would say there are the things that are known and there are the things that are unknown. In between, is the Time Variance Authority," Wilson teased. Yeah, that sounds sketchy as hell. 

Overseeing Mobius, the hunters, and Loki at the moment is Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), whose close relationship with Mobius is the only reason Loki was able to make it through the first episode. In the premiere, we saw the TVA agent turn up the charm to an 11 when it comes to the judge, which Wilson says is a tactic for the agent to get the approval he needs to conduct his mission and find this killer. 

"In order to pursue his leads, he's going to get permission from sort of his boss," he said. "With Renslayer, he has to try sort of like you would with a principal or something back in school, you got to try this sort of charm and needle and cajole, and so Mobius definitely tries to do that with Renslayer. Whether she appreciates or is immune to those sort of charms -- we'll see."

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Ultimately Renslayer knows she is the one that has to keep him in line, no matter how fondly she may feel for him, and Mbathu-Raw admitted the two have a special relationship. 

"They have known each other for a very long time. They're really, really old friends, and I think that there is a sort of a fondness there," the actress told us. "There's a familiarity, and there's sort of an intimacy that you don't get to see when Renslayer is in the courtroom, or you know with her sort of public facade, her judge facade for the rest of the TVA. And I think the fun thing is that even though they're friends, and they know each other really well, essentially, Renslayer is Mobius' boss. They get on well and he sort of is a bit cheeky. He sort of pushes things with her [but] she gets the final say of the missions that he goes on." 

Judge Renslayer is better known as Rovonna Renslayer in Marvel comics lore, a warrior princess from the 40th Century who is very good with weapons. When we first meet Renslayer in Loki, she's hanging out on the judge's bench and handing out sentences to variants disrupting the natural order, but knowing who her comic book alter ego is means fans should be prepared to see her spring into action. 

"She came from a military background. She was a hunter and she worked her way up to be a judge, so normally she doesn't need to get her hands dirty," Mbathu-Raw explained. "Other people sort of do the dirty work for her, [but] when the stakes are really high, she grabs that tiny stick and we know that there's going to be trouble." 

If Loki's looking for trouble, he doesn't have to go any further. It seems our God of Mischief may have finally bitten off more than he can chew this time around.

Loki continues Wednesdays on Disney+.