In 2021 the Marvel Cinematic Universe has expanded to television (Disney+), with new series like WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki delighting fans.
Loki in particular has intrigued me not only as a Marvel fan, but also as a Christian. The entire season is a deconstruction of Tom Hiddleston’s titular character, Loki, specifically as it relates to a concept that is unavoidably theological: free will.
Loki and Free Will
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
The show follows on the heels of the feature film Avengers: Endgame, in which Loki managed to steal a powerful object, escape, and fall right into the hands of a government dedicated to protecting the Sacred Timeline—its phrase for the proper flow of time.
Loki is taken into custody, stripped of his power, wealth, and authority, and brought before a judge who will decide his punishment for wandering off the path designed by the Sacred Timeline. But instead, Mobius (Owen Wilson) steps forward and offers Loki a path to redemption.
Mobius helps Loki understand that his entire life has been mapped out from beginning to end, which he shows Loki by giving him a glimpse into his future. Loki is forced to accept that his life has a plotted course. He will never have the total control he desperately craves. His powers are limited.
I’ll admit, I didn’t expect such a powerful spiritual question to rise from a show about one of the MCU’s most notoriously proud characters. Did the world’s most popular superhero franchise just ask people to consider their helplessness?
Predetermined Timelines
Loki struggles to understand how his lack of control is good. As the series unfolds, he and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) journey to the home of He Who Remains, and at the season’s climax, they face off against the creator in charge of eternity. All along, Loki and Sylvie believed their actions had been their decisions. Now, they’ve discovered that the “man behind the curtain” knows all and has prepared for their arrival from the beginning of the Sacred Timeline.
He Who Remains informs Loki and Sylvie free will is an illusion. Only he is eternal, and their path to him is preset and unchangeable. Now, at the end of time, they have a choice: destroy the creator, causing catastrophic warfare, or bend to his will, making peace with the predetermined Sacred Timeline.
Loki is brought to a crossroads. He is no longer sure his autonomy is worth the consequence to the universe. However, Sylvie remains desperate to erase the deity and his power over her free will. Gently, Loki implores her: “Sylvie, the universe is in the balance. Everything we know to be true. Everything.” He begs her to turn from her foolish destructive desires that will bring greater suffering.
But what could possibly be worse than some inexplicable being ruling over all of time—and limiting our autonomy? It’s a timely question in today’s self-oriented society, in which unhindered autonomy is a sacred value. But as Christians, we know that fallen humans in control—left on our own to rule the world and do whatever we want—would be worse than a sovereign God.
Sylvie can’t comprehend how she and Loki have come to such differing realities. “Why aren’t we seeing this the same way?” she asks him. Loki’s response is fascinating and summarizes two possible ways humans respond to God: “Because you can’t trust. And I can’t be trusted.”
We either reject God’s rule because we don’t trust, or we accept it because we don’t trust ourselves.
We either reject God’s rule because we don’t trust, or we accept it because we don’t trust ourselves.
Had Sylvie trusted Loki in that moment, the end would have been drastically better. Instead, she manipulates Loki, casts him aside, and kills He Who Remains, opening the multiverse to chaos and destruction. Loki is hopelessly lost. Everything falls apart as the fabric of the universe rips. As the world plunges into catastrophe, Sylvie stands staring out the window at the thousands of completed timelines. She hadn’t truly changed anything—everything was still predetermined. She had only placed herself in the position as the One Who Remains.
Our Sacred Timeline
God has plotted our course. He knows our every thought and every decision. He has carefully crafted every moment of our lives, planned our paths to him. As the apostle Paul says, he is “the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:15–16). Even so, he asks us to make choices, choosing each day whom we will serve.
Like Loki at the beginning and Sylvie at the end, we may disagree with God’s plan. We might desire to overthrow God’s rule and put ourselves on the throne. But when we take matters into our own hands, we create chaos for ourselves and others—and we sin against God. We are naturally sinful, broken creatures, and without God and the hope of the gospel, we have no hope of peace.
We are never living in some unknown history. We are never writing our own story. We are part of a divinely orchestrated plan. We could be offended by these thoughts, or we could find comfort in them. Because a God who is sovereign is also a God who has the power to save. Even when we take wrong turns, he knows how to redeem us.
We are never living in some unknown history. We are never writing our own story. We are part of a divinely orchestrated plan.
If you feel challenged by God’s sovereignty, pray that he will open your eyes to your struggle for control and his power to redeem it. You have no hope without him. The true “He Who Remains” has set your timeline within his eternal story. What a blessing!
Sometimes pop culture prepares us for important theological discussions with our unbelieving friends. Marvel’s Loki is a perfect example.
Are we prepared to invite our unbelieving friends into a deeper conversation about the goodness of God’s sovereignty? Or help them come to grips with their helplessness? We are in the unique position of explaining why it is good for the One Who Remains to rule over our Sacred Timeline, agreeing with Mobius’s exhortation to Loki: “Think of it as comforting.”