Loki Featurette Teases Season 2 Story

Television

As October nears, Disney is ramping up publicity for its only remaining live-action release of the year, Loki season 2. Today, that came in the form of a behind-the-scenes featurette that gives some insight into what we can expect from the story and characters in the upcoming season. Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Ke Huy Quan, and executive producer Kevin R. Wright talk about what’s coming from the second season of Marvel’s most successful Disney+ series, what Loki’s arc will be, and where the story is going. You can see the short featurette below:

I kind of feel bad for Ke Huy Quan. He finally gets a shot at being in big stuff like a Marvel production (I know he was in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies as a kid, but since then, it was pretty much nothing until his Oscar-winning turn in Everything Everywhere All at Once), and it’s when the brand is in decline on all fronts, and they’re sticking him in something that’ll probably turn him into a meme. His contribution to the Loki featurette is just saying how happy he is to be there, and it makes me hope they’re paying him a ton of money; he seems like a nice guy.

As for the information about Loki season 2, it doesn’t do much for me. The claptrap about Loki finding a family is completely unearned and manufactured. Season 1 fast-tracked Loki’s friendship with Mobius and his love for Sylvie, and that’s now the basis for his motivation in season 2. If you want to explore a need for family in Loki, well… his brother is out there. Remember him? Big guy, enchanted hammer, falls down a lot now? Loki wanting to work his way back to Thor could be interesting, but seeing him gush over Owen Wilson and a female version of himself is dull. (“Rest assured, our Loki will be with our Mobius;” wow, what a load off.)

I also don’t like the idea of Loki becoming a hero. First of all, we’ve seen that in the movies, done much better than it has been on this show with considerably less screen time. And the movies were smart enough to understand that a good, heroic Loki is boring, so they killed him during his big moment in Infinity War, giving his development a big, sacrificial moment instead of dragging it out till people were tired of it. But we’ve had good-guy Loki from the beginning of the series, and now they’re going to develop him further in that direction. How much more interesting would this have all been if Loki were manipulating everyone, using the TVA for his own purposes before crushing them, pitting everyone against each other as he sought to control time and the multiverse itself? When Loki tells Sylvie, “We are gods,” it should be an enticing tease of seeing his next power play, but because we all know what this show does now, it’s a given that nothing cool or in-character will come of it. The guy who used his mother’s death to facilitate his conquest was turned to the side of the angels over a clip show. Who’d have thought we’d get to the point where the promise of more Loki was a threat?