Loki Season 2 Trailer is as Drab as Loki’s Suit

Television

Marvel is making some mischief, as earlier today, they released a trailer for Loki season 2. The Disney+ series follows Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief as he simpers, stumbles around, and is made a fool of while acting nothing like the character everyone loves – and there’s something about time, variants, Kang the Conqueror, and one of Wes Anderson’s favorite actors. If you want something more official and less snarky (I tried, but I’m just a man), Loki “finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority” as he “navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie, Judge Renslayer, Miss Minutes and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.” Good God, enough with the “glorious purpose;” it was a line that was cool one time, not Loki’s catchphrase. Anyway, Owen Wilson, Sophia Di Martino, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Tara Strong, and Jonathan Majors return with Hiddleston. Loki season 2 premieres on Disney+ on October 6, 2023, and you can see the trailer and a couple of posters below:

Watching the Loki season 2 trailer bored me, but I’m not sure if it’s all because of the trailer or that I know to expect nothing from this show anymore. I had higher hopes for Loki than I did for any of the other Marvel shows on Disney+; I love the character, and since this version of him was supposed to be the evil one from the end of The Avengers, I was anticipating a wickedly fun show with Loki as the protagonist but far from a hero. Nope, it was a tedious slog that immediately turned Loki into an angel and had him supplicate himself before a fascistic government organization, mooning over a woman he just met while calling her a better “Loki” than he is (the variant thing gets obnoxious quickly), and doing nothing to move the plot forward because once Sylvie showed up, he became a spectator in his own show. And I gave it a chance; I even gave the second episode a good review because of the amazing potential plotlines it set up. But I made a mistake: I viewed it through the lens of someone who likes Loki. Watching season 1 unfold was depressing, and it became the template the subsequent Marvel shows would follow.

And season 2 looks like more of the same. Oh, there are glimmers of hope, like Loki telling Sylvie they’re gods and declaring that he is forever the God of Mischief. The problem is, I don’t trust them as far as I can throw a planet. Remember that Marvel sizzle reel they showed before the shows began airing? It ended with Loki saying, in that menacing tone he only seems to have in trailers nowadays, “I’m going to burn this place to the ground.” Well, Maury Povich determined that was a lie because not only does he never attempt to destroy the TVA, he becomes their loyal servant. This is not Loki, by any means, even in his reformed state from the beginning of Infinity War, and the Loki season 2 trailer shows him back in this mode, wearing that dumpy suit and palling around with Mobius, a guy he should have gutted by now. Speaking of whom, Mobius’ line about Loki being “a man of action” while he “takes a more slow, deliberate, cerebral approach” is infuriating; Loki is the archetype of the Trickster God, not some warrior. He’ll commit violence, but not in the absence of thought or plotting. These people are willfully ignorant of the character whose name is the title of their show.

Brief interlude to remember when Loki was cool:

Now, then… the Loki season 2 trailer also suggests the show will be dropping some of the plot points it set up, which I guess isn’t surprising. Season 1 ended with Sylvie being at odds with Loki, suggesting she would be the villain of season 2, or at least an antagonistic X factor. But nah, they’re back together again because she’s the actual protagonist. I’m sure Renslayer will be good too, and while Miss Minutes may remain a villain, it’ll be up to Sylvie to stop her. As for Kang, well… who cares? The Kang of season 1 was a goofy idiot, and the Kang of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was an ineffectual loser; that’s two big strikes against the next overarching Marvel villain, and our only glimpse of him here is as an old-timey inventor on a stage. I’m not all that enticed by the idea of seeing a Norse god take on Thomas Edison. And then there’s Ke Huy Quan; look, I love Short Round, and I’m genuinely glad Quan is getting his moment, but he’s annoying in the trailer. I’m sure it’s more the writing and filmmaking than it is him; these people make Tom Hiddleston look lame. But I’m prepared for another dud.

The only good thing this trailer did was reinforce my belief that Hiddleston would make a great James Bond; if you want to see what I mean, check out The Night Manager and watch his becoming.