“The multiverse, timelines, space-time loops… these things can be overwhelming, but now that we know people are hooked, we’re taking it even further,” says Kevin Wright. It was he who first proposed to Marvel Studios that they build a series around Loki (Tom Hiddleston) stuck in the mazes of the Temporal Variation Authority (TVA). “With the departures of Kate [Herron, the director] and [writer] Michael Waldron, I am ensuring continuity between seasons. I wear different hats, but it was basically Tom and I who figured out the plan and found the right people to make it happen,” the producer explains.
In the first season, Loki met Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), a female version of him from another timeline. This “variant”, seeking revenge against the VAT for centuries, softens through contact with Loki, but not as much as Thor’s little brother, who falls in love with her, so from a certain point of view, of himself… Together, they expose the lie of the TVA, ostensibly controlled by three timekeepers, but instead led by He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), hiding in the shadows at the end of time. Sylvie’s decision to end He Who Remains’ reign plunges the TVA into timeline crisis management and allows her to escape to 1982 to lead a quiet life as a McDonald’s employee. “After what she did, Sylvie tries to get a taste of life, to have friends and a job. “She’s looking for peace from a life spent in the apocalypses,” says Kevin Wright about the starting point of season 2.
Meanwhile, Loki tries to make his friends at the TVA, Mobius (Owen Wilson) and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku), understand that a war is on the horizon. The death of He Who Remains freed all of his dangerous variants from other timelines, as seen at the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. However, the civil war within the TVA is a more pressing issue, as one section of employees strives to maintain the sacred timeline by eliminating its branches deemed undesirable and the other attempts to protect the countless lives that inhabit them. Loki also struggles with an annoying problem: his body keeps slipping without warning from one moment in time to another. To remedy the situation, Mobius calls on Ouroboros, played by Ke Huy Quan, who won an Oscar for his role in Everything Everywhere All at Once. The one we call O.B. is the reference in terms of VAT technology. “We wanted to show who is behind all the extraordinary gadgets seen in the first season and give him an important role in the rest of the story,” emphasizes Kevin Wright.
Jonathan Majors also plays Victor Timely, another variation of He Who Remains and Kang, the antagonist in Quantumania. He was a Chicago resident scientist of the late 19th century. “When Loki says a war is about to break out, we expect to see Kang the Conqueror, but we found it fun to subvert expectations by personifying the threat with a slightly cheesy inventor,” reveals Kevin Wright. We wanted to make him someone who can play all the roles: a good guy, a bad guy or even an ally. »
Loki is a feast for the eyes and ears! The retrofuturist aesthetic of the first season, which totally charmed us, reached new heights in this second part. Directors of photography Isaac Bauman and Oliver Loncraine take over from Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who had done remarkable work. Artistic director Kasra Farahani is back, as is Christine Wada on costumes and Natalie Holt on music. The complicity between Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson and Sophia Di Martino is as delicious as ever, and the arrival of Ke Huy Quan only enhances the whole. There is now an uneasiness about seeing Jonathan Majors on screen – he is awaiting trial for domestic violence – but we have to admit that he is very good.
That said, this second season is particularly difficult to follow. Space-time concepts and the jargon used to explain them are not always clear. The four episodes we’ve seen, out of six, slightly overestimate our interest in the VAT. Its locations and how it works may be fascinating, but the title character and his accomplices should be at the heart of the story. Let’s hope that the last two episodes give them the place they deserve.
