By Stephen Robinson, 13th July 2021

The Suicide Squad’s latest trailer opens with Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) discussing the supervillain Bloodsport (Idris Elba), who’s in prison for “putting Superman in the ICU with a kryptonite bullet.” The trailer for Titans season three previews the “death” of the second Robin, Jason Todd, at the hands of the Joker. These are developments grounded in their source material: The Bloodsport of the comics did indeed pump The Man Of Steel full of glowing green lead, and Jason’s demise-by-reader-poll was part of Batman’s A Death In The Family arc. But what they are not is fun.

The unrelenting grimness of DC’s contemporary onscreen universes has always provided a stark contrast to Marvel’s more critically and commercially successful productions, most notably Disney+’s Loki. The clever series follows a time-displaced alternate version or “variant” of the God Of Mischief (Tom Hiddleston), a title the series really leans into. He’s more like Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation than a one-dimensional villain, and established as a refreshingly human protagonist in the series’ early goings. The seemingly all-powerful Time Variance Authority informs the variant Loki that he’s not “real” and is thus disposable. When he sneaks a peek at his predestined future in the proper timeline, he learns that he’s doomed to repeatedly fail at what he considers his own glorious purpose.

However, the narrative doesn’t wallow in Sartre. By the second episode, Loki is taunting a Southern-fried artificial intelligence and re-enacting the apocalypse with a colleague’s salad as a visual aid. Loki finds the humor in his situation and so do we. The series has never run from source material in the comics that’s gloriously wacky: Presidential candidate Loki from the 2016 Vote Loki comic turns up in the penultimate episode, “Journey Into Mystery,” as well as Frog Thor from Walt Simonson’s 1980s Thor run. We’re even treated to Richard E. Grant as an older version of Loki in his classic costume.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially Loki, draws clear inspiration from comics that are actually fun, like DC’s Justice League series of the 1980s. Written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis with expressive art from Kevin Maguire and Al Gordon, this Justice League was an unapologetic comedy, in which the grim, humorless Batman of the period served as the perfect foil. Guardians Of The Galaxy and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 are its cinematic heirs; Giffen even co-created the Guardians’ wiseass mercenary/pilot Rocket Raccoon. Those movies are a rollicking good time, and their humor grounds the space opera narrative.

I’d say another overlooked influence on Loki and the larger MCU comes from the pages of Marvel. While less overtly comedic than those Justice League comics, Peter David’s 12-year-run on The Incredible Hulk struck a fine balance between its comedic and dramatic elements. The Hulk is an inherently tragic character, and David understood that, like Shakespeare, you have to cut the bleakness with a refreshing dash of comedy. The comics writer and Star Trek novelist didn’t reinvent the wheel; he just steered the title in a more interesting direction. David’s approach was to acknowledge the absurdity. Bruce Banner’s wife, Betty, and his alter-ego, the Hulk, both burst out laughing at one point in David’s run because they realize their lives are completely ridiculous. David treated his characters—yes, even the guy who “turns into an enormous green rage monster”—like normal people who are thrust into fantastic situations, rather than fantastic characters plodding through a mundane, poorly lit reality.

David’s work on The Hulk can also be seen as a stylistic precursor to Joss Whedon’s whole oeuvre, from Buffy The Vampire Slayer to his two MCU movies. The Avengers and Avengers: Age Of Ultron both bear Whedon’s hallmarks: Thor (Chris Hemsworth) sheepishly stating that Loki was “adopted;” Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) busting a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for playing Galaga. Decades before, David wove humanizing comedic bits into Incredible Hulk #376, which plays out like a bedroom farce: Bruce and Betty Banner meet their friend Rick Jones’ new girlfriend, Marlo Chandler, who once dated the Hulk. This isn’t just a wacky fill-in issue but the penultimate chapter in the story arc where Banner’s competing personalities finally merge. Whedon would often use a light, comic episode as the prelude to a gut-punch dramatic entry in his TV series, but he struggled to seamlessly fit his style into the MCU; his Avengers films feel like otherwise traditional superhero movies but with quips at inopportune moments.

Loki fully lives in a David-like world that’s as emotionally complex and absurdly tragic as our own. When Loki teams up with a supposedly even more ruthless variant of himself, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), their banter is flirtatious and fun, a delightful mixture of self-love and self-loathing. After they con their way onto a luxury train that is set to escape a doomed world, they trade intimate details of their own lives, which are similar yet vastly different. This isn’t an exposition dump before the next fight scene. It’s an affecting character moment that works because it’s grounded in playful humor. Their relationship builds like a screwball comedy: In “Journey Into Mystery,” the unlikely couple face the unknown while cuddling under a blanket Loki has conjured up. You can’t help but swoon.

David was the first to seriously approach the Hulk as not a problem for Banner to “cure” but a dark side of himself to understand, perhaps even embrace. Loki is such a delightful surprise because it offers a story richer and more satisfying than whether Loki can defeat his “(more) evil twin.” As we head into the finale on July 14, the big question is whether Loki can change sufficiently to love what is essentially a version of himself, and can Sylvie, who knows Loki better than anyone, trust that he won’t betray her like he has everyone else?

Watch "Change | Marvel Studios’ Loki | Disney+" on YouTube

Almost exactly two and half years apart, but the same answer…

By Rachel Paige, 7th July 2021

There’s no such thing as too many Lokis, and that’s proven true in Episode 5 of Marvel Studios’ Loki. After Loki winds up pruned at the hands of the Time Variance Authority, he finds himself in the Void — the place where all things go when they’re removed from the Sacred Timeline. And he quickly realizes he’s not alone, as the God of Mischief is greeted by Loki, Loki, Loki, and Loki.

Or as we’ll know them: Classic Loki, Kid Loki, Boastful Loki, and Alligator Loki.

The new group of outcasts, played by Richard E. Grant, Jack Veal, DeObia Oparei, and a CGI alligator, respectively, quickly become Loki’s guide through this strange new space, offering him refuge in their “Loki Palace” until all hell breaks loose there.

“It was completely surreal and an absolute delight,” Tom Hiddleston tells Marvel.com. “I've been living with playing Loki for a long time and have become used to all his different characteristics. To suddenly be surrounded by incarnations and embodiments of those characteristics... those moments with Richard, DeObia, and Jack all together was so much fun. They're all brilliant.”

Additionally, it’s maybe the first time Loki (the original one), is overwhelmed just enough for a little outburst. As the group begins trekking across the Void, Loki stops and demands answers, yelling that he has no idea how much time has passed since the Battle of New York, and he isn’t even alarmed by the addition of an alligator.

“In that moment, the character who looks least like Loki is me,” Hiddleston continues. “It was like being at some sort of surrealist party. It was brilliant. I just enjoyed it so much. And my character, Loki, is completely out of his depth and a fish out of water. And it was such an enjoyable thing to play.”

Loki also isn’t the only character Hiddleston plays in the episode, as he also steps into the shoes of President Loki. Maybe the most arrogant and pompous Loki, President Loki shows up expecting to take over the Loki Palace until his own army turns on him.

“Again, that was quite surreal,” Hiddleston says. “President Loki is almost the worst of the bad bunch. It certainly felt this way; he's the least vulnerable, the most autocratic and terrifyingly ambitious character who seems to have no empathy or care for anyone else.”

Playing both roles required “a few quick changes on those days” as Hiddleston jumped from one character to the other. “Doing them both in the same scene was slightly mad, but in an enjoyable way. And fun, too, because it was about leaning into Loki as a pure villain, or his capacity to be a pure villain.”

A Loki who’s not a villain whatsoever is Classic Loki, perfectly played by Richard E. Grant. Even Owen Wilson chimed in about the actor telling Marvel.com, “I love Richard E. Grant. So getting to do some scenes with him and then just meet him and hang out with him was great”. Out of all the Lokis, Classic Loki’s the one who affects Loki the most, both with helping him (and Sylvie) fight off Alioth, but also via his run-in with the TVA.

As Classic Loki tells the group, he was plucked off his timeline for a sad, but wholesome, reason: He missed his brother Thor. According to Classic Loki, he survived an encounter with Thanos due to cunning use of his projection magic, and then drifted away through space before landing on a remote planet where he lived out his years, reflecting on his place in the universe. That is, until one day, the loneliness was too much and he took his first steps in hopes of reuniting with the God of Thunder. That’s when the TVA showed up.

Calling it a “thought experiment,” head writer Michael Waldron tells Marvel.com the backstory came from the question of, “What if Loki did in fact survive the events of Avengers: Infinity War?”

“And I thought, ‘Well, what if that did happen?’” continues Waldron. “And if it did, in fact, how could he have aged up? How could he have lived out his years in a way that the TVA would never come find him?”

From that, Classic Loki’s backstory was born, and serves as a reminder to Loki that he, too, can change his ways, is not relegated to one role on the Sacred Timeline, and can form actual relationships with people.

“It was that tragic thing where he finally realizes ‘I'm meant to be alone,’” Waldron adds. “It is just so sad. There's a real lesson there for our Loki in that he's going to reject that notion-- that this tiger can change his stripes, and he refuses to be alone. [Loki] wants to do the right thing. [He] wants to see if he can have real companionship in his life.”

Marvel Studios' Loki is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.

‘Loki’: Inside the Decision to Have Him ‘Fall In Love With Another Version of Himself’

By Rachel Paige, 30th June 2021

“Two variants of the same being, especially you, forming this kind of sick twisted romantic relationship? That’s pure chaos! That could break reality. It’s breaking my reality right now! What an incredible seismic narcissist! You fell for yourself!”

That’s what Mobius practically yells at Loki in the latest episode of Marvel Studios’ Loki. In trying to get to the bottom of what caused the Nexus Event on Lamentis-1, Mobius starts asking questions and prodding the God of Mischief in just the right way to get a confession out of him, without Loki actually confessing to anything. After putting the pieces together from Loki’s context cues, Mobius arrives at the only logical conclusion: Loki’s fallen for the other Variant, aka Sylvie. “You like her! Does she like you?” teases Mobius.

“That was one of the cruxes of my pitch [for the series], that there was going to be a love story,” head writer Michael Waldron explains to Marvel.com. “We went back and forth for a little bit about, like do we really want to have this guy fall in love with another version of himself? Is that too crazy? But in a series that, to me, is ultimately about self-love, self-reflection, and forgiving yourself, it just felt right that that would be Loki's first real love story.”

Loki and Sylvie’s love story has an apocalyptic beginning since that’s where the two first begin to bond. Trapped on a moon on the verge of total destruction, the two are forced to work together to find a way out of this situation, only to have it completely fail before their eyes. Feeling defeated, Sylvie wonders if Lokis are always destined to lose?

Loki reassures her that while they might lose, they don’t die — they survive. He goes on to call Sylvie “amazing” for how she almost took down the TVA on her own, and it’s clear from the look on his face that even though they’ve only been together a short while, Loki’s already come to admire and respect her. As the moon literally crumbles around them, Sylvie places a hand on Loki’s arm, and that’s when it happens: A branch on the Sacred Timeline. These two Lokis are having a moment they were never supposed to have, which as Mobius puts it, is “pure chaos.”

“The look that they share, that moment, [it started as] a blossoming friendship,” continues Waldron. “Then for the first time, they both feel that twinge of, ‘Oh, could this be something more? What is this I'm feeling?’ These are two beings of pure chaos that are the same person falling in love with one another. That's a straight-up and down branch, and exactly the sort of thing that would terrify the TVA.”

Thankfully this branch also leads to the two variants being located on Lamentis-1; unfortunately, their rescue leads to them immediately thrown into captivity at the TVA.

But what happened on Lamentis-1 clearly affects both of them in different ways, with Loki slowly coming to grips with the fact that he does have feelings for Sylvie — even though she’s “difficult, irritating, and tries to hit [him] all the time.”

This is only made more pronounced after Loki finds himself trapped in a time loop with Lady Sif back on Asgard shortly following his past-self committing a cruel prank and cutting off her hair. Sif not only beats him up (and rightfully so), but tells him many times, “You deserve to be alone and you always will be.” For the first time, Loki realizes he doesn’t want to be alone, and that there might be someone out there for him, who he can connect with on another level.

Even more so than Loki just realizing he is capable of loving someone other than himself, Loki is finally willing to accept himself and all his flaws. “I don't think Loki's relationship with himself has been very healthy,” Tom Hiddleston explains. “Trying to accept those aspects of himself, which he's been on the run from, was a way of thinking about that in a really interesting way. Also, Sylvie's not Loki. Sylvie is Sylvie. That's interesting, too. I'm really excited to see what people make of it.”

As Mobius notes, it might just be a case of extreme narcissism, but it also makes complete sense for the character.

“Who’s a better match for Loki than himself?” director Kate Herron chimes in. “The whole show is about identity. It's about him, and he is on a very different path, and he is on a different journey. He sees things in Sylvie that he is like, ‘Oh, I've been there. I know what you feel.’ But she's like, ‘Well, I don't feel that way.’ And I think that was the kind of fun thing about it. She is him, but she's not him. They've had such different life experiences. So just from an identity perspective, it was interesting to dig into that.”

“When Loki meets Sylvie, he's inspired solely by curiosity,” reveals Hiddleston. “He wants to talk to her and understand her and try to discern what was similar about their experiences, and what was different. He keeps asking her questions because he wants to see if his experience was also her experience. I think he realizes, and she realizes, that while they're the same, they're not the same.”

Herron was careful setting up this relationship. “It was just about giving it the space to breathe and digging into it in a way that felt earned,” she explains.

Considering partnerships are 50/50, credit has to be paid to Sophia Di Martino, taking on the role of Sylvie and becoming someone who can match Loki’s own energy and chaos.

“I think something that Sophia captured really beautifully is that she’s in a different space,” continues Herron. “She's almost where Loki was in Thor in some ways where she's dealing with a lot of pain. For different reasons, obviously. It was really interesting having her in a different headspace of a different Loki.”

When production was shut down at the start of the pandemic, Herron kept working, putting together what had already been filmed. She realized that “there were tonally some things that were coming to the surface” between Loki and Sylvie that she could explore deeper.

“As we were cutting it together in the studio, everyone was, ‘Oh, this [relationship] is really cool. Let's dig into that more,’" shares Herron. “When we went back to filming, we added or tweaked scripts basically to [emphasize it].”

Fandom: What Was It Like Creating ‘Loki’s Rules For Time Travel

Eric Goldman, 28th June 2021

As inevitable as Thanos himself, time travel was destined to make its way into the MCU. After all, it’s a staple of the Marvel Comics that this incredibly popular cinematic universe is based on, so it’s only natural to see the live-action versions of these characters deal with it.

Following the use of time travel in Avengers: Endgame, the new Disney+ series Loki is making it a central conceit, as a Variant of Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has been captured by the Time Variance Authority and tasked with hunting yet another version of himself throughout time. Of course, as the series has progressed, that situation has become complicated now that Loki has actually met this other Variant, Sylvie.

Beyond those specifics though, time travel itself is an especially complicated element to add to any story. Read on for what Loki’s creators, along with cast members Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Wunmi Mosaku, had to say about the show’s depiction of time travel and making sure they all had it straight in their heads.

FIGURING IT ALL OUT

When it came to figuring out the rules of time travel for their show, Loki head writer Michael Waldron told Fandom that he and his fellow writers spent, “A lot of time; so much time. That was probably our most important job at the top of the writers room, after we really laid the groundwork through the emotional arc of the story. We had to then get very granular about the time travel laws of this world and what does it constitute to break a time law. So that required drawing a lot of lines with squiggly other lines on whiteboards in the writers’ room and creating just an institutional knowledge to be shared among the writing staff.”

Waldron noted though that once they had figured out their rules, “Then the charge became, okay, how do we explain that to the audience in an entertaining way? And then [have them] put it to the side, so they never have to really think about it again, because the last thing you want is for people to be bogged down with the rules of all that stuff as they’re watching the show.”

Loki director Kate Herron recalled, “When I joined the show, it was helpful in a way because [Waldron and the other writers] were so in the weeds with it.” Waldron’s aforementioned squiggly lines came in handy, as Herron explained how he drew her “a line with the branches coming off it and it kind of clicked in my head for me. I was like, ‘Oh, we’ll just use that!’ I remember they were all like, ‘Oh, no, we can’t use that image.’ And I was like, ‘No, no, no, honestly, I’m coming in with fresh eyes and I understood it all with that drawing, so we have to use that drawing because that means the audience are gonna understand as well.”

Herron added, “Obviously, there’s been time travel in the MCU before, as we all know, and it was kind of building off that but also building within that the new rules for the TVA and how their rules work, because they’re outside of time. There’ve been a lot of conversations and I cannot tell you how many times I’ve drawn that drawing with the line to actors, to crew members, to myself. I think everyone on the team has notebooks just full of that drawing, but it works.”

THE TVA LEARNS ABOUT THE TVA

Gugu Mbatha-Raw (“Ravonna Renslayer“) said she got immersed in the time travel rules of Loki‘s story very early in the process, recalling, “My first creative call about this was with Kate Herron and Kevin [Feige] and they really just pitched me, over about two hours on the phone, the whole show. So that was kind of an epic call to have, really. I was like ‘Oh my god, Time-Keepers? What!?’ It was a lot to hold in my head.”

Mbatha-Raw said she then was able to sort it out better, “When I got to see the scripts and see the imagery. It’s a whole world and what we’re doing with the show is a lot of worldbuilding. So there’s a lot of [new] vocabulary, even if I had been a Marvel expert. This is a whole new facet of the universe. There was a lot of new stuff to learn about but it was really exciting.”

Wunmi Mosaku (“Hunter B-15“) similarly felt that the cast were helped by the fact that the TVA and all its trappings were a new element of the MCU for everyone, both on the show and for fans as well. When it came to being told the rules of it all, she remarked, “It was very straightforward, in a way. They were very good at explaining this new world to us, because it is brand new. We had no preconceptions, no ideas of how this works, how the TVA works.”

TO CONQUER?

The Loki crew of course are, as one expect with the MCU, tightlipped on what’s to come. Regarding how the rule-abiding Hunter B-15, feels about Loki so far and if he’s something of a worst nightmare scenario for her in her workplace, Mosaku said, “I don’t know about the worst nightmare, but we do not see eye to eye on many things. She’s a stickler for the rules and he is the God of Mischief…”

As for Ravonna, there is a ton of speculation about Mbatha-Raw’s character, given her comic book counterpart has major ties to Kang the Conqueror, the time traveling villain who will be seen in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where he’ll be played by Jonathan Majors. In the comics, different versions of Ravonna have both rejected Kang’s attempts to woo her and embraced them and many wonder if something more nefarious could be going on with this Ravonna – all while the Time-Keepers and the TVA in general is coming under scrutiny as we learn more about them.

Following the third episode, we now know that the TVA staff is made up not of people created by the Time-Keepers, but rather mindwiped Variants. So beyond that, could what we’re being told about the timeline itself and how it all works also be false? On Fandom’s MCU wiki, many wondered about this, with @BEJT saying, “I believe there to be some lying by either Ravonna, the Time Keepers, or the TVA,” while MJLogan95 wrote, “I don’t take the TVA at their word.”

While she obviously couldn’t give any yes or no answers when it came to potential revelations about her character’s allegiance or truthfulness, nor the TVA in general, when it came to potentially seeing her version of Ravonna meet Kang at some point, Mbatha-Raw said, “It would be cool! I don’t know. There are lots of rumors swirling around and obviously there are the comics and the history of the characters. Certainly where we’re at in Loki is a bit more of an origin story for my character. So we’ll see. There’s definitely a lot of potential there…”

New episodes of Loki debut Wednesdays on Disney+.

Tom Hiddleston reminisces about his first paid acting job on ‘The Life & Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby’ (2001)

Bonus:

Watch "Superior | Marvel Studios’ Loki | Disney+" on YouTube

The third episode of Marvel Studios' Loki is on the sacred timeline, stream from tomorrow (23rd June 2021)

Kevin Wright on Instagram, 17th June 2021