Marvel has released a steady stream of new content on Disney+ since the beginning of the year, starting with WandaVision in January and swiftly following up with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in March. The studio took a breath after that, but Loki is next on its agenda, and the trickster god is set to take fans on another wild ride.
In fact, Loki’s journey could prove even more chaotic than the loopy WandaVision, which combined sitcom stylings from the last several decades of American television with a story about personal grief. That’s according to lead writer Michael Waldron, who spoke with Total Film ahead of the show’s premiere early next month. He said that the writers took a lot of risks with their story, and that they were partially inspired by having the WandaVision writer’s room right next door. Once they saw how bananas that series was, they wanted to one-up it:
"It is a big crack of the bat, a big swing. Our writers’ room was next to WandaVision’s. And you’re like, ‘That show looks so f**king good. We’ve got to do something crazier! We’ve got to step on the gas, because we know that what they’re doing is so cool.’ We tried to take chances every step of the way."
Of course, with a plot that sees the God of Mischief traveling through time and space to help an interdimensional bureaucracy correct a timeline he himself messed up, an out-of-the-box approach was probably a given.
Watch the new teaser for Marvel’s Loki
Marvel released a 30-second teaser (aptly titled “Chaos”) that highlights just how unique this character study of Thor’s brother is going to be. And let’s just say the writers seem to have succeeded in their efforts to make this show a strange one.
Apart from the obvious time travel and dimension hopping, part of what makes Loki so intriguing is that the series will explore its titular character in ways fans haven’t seen before. Nearly every time Loki has appeared in the MCU, he’s had an unsettling and unshakeable confidence to him, careful to hide even the slightest suggestion of vulnerability. Star Tom Hiddleston hinted that his character is still trying to keep those walls up, but new and unexpected obstacles will challenge him in ways he may be unprepared for. “There’s a man-on-the-run quality to Loki, and he is caught in a complex new labyrinth, and is trying to find his way around without exposing himself to vulnerability or exploitation,” he explained.
And while Loki himself may be trying to avoid anyone getting the jump on him, Owen Wilson’s Mobius — a prominent member of the Time Variance Authority — appears determined to do just that. Hiddleston told Total Film that Wilson’s character views him almost as a science project, something that he’s finally gotten the opportunity to poke and prod firsthand:
"Mobius is almost a professional academic about Loki, and is thrilled to find the real thing sitting in front of him — a bit like an expert in some rarely seen animal in the wild, and he finally comes face-to-face with the thing he’s been studying all his life."
Whether Loki will be what Mobius expected or much harder to reckon with remains to be seen, but the trailers for the series suggest these two will be well matched when it comes to outsmarting each other. Fans will get to see their dynamic for themselves — as well as how bizarre this show truly is — when Loki premieres on Disney+ on June 9.
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