Loki season 2 producers hint they’re building to a reunion with Thor

The second season of Loki debuts this week. Loki was the rare Marvel show that ended its first season with an explicit promise to return for another round. When last we left our “heroes,” Loki and a variant version of him from another dimension named Sylvie just got through confronting He Who Remains, a half-mad variant of Kang the Conqueror who devoted his existence to making sure other Kang variants weren’t able to breach the walls of the multiverse and cause havoc. Sylvie killed He Who Remains, so all bets are off. Loki returned to the inter-dimensional bureaucracy the Time Variance Authority (TVA) to find that Kang — or some variant of Kang — was now in charge.

So yeah, Loki is a twisty, timey-wimey sort of sci-fi story, a little outside the box for Marvel.  And it’s gonna get even wilder. Speaking to executive producer Kevin Wright, Variety revealed some of the places in time and space that we’ll be visiting in the first four episodes of the new season, including 1880s Chicago, 1970s London and 1980s in the American midwest. According to Wright, we spend so much time in those places because that’s “where so much of our core character conflict was going to come from.”

“There was so much intersectionality of our characters and what they think of the TVA,” Wright said. “Sylvie wants to burn it down because the apple is rotten, as she says. Loki sees it as potentially the only form of defense against whatever else is coming in a war with Kang. Mobius and B-15, they’ve dedicated their whole life to it. They’re not quite ready to give it up. Renslayer feels like she’s been keeping it together, and you get a real understanding of why she thinks she should be the one to get this thing back on track.”

"We want everybody to be in the gray area — they’re neither good nor bad. They might make bad choices or heroic choices, but they are trying to figure out who they are. The TVA felt like the place where we could maximize that storytelling and learn more about those characters through that. But also stay tuned, because we are going to more places [in Episodes 5 and 6]."

Did Jonathan Majors’ legal troubles affect Loki season 2?

In season 2, the main villain is a variant of Kang the Conqueror named Victor Timely, who’s sort of a Nikola Tesla-esque mad scientist.

Like all Kang variants, Victor Timely is played by Jonathan Majors, who got in hot water earlier this year over allegations of domestic assault. When asked if that had any affect on the show, Wright simply said “No” before talking about how Loki season 2 didn’t have any reshoots, unusual for a Marvel production. “We went out there with a very specific idea of what we wanted this to be, and we found a way to tell it in that production period. It’s very much what’s on screen on Disney+.”

Variety also asked Wright if there was any discussion of changing the show given the uncertainty surrounding Majors right now. “No. And that mainly came from — I know as much as you do at the moment. It felt hasty to do anything without knowing how all of this plays out.”

Will there be a Loki season 3?

Season 2 isn’t out yet, but some fans are already wondering how long Loki might continue. It’s the first Marvel series to get a second season. Might there be a third in the offing as well?

“I think it’s open-ended,” Wright said. “We certainly did not develop this season going, ‘We have to tee up Season 3’ — in the way that we did with Season 1, where there was a very specific, ‘Hey, we’re coming back.’ But I also think that where this show goes, there certainly can be many, many, many more stories told with Loki in the Loki world, and in other worlds connected to Loki, the character.”

There’s also the possibility of Loki one day rejoining the wider MCU, something Wright implied he and his team were building towards. “That’s the hope,” he said. “I don’t want to — yeah. I think the the sun shining on Loki and Thor once again has always been the priority of the story we’re telling. But for that meeting to really be fulfilling, we have to get Loki to a certain place emotionally. I think that’s been the goal of these two seasons.”

Sounds to me like they already have a plan for Thor and Loki to reunite but Wright doesn’t want to say too much.

Critics enjoy Loki season 2, but have reservations

Reviews for the second season of Loki are starting to come in. Critics are happy with the show, awarding it an 81% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing. That’s good, although not as good as the 92% rating for season 1.

Let’s look at some sample reviews, both the good and the bad:

• TheWrap: “Characters with compelling issues, high existential drama, quirky comedy and world-threatening action are blended better than in any other Disney+ show to date.”
• Empire: “With the multiverse teetering all around it, Loki is one strand of the timeline that is sustaining its originality and intention — and actually thriving. It’s about time.”
• Financial Times: “Between the underlying existential tensions, the humorous asides and the eerie retro-futurism of the TVA, Loki seems to have more in common with ingenious sci-fi series Severance than recent uninspired Marvel outings.”
• RogerEbert.com: “There’s so much to like here you almost forget it’s a Marvel show.”
• The Hollywood Reporter: “The plot is so convoluted that the sense of fun rarely breaks through, but thanks to the sterling cast and some of the best production design on TV, there’s almost always something to hold your attention — if not to trigger any emotional investment.”
• Indiewire: “The enviable cast clicks, yet they’re largely squandered. The story never stops moving, yet it’s going in circles.”
• Daily Telegraph: “It has taken Tom Hiddleston’s trickster god and stripped him of his devilish guile. The character is reduced to a bloodless cover version of the anti-hero audiences have come to adore. Welcome to hokey Loki karaoke.”

I like how some of the reviews praised the show while still taking swipes at Marvel.

Marvel boss Kevin Feige praises Tom Hiddleston at Loki fan event

Anyway, since there’s still an actor’s strike on in Hollywood, none of the stars are out promoting this show, but Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige showed up at a fan event in their stead:

“Obviously our cast is not here tonight. But let me tell you something, they all worked so hard, they loved it so much,” Feige said. “Our star Tom Hiddleston is not just our star and our Loki for the past 12 years, he’s one of our executive producers and he’s incredible and this show wouldn’t happen without him.”

Loki season 2 premieres on Disney+ this Thursday night, October 5. The new season will run for six episodes.

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