When Marvel first introduced its Disney+ line-up a few years ago, it was made clear that each series will make a significant impact on the MCU. In addition, it will also tie in to the blockbuster movies.
Based on what we’ve seen so far, “WandaVision” sets the stage for “Doctor Strange 2” while “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” introduced audiences to Sam Wilson as a fully-fledged Captain America. Well, buckle your seat belts cause “Loki” is set to make the biggest impact yet.
In speaking to Empire Magazine, Kevin Feige discussed how the significance of the time-traveling adventure and what it means for “Loki”. “It’s tremendously important. It perhaps will have more impact on the MCU than any of the shows thus far. What everybody thought about ‘WandaVision’, and was sort of true, and ‘The Falcon And The Winter Soldier’, which was sort of true, is even more sort of true for ‘Loki’,” the Marvel Studios President told the publication.
Feige also added how the God of Mischief will continue to grow throughout the 6-hour story, saying, “You want to see, after six hours or so, characters change and evolve. We don’t make these shows to not be radical, right?”
Tom Hiddleston has already played Loki 6 times. However, the story plots were usually connected to Thor and his ties to his family. In the early stages of his meeting with Marvel Studios filmmakers, the Brit asked these questions: “Where do we go now? What have we not done? What’s new? What’s original?”
“That was the most inspiring conversation. I remember leaving it thinking, this is going to be very, very new because the character has got so much breadth and so much depth. That’s been the gift to me as an actor. Loki is almost this endlessly fascinating box of tricks where the moment you think you know him he reveals something else,” the 40-year-old actor recalled.
Executive producer Stephen Broussard added, “When we started to brainstorm ideas for what a Loki series could be about, we knew we did not want to invalidate his death and sacrifice at the hands of Thanos. We didn’t want to say ‘Just kidding, that never really happened.’ So it was really important to us to have a premise that allowed for a new story while not undoing everything we’ve known and loved about the journey Loki has been on.”
He continued, “I’ve also always been fascinated by the Time Variance Authority in Marvel comics. Marrying these two ideas seemed like a really fun way into a new story for the God of Mischief while not undoing all that has come before.”
Loki has had one of the best arcs across the MCU over the past decade. The “Avengers” Loki is completely different than the character we’ve seen in recent films. As executive producer for the new series, Hiddleston needed to see Loki evolve. The cycle was: Loki is trusted, he betrays, he becomes a villain, he learns to trust again, he’s betrayed, he becomes trusting again, he can be trusted again, then he betrays or feels betrayed.
The actor shared, “He’s trapped on a wheel of repetition, a compulsion to repeat the same damage, the same story. But we are breaking that record. We’re releasing him from that trap. In this story, we’re showing that he can change, that he can grow. And what if the experience of that, and the journey he goes on, actually changes something internal where he can potentially become someone else, or begin from a place of understanding that, if you know who you are, then who you choose to be is a different thing.”
Instead of throwing the curveball, Loki is now being thrown the curveball and has to quickly learn the rules of the game – in this case, the Time Variance Authority – and figure out how he can use it to his advantage.
Be sure to catch “Loki” on Disney+.
