Time can be cruel. It’s been over two years since we watched the jaw-dropping first season finale of Marvel’s hit Loki, following the turbulent adventures of the cunning and ancient god of mischief (Tom Hiddleston). The wait between seasons sure felt infinite to us, though in Loki’s world, it’s quite the opposite. “We left on such a cliffhanger and such a high moment of drama, we didn’t want to fast-forward past any of that,” says executive producer Kevin R. Wright of the sophomore season, which picks up the action right where the show left off.
And time was front and center in the harrowing season-ender because of antagonist He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), a variant of the iconic comic baddie Kang the Conqueror, who was obsessed with protecting the sacred timeline, even creating the Time Variance Authority (TVA) to help him do so. In the finale, He met with a determined Loki and his vengeful fellow Loki variant, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino). She wanted to kill the creator for trimming her from her timeline as a child and thus destroying her life.
(Credit: Disney+/Marvel Studios)
But the manipulative He Who Remains warned them that his death would expose the sacred timeline (where alternate worlds are separately stacked on top of each other to maintain order) and cause new, countless branches of time, leading to cosmic chaos. “If you think I’m evil, well, just wait till you meet my variants,” He told them. (And we will!)
Despite offering Loki and Sylvie the TVA to run together (“I’m tired,” He claims), He Who Remains’ speech divided the once-united lovebirds. Loki believed in the not-quite-Kang’s mission to protect the timeline, but Sylvie could never let what happened to her keep happening to others. So, she threw her protesting ally through a time door so he couldn’t stop her from plunging a sword into He Who Remains’ chest, ending his life. And, as warned, chaos ensued.
Next up, the impending threat of countless Kang variants (we caught a chilling sight of an arena full of them in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s mid-credit bonus scene earlier this year). It looks to be the toughest challenge yet for Loki. But ever since the mischievous trickster first graced us with his presence in 2011’s Thor and five subsequent Marvel Cinematic Universe films, he’s had us bewitched. Whether betraying or aiding his muscled do-gooder brother Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the heroic Avengers, Loki became a fan favorite and a natural for his own television show. “He seems to mean many different things to many different people, which is delightful and hugely rewarding,” Hiddleston told TV Guide Magazine in a 2021 interview.
Also rewarding, according to executive producer Kevin Feige at last year’s Disney upfronts, Loki’s “wild ride [first season] paid off,” and it’s the most popular Marvel series on Disney+ to date. It’s also the streamer’s first Marvel series to earn a second season.
But any high fives will have to wait, because besides the sacred timeline fractures, Loki has another problem in Season 2 — staying in the present. He’s newly afflicted with “time slipping,” where he’s physically jerked from one time period to another without any control or ability to stop. Explains Wright: “This is a Loki-specific problem that the team is completely baffled by.” (We’ll also see him time travel the usual TVA way to spots like the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, where he may or may not come in contact with the comics’ dangerous Kang variant/inventor Victor Timely.)
(Credit: Disney+/Marvel Studios)
Seeking a solution to his time slipping, Loki and his cheeky TVA agent pal Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) seek help from a new character, Ouroboros, aka O.B. (Everything Everywhere All at Once Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan), a Repairs & Advancements engineer at the TVA, in charge of keeping the retro-futuristic organization’s equipment operational. “The basic pitch on O.B. is he is behind every computer program, every piece of tech, everything that you see at the TVA,” says Wright, adding, “O.B. is going to be everyone’s new favorite Marvel character.”
But despite the joyfully earnest O.B.’s vast TVA knowledge that should help him remedy Loki’s unique predicament, he’s at a loss when he says to Mobius, “It’s impossible to time slip in the TVA,” just seconds after Loki has done exactly that. Uh-oh.
And time slipping isn’t the only oddity within the TVA. The suspicious Miss Minutes (voiced by Tara Strong), an artificial intelligence — who appears as a cute, retro orange clock to anyone who needs assistance — will go on a violent rampage outside of her TVA boundaries. Even worse, members of the bureaucratic organization seemingly had their memories wiped, evident in the finale when Mobius no longer knew who Loki was. Not only did that scene break our hearts, but it’s also just the beginning of what could be mass confusion within the TVA. “It’s not just Loki who had the rug pulled out from under him,” says head writer Eric Martin. “Everyone at the TVA had their entire lives upturned, and how [do they] react to that?” Not well, we imagine.
(Credit: Disney+/Marvel Studios)
As for the organization’s members, Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) continues working with Mobius to try to make sense of the timeline madness. And we’ll catch up with Judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) following her time door escape in search of free will. “What that meant, and who is helping her, was something that we got really excited to be able to tell [this season],” says Wright.
Fan-favorite TVA clerk Casey (Eugene Cordero) is also back — and getting out from behind his desk. “Who we pair him up with and where we go with him,” teases Wright, will delight fans.
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New to the cast is Hunter X-5 (Blindspotting’s Rafael Casal), who “is going to be a big part of the TVA conflict and its future,” Wright says. And of course, Sylvie will be right at Loki’s side…eventually. Will Loki and Sylvie be able to rekindle their romance? We’ll see. But for now, “Sylvie is in a completely different space,” Wright says. And we’re not just talking about that 1982 McDonald’s we see her working at in the trailer.
But the core of the series is always Loki. He may have evolved in Season 1 into a more thoughtful character, with, dare we say, feelings, but as Wright reminds us, “You can change, but you can also always backslide.” Teases Martin: “I wanted to bring back that god of mischief.” Either way, we’re happy to see more shades of the trickster we fell in love with over a decade ago. And, for us, Loki — and his rollicking fun series — couldn’t have returned at a better moment.
Loki, Season 2 Premiere, Thursday, October 5, 9/8c, Disney+
This is an excerpt from TV Insider‘s October issue. For more in-depth, reported coverage devoted to streaming shows from the publishers of TV Guide Magazine, pick up the issue, currently on newsstands, or purchase it online here. You can also subscribe to TV Insider Magazine here now.