While MCU fans patiently wait for the franchise's next big arrival with What If...? on Disney+ in August, there is ample time to rewatch and analyze everything that's come from Marvel Studios in its first four entries of 2021.
The most recent of these entries to meet its end was Tom Hiddleston's Loki, which helped to bust open the door to the MCU's multiverse with the results of its season finale. With the unexpected killing of Jonathan Majors' He Who Remains, the God of Mischief is now staring directly at a catastrophic turn of events as new timelines branch out from every direction.
On top of the major ramifications this episode had for the MCU, Loki found himself in quite a precarious situation when Sophia Di Martino's Sylvie shared an intimate kiss with him before throwing him back into a new TVA. Given that this kiss involved two Variants of seemingly the same being, social media and the MCU fandom quickly had a wide range of opinions on if the kiss should have happened and what it means on a deeper level.
Thanks to the latest report surrounding the show, the show's director Kate Herron shared her own thoughts on what went down between the two Lokis.
KATE HERRON MUM ON LOKI KISS
Loki director Kate Herron spoke with Polygon about the kiss shared by Tom Hiddleston's Loki and Sophia Di Martino's Sylvie in Episode 6, entitled "For All Time. Always."
While Herron admitted to "(following) all the conversations on Twitter," she understands that fans likely don't want the show's own director "weighing in" so that things stay "up for debate and discussion:"
“I follow all the conversations on Twitter. I don’t always weigh in on them, because I made the show, so they don’t want me weighing in like, ‘Actually, guys…’ I think that’s the whole point of art — it should be up for debate and discussion.”
Touching on the kiss, which some vocal fans on social media have claimed to be incestual in nature, Herron clarified that even though both of them are a version of Loki, "they aren't the same person." Both having "completely different backgrounds," Loki and Sylvie play similar roles in the universe but still have their own unique paths in the end, according to the series director:
“My interpretation of it is that they’re both Lokis, but they aren’t the same person. I don’t see them as being like brother and sister. They have completely different backgrounds […] and I think that’s really important to her character. They sort of have the same role in terms of the universe and destiny, but they won’t make the same decisions.”
LOKI AND SYLVIE - TWO UNIQUE PEOPLE
Many fans quickly wondered what the ramifications were from Loki and Sylvie's kiss in Episode 6, particularly with the fact that they were two versions of the same person sharing that moment. However, Herron's comments seem to confirm that they're still their own unique person with no direct ties to one another physically or mentally.
While the Loki director has provided her fair share of insider information through interviews and chats with journalists, she clearly wants fan interaction with the story to happen as organically as possible without much of her own input. MCU fans are usually quite vocal about everything Marvel Studios brings forth, and while the crew behind the story is usually open to discussion, Herron's approach is a little more hands-off than others.
All six episodes of Loki are available to stream on Disney+.
