The debut of Marvel Studios' next Disney+ series is quickly approaching, and interviews from cast and crew have been rolling out to give fans a hint at what's in store when Loki premieres next month.
In the several previews that have been released for the show thus far, fans have seen Tom Hiddleston's God of Mischief get captured by the Time Variance Authority after escaping with the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame and become forced to embark on various time travel adventures to set the timeline right as a prisoner of the organization.
Some Marvel enthusiasts have expressed disappointment in not getting to see certain sides of Loki's personality and abilities explored in the MCU prior to his death in Avengers: Infinity War, but members of the show's creative team have revealed they are taking the opportunity and running with it to explore different aspects of the character.
EXPLORING LOKI'S POWERS
In an interview with The Hindu, Loki writer and executive producer Michael Waldron spoke about the format of the series giving the team more time to explore the title character's magical powers, saying they "wanted to explore the awesome stuff he can do."
“Everyone has been asking ‘when are we going to see Loki’s real power?’ To have six episodes to explore his power has been so liberating because just from a ‘pure superhero abilities’ perspective, we wanted to explore the awesome stuff he can do, and also dramatically too.”
Waldron also revealed his goal of taking the character places he had never been before - in more than just a literal sense. He made it clear he didn't want to repeat the same arc experienced by the character in previous MCU projects, explaining "There had been 10 years of stories of this character and we hope folks would’ve seen a fully-realized redemptive arc."
“That’s where the collaboration between writers and actors is such a joy...when you push one another, and my goal from day one was to tell a story of Loki that had never been told before. There had been 10 years of stories of this character and we hope folks would’ve seen a fully-realized redemptive arc. Now we are starting with this version of Loki at the end of the first Avengers film. So it was our responsibility to not retread old ground. Tom was more than game for that, in fact, he wanted to do that and go deeper into Loki’s shape-shifting identity.”
A NEW CHAPTER FOR LOKI
Those who have seen the MCU movies featuring Loki know he has magical abilities, including shapeshifting, illusions, and the ability to split into multiple beings. However, the footage from Loki that has been released so far showcases even more of the God of Mischief's powers, including some that appear to be quite useful in combat.
Clips of Loki wielding some sort of green energy and a sword that appears to have magical properties can be seen in previews of the series, and even though his shapeshifting ability has already been explored a bit in the MCU, the creators of the series have said this power is a central part of the show's plot.
The decision to deviate from the redemption arc that has largely defined Loki's character over the course of the MCU so far creates a bit of a conundrum for the series; the audience has seen Loki's growth over several movies, but the version being focused on here hasn't experienced anything past the events of The Avengers.
It will be interesting to see if Loki somehow "catches up" with his MCU Prime self and adopts his character development without directly experiencing it, stays villainous, or redeems himself in a whole new way. Whatever happens will need to be new and exciting while making sure the audience doesn't feel like the character's previous development was a waste.
Loki, starring Tom Hiddleston, premieres on Disney+ June 9.
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