Ever since his first appearance in 2011's Thor, Tom Hiddleston's Loki has been one of the MCU's most beloved characters. After sharing the spotlight with Thor and the Avengers on the big screen and nearly being written out of the franchise multiple times, the God of Mischief will finally get a story of his own beginning next month on Disney+.
Loki will focus on the title character's adventures working with the Time Variance Authority after being captured for messing with the timeline when he escaped with the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame.
Unlike Marvel's previous two Disney+ series WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, there is no evidence any other characters previously seen in the MCU will appear in Loki other than the lead himself. There has been some speculation other characters with close ties to Loki - most notably his brother Thor - will briefly appear in the series, and while that is possible, it seems as though Marvel is taking this opportunity to explore Loki in new environments.
LOKI'S NEW MCU DIRECTION
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, actor Tom Hiddleston shared what piqued his interest and got him on board with Loki as a series.
Hiddleston explained how Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige approached him with a focus on the idea of "exploring the parts of Loki that are independent of his relationship with Thor" which up until this point has been a large part of his storyline in the MCU. The actor also indicated that the Thor trilogy "still has its integrity" throughout the series.
"One of the things Kevin Feige led on was, 'I think we should find a way of exploring the parts of Loki that are independent of his relationship with Thor,' or see him in a duality or in relationship with others, which I thought was very exciting. So the Odinson saga, that trilogy of films, still has its integrity, and we don't have to reopen it and retell it."
A DIFFERENT FOCUS FOR LOKI
At the time of his death in Avengers: Infinity War, Loki had largely made peace with his anger and resentment towards his family (justified as it may have been). However, the Loki in this upcoming series has only experienced the events of his life up until the end of The Avengers, meaning he has yet to fully resolve those feelings.
Hiddleston's comments indicate the series will focus on Loki beyond his family ties, meaning the series will probably have to address what happened to the main MCU Loki so the audience isn't wondering when Thor or another member of the Asgardian royal family will show up.
Based on Loki's first trailer from back in December, the show appears to be doing this by having Owen Wilson's Agent Mobius display snippets of some post-Avenegers events to the Loki variant, ensuring he is caught up on everything. This looks to be a way of acknowledging and honoring what has happened to the original version of the character while putting the main focus on the separate one that the series will follow.
While it's unclear how this Loki will react to his counterpart's actions, it's possible that seeing these events will be one of the things to make him question his identity, a key theme of the series.
Loki premieres on Disney+ on June 9.
