The second season of Marvel’s Loki premieres exclusively on Disney+ on October 5, 2023, and if the first four episodes provided to press for review are any indication, it’s going to be an up and down ride. Before we get into the review, here’s how Disney+ describes Loki Season 2:
Loki, God of Mischief, is set to embark on perilous missions in the upcoming second season of the acclaimed Disney+ series. Season 1 introduced the concept of variants to the MCU as Loki found himself captured by the bureaucratic time police aka the Time Variance Authority (TVA). In order to avoid being erased from existence to protect the Sacred Timeline, Loki agrees to work with agent Mobius M. Mobius to track down a Loki variant that has been wreaking havoc across the timeline.
But things aren’t entirely what they seem at the TVA, and Loki eventually learns, with the help of his variant Sylvie, that the TVA was created by a more benevolent variant of a sinister being that seeks to control the Sacred Timeline. Finally meeting this menacing force, Sylvie wreaks her terrible revenge, and the Multiverse is unleashed.
With war on the horizon, Loki finds himself in a battle for the soul of the TVA. Along with Mobius, Hunter B-15 and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous Multiverse in search of Sylvie, Judge Renslayer, Miss Minutes and the truth of what it truly means to possess free will and glorious purpose.
The first season of “Loki” is the most watched Marvel Studios series on Disney+, and the second season promises new excitement as it thrusts Tom Hiddleston as the infamous God of Mischief into a new set of adventures. The series also stars Sophia Di Martino, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Rafael Casal, Kate Dickie, Liz Carr, Neil Ellice, Tara Strong as Miss Minutes, Special Guest Star Jonathan Majors, with Ke Huy Quan, and Owen Wilson.
Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead direct four of the six episodes, with Dan DeLeeuw and Kasra Farahani each directing one episode. The head writer is Eric Martin. Kevin Feige, Stephen Broussard, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, Kevin R. Wright, Tom Hiddleston, Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, Eric Martin and Michael Waldron are the executive producers, with Trevor Waterson serving as co-executive producer.
So how are the first four (of six) episodes?
Unfortunately, the roughest part of the new season comes with the first episode. Even with a “Previously On…” montage, it’s a big ask for audiences to remember and even still care exactly what they were watching over two years ago. Most of the first episode takes place inside the TVA and [perhaps purposely] it comes off as claustrophobic. Which isn’t to say there aren’t some good parts: Ke Huy Quan’s character “O.B.” makes his first appearance in Episode 1 and he’s always a joy in anything he’s in; I do wish, though, he had more to do. The chemistry between Tom Hiddleston as Loki and Owen Wilson as Mobius is stil fun to watch. But for me, at least, Episode 1 didn’t really grab me, and the long time since Season 1 made it difficult to get re-invested. We’ve also seen preview photos of a set piece that we’ll be seeing in Season 2, a McDonald’s of another era, and the nitpicker in me had all kinds of mental notes of how it didn’t look like how I recall Mickey D’s looking in that time period.
Thankfully, the characters start really traveling to other cool places in Episode 2, and the second episode is an immediate improvement. I think I liked this also because the episode, at least at its start, focused on Loki and Mobius on an adventure. One thing that I don’t think I like too much here is that for a show called Loki, there’s a lot of focus on other characters. The show isn’t called The TVA or Kang, Miss Minutes, or even O.B. (though I’d watch that last one), and they are often fun characters played by good actors, but I want to see Loki… that character that stole the show in almost every Marvel movie he appeared in.
Cool places continue through to Episode 3, and in the fourth, stuff starts going down. I don’t think I am breaking any spoiler embargo by saying Episode 4 gives us a cliffhanger, so even those of us who saw screeners will have to anticipate what will happen when the final two episodes air.
I’ll also address the thing that may make some people uncomfortable, in light of recent accusations: Jonathan Majors does appear in these episodes, and the way the story is constructed, it would really be impossible to do it without him. I don’t know what the right course of action to take regarding Mr. Majors would be, but in case you were expecting him to be gone from the premises, he’s retained, just like The Flash retained Ezra Miller after they had their reign of terror over Hawaiian karaoke bars. It’s a shame that there is a possibility he may not be a good person, because he’s a fantastic actor (and was honestly one of the only shining spots in Quantumania).
I know I’m a bit critical here, and it might be Marvel fatigue in general, but I love time travel, I really like Loki as a character, and I still would make mine Marvel, so maybe my expectations are overly high. For me, WandaVision was the highest bar for Marvel’s TV output on Disney+, and while I’d put this over Moon Knight or Hawkeye, I’m still hoping that they stick the landing and really blow me away with the last two.
For now, though, I’d give the first four episodes of Loki a 6/10 average, with that first episode really weighing down the others.
Loki Season 2 releases October 5, 2023 exclusively on Disney+.
