Marvel’s Loki arrives at an interesting time. It’s the third Disney+ series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after the genre-hopping mystery WandaVision and the action-thriller The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. But whereas these previous shows starred minor characters from the Marvel films, Loki is about the eponymous Norse trickster-god, a lead of The Avengers and all three Thor films. Loki’s presence means more eyes — more casual viewers who would attend a tentpole action film but not usually delve into tie-in materials. In that sense, Loki also feels more like a main event than a sideshow. This means expectations are high. Can the series satisfy them?
Loki is played, as ever, by Shakespearean actor Tom Hiddleston, a protege of Kenneth Branagh, cast when that director was unexpectedly brought on to helm the first Thor film. Branagh approached the film through a Shakespearean lens. He first cast Hiddleston as the Mighty Thor before deciding he was better suited to playing the trickster, conceived as a mythological counterpart to the traitorous Cassius from Julius Caesar.
The film was held back by Marvel Studios’s then-rigid insistence on its formula — essentially, a high-stakes action-comedy with sharp and quippy dialogue. But this formula was an attempt to reproduce the bottled lightning of Iron Man, the dialogue of which was almost entirely improvised by lead actors Robert Downey, Jr., Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, and director Jon Favreau. It was organic, in that iteration, which made it work. Enforced by edict in later films, it was jarring. (A better “formula” would have been simply to let a talented director and cast interpret the material, a lesson that Marvel has mostly taken since.) The formula also entailed a strict ban on anything supernatural, which led to an awkward scene in which Thor (Chris Hemsworth) explains that magic is just another word for science. It was an odd fit for a film featuring much of the Norse pantheon. (This prohibition had thankfully been lifted in time for Loki.)
Still, with Branagh’s excellent casting and direction, the film managed to be quite charming. Hiddleston’s performance imbued Loki with both humor and malice, while grounding these in his sense of insecurity, and was almost universally regarded as the best part of the film. And even with weaker material, as in Thor: The Dark World, Hiddleston has been reliably excellent, proving Branagh right that the previously low-profile actor could handle any scope of production. Loki, the series, is set up to be a showcase for the fan-favorite actor and character.
The show opens with Loki escaping his capture at the end of 2012’s The Avengers and promptly being arrested by the Time Variance Authority, or TVA, which is supposedly tasked with maintaining reality and continuity, both of which Loki violated by escaping his fate. (The TVA originates in Walt Simonson’s Thor comics of the ’80s, perhaps the best run on a comic book series ever written.) These celestial editors act fanatically in the name of the supposedly almighty “Timekeepers,” whom they claim are the arbiters of the universe.
The TVA’s seemingly endless office is a brutalist landscape to rival the D.C. Metro. Its aesthetics are distinctly midcentury, yet made slightly alien (employees, for instance, dress in oxford cloth button downs with collars that cover the chest). These design choices create a sense of bureaucratic hell. If you’ve ever been frustrated in the DMV, you’ll find Loki’s annoyance at his captivity relatable.
One TVA agent, Mobius (Owen Wilson), seems more human than most, and stays Loki’s execution to take him on as an assistant in his pursuit of a greater villain. The two actors have immediate chemistry, with Wilson playing the straight man. The greater villain they’re chasing proves to be another universe’s Loki, this one a female who goes by Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), and the meeting of tricksters is what fuels the series. The presence of two Lokis allows the show to dwell a little on who the character is in both Hiddleston’s and Di Martino’s iterations.
Di Martino clearly has a lot of fun with her role, bringing to it the same humor and pathos that Hiddleston first did a decade ago. The two performers echo each other, but their characters are distinct. Sylvie is angrier, almost Thor-like, whereas the Loki we know from film and mythology likes to play behind the scenes. Di Martino’s charisma and presence, even while sharing the screen with veterans such as Hiddleston and Wilson, make for a delightful breakout performance.
But does Loki have a point? The previous Marvel series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, featured strong acting and some genuinely compelling moments, such as the story of Isaiah Bradley, a black soldier imprisoned and experimented on by the government after the Korean War. But its main storyline, in which the Falcon assumes the mantle of Captain America from his best friend and mentor, had already been shown effectively in a single dialogue exchange in Avengers: Endgame. The miniseries format made it drag, a stark contrast to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, probably the high point of the MCU, the style of which it aimed to emulate. What might have been a strong action film with social resonance ended up an uneven TV series.
Loki, by contrast, delivers. Director Kate Herron has a background in short films and TV comedy, and it shows. Like in the best live-action Disney+ series, The Mandalorian, each episode is internally cohesive, both in terms of the characters’ journeys and the continuing narrative. Head writer Michael Waldron worked on Community and Rick and Morty, both known for sharp structure and dialogue, and the bulk of the show’s cast is drawn from television. Loki’s pacing is refreshing, and its world building is interesting without coming at the expense of character or storytelling. If Marvel can stick the landing on Loki, it might have just found its way back to a winning formula.
Jibran Khan is a freelance writer and researcher. From 2017 to 2019, he was the Thomas L. Rhodes fellow at the National Review Institute.
