The God of Mischief (Tom Hiddleston) is all set to return to your screens in June. ‘Loki’ will mark Marvel Cinematic Universe’s third series in the Disney roster for superheroes and anti-heroes (and in this case, villains too). The series is to release on June 11. But can the Trickster God make an appearance without doing what he does best, playing a trick? He successfully changed Friday’s to Wednesday’s and preponed the release date of the series from June 11 to June 9. While all Marvel series - WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - streamed new episodes on Friday’s, Loki Odinson (or Laufeyson) ensured he isn’t the one following suit.
In early April, when the Falcon and the Winter Soldier was still on, Marvel released the first trailer for Loki. The six-episode series’ trailer had time travel, Owen Wilson, an interesting Variant written across a jacket and Gugu Mbatha-Raw! Watch the trailer below:
Is Loki alive?
Now, we know that everyone is wondering wasn’t the guy dead in the Infinity War? The answer is, yes, he was! And that there is a good explanation of his current ‘living status’.
You remember the Endgame when the remaining Avengers time-travelled to right the wrong and collect the infinity stones? Well, a group of them landed in the year 2012 right after the Battle of New York when Loki was gloriously defeated. It ended badly for Loki that year, as Avengers was formed which defeated his army, captured him, and sent him with Thor and was then put away by daddy Odin. Do note that by this time, in the main timeline Loki is already dead (killed by mean ol’ Thanos).
In the current timeline, however, Loki is still a spoilt brat who has not gone through the redemption arc. This time jump is kind of a waste for the Avengers as the still-very-much-a-villain Loki takes advantage of the chaos during the stone heist and steals the Tesseract (which has the Space Stone). The Tesseract creates a portal, helping Loki escape. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hiddleston talks about the scene and says that (at that point) even he wondered about his character’s eventual existence in MCU and his exit, contemplating he said, “Where'd he go? When does he go? How does he get there? These are all questions I remember asking on the day, and then not being given any answers.”
Remember this?
The timeline distortion is what created the Loki variant (an alternate version, if you may) - the old Loki, displaced in time and is not as emotionally evolved as the “our” Loki. This, old Loki or the ‘Loki Variant’ is the centre of the series - Loki.
The Plot
Just basis the trailer, it is quite evident that even though Loki managed to escape his temporary captivity of S.H.I.E.L.D, only to be detained by another organization, which turns out to be Time Variance Authority (TVA - yes, Marvel keeps making up these regulatory bodies, which we take very seriously!). In the trailer it clear that as in comics this organization is responsible for monitoring variations in timelines.
We know that Loki has created a deviated timeline, which he must (now) amend. And although that is what TVA wants him to do, it seems unclear what his plans are. In the trailer, there’s a scene where he says that Heimdall (who died in Avengers: Infinity War) and Thor “better be ready.” Well, only time will tell (once it is fixed)!
The crew
Tom Hiddleston will essay his usual Loki look in his first solo Marvel project (and we wouldn’t have wanted it any other way). The fans have a love-hate relationship with the character of Loki, all thanks to Hiddleston’s brilliant acting. It is quite a popular fact that he originally auditioned for the titular character for Thor, but was finally cast as Thor's adopted brother and the God of Mischief.
The series will also have Owen Wilson as Mobius M Mobius, who is an analyst at the TVA. Back to Wilson and his entry in MCU, he said in an interview, that the God of Mischief, himself, ‘lectured’ him about the lore, and schooled him about the universe with some of the other Marvel movies.
The crew also includes Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ravonna Lexus Renslayer, who is a member of the TVA; Wunmi Mosaku who plays Hunter B-15, another of TVA’s members and Sophia Di Martino, Richard E Grant, Sasha Lane, Erika Coleman, and Eugene Cordero, along with others.
Talking about the crew and actors who would be making an appearance in the series, it is obvious for the fans to wonder if any other Marvel characters will pop up in the plot. Unfortunately, for once, there have been no formal announcements or hints in the trailer.
In WandaVision we saw the return of Darcy Lewis, Jimmy Woo, and Monica Rambeau, while in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier we saw Rhodey, Sharon Carter, and Zemo (dancing Zemo!). However, since Loki kicks off in an inter-dimensional space agency in one of the unknown branches of time, it is possible that Marvel characters are not even aware of it and thus don’t turn up. Though, here’s hoping!
Where and when can I watch ‘Loki’?
In India, the series will premiere on June 9, 2021, on Hotstar Disney Plus (VIP). Eventual episodes will be streamed on the platform on Wednesdays.
Watch this space for more updates!
