(Photo courtesy of: IGN) “Tom Hiddleston returns as the title character in season 2 of Marvel’s ‘Loki.'”
Savannah Baker
Connector Editor
After a two-year hiatus, Marvel Studios’ most-watched series on Disney+ returns for its second season. The highly anticipated return of “Loki” had its season premiere on Thursday, Oct. 5.
Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, is one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) oldest characters, but he has been reintroduced as a highly important feature of the most recent and upcoming phases of the MCU.
The God of Mischief and his crew—Owen Wilson as Mobius, Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie and Wumni Mosaku as Hunter B-15—are found overthrowing the Time Variance Authority (TVA) in season 1. This led to the unleashing of the multiverse of madness, a now reoccurring concept among many of the MCU films since “Loki” had its series premiere back in 2021.
Although “Loki” is not the first MCU production to discuss the multiverse, the series kicked off Phase 4’s multiverse-centric narrative which has now begun to bleed into Phase 5.
The “Loki” season 2 premiere picks up right where it left off. The time slipping chaos Loki encounters causes him and his crew to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. This leads viewers to be introduced to a new character played by Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan.
As the sacred timeline continues to branch, Loki and his posse are confronted with a greater multiversal threat, “He Who Remains,” a variant of Kang the Conqueror.
Kang made his debut appearance in the MCU during the “Loki” season 1 finale. As a scientist, Kang’s particular interest in parallel universes makes him the perfect big and bad for this saga of the MCU. He has now become the overarching villain for Phase 4, 5 and 6 in the MCU.
As Loki is being pulled through time between the past, present and future, he learns new information that leads to major concern about the world’s possible destruction. This sets up the season’s main themes of fixing the Time Loom and stopping Kang and his variants.
Before being able to fight against “He Who Remains,” Loki, Mobius and Hunter B-15 must set out to find their fourth crew member. Unsure as to where Sylvie may be on the timeline, this introduces another theme this season: locate Sylvie.
Loki’s solo series is the only live-action MCU show to receive a second season thus far and the season 2 premiere is a clear indicator as to why. After a poor run of critic reviews for recent MCU productions, such as “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantomania”, “Thor: Love and Thunder”, “Eternals” and “Secret Invasion”, the hopes have been high for the second season of “Loki”. Luckily, the season premiere hit its mark and provides fans with a glimmer of hope that the beloved franchise can get its act together for the remainder of Phase 5 and beyond.
“Loki” season two will consist of 6, 40-to-50-minute episodes. New episodes will premiere on Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST on Disney+.
Overall Grade: A
