Loki Season 2: A Dance with Time, Trickery, and Self-Discovery

There’s a line that Disney+ has been showing in its trailers and promotions for season 2 of Loki, in which our anti-hero (Tom Hiddleston) is interrogating a hunter from the Time Variance Authority called X-5 (Rafael Casal). Dismissing the notion that Loki is on a heroic quest to save a timestream that’s bordering on collapse, X-5 purrs at Loki, “You’re a villain. You’re good at it. Do that.” 

In a way, that exchange feels like a recognition of the challenge Loki faced as a series when it premiered in 2021 as it tried to add complexity to the trickster god, whose power-hungry exploits were at the center of the first Avengers feature and a couple of Thor installments. As generally entertaining as the first season was, it also wrestled with making Hiddleston’s character interesting as a protagonist without taking away everything that made him so memorable as an antagonist.

As season 2 finally makes its long-awaited appearance (October 5th at 9 PM Eastern), it’s still proving tricky to keep Loki himself at the center while making him recognizably Loki. Things pick up from the season 1 cliffhanger in which Loki finds himself on a timeline affected by the death of He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors)—better known to us know as Kang—at the hands of the Loki variant called Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino). Everything that ensues over the four season 2 episodes available for preview (of a total of six) involves the attempts by Loki, Mobius (Owen Wilson), Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) and a new character called O.B. (Ke Huy Quan) to cope with time itself threatening to go kablooey.

In part, that involves tracking down the rogue hunter Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and her attempt to find a variant of He Who Remains in 19th-century Chicago when he was still a human known as Victor Timely. That means more screen time for Majors, whose off-screen legal issues have made it increasingly messy that Marvel appears to have built the next several years of the MCU around his character. Even if Majors’ performance as Victor Timely weren’t annoyingly affected in his halting speech patterns, his presence would still be a distraction; when Timely pleads for his life at one point with “I’m not the man you think I am,” it takes on a meta quality that doesn’t do the show any favors.

Fortunately, the rest of the show keeps things humming along with energy and personality. Quan is a welcome addition as one of the central architects of the TVA, and the addition of more backstory for Renslayer and the cartoon AI Miss Minutes (voiced by Tara Strong) gives the story a boost. The creative team has a whole lot of balls to keep in the air as the story winds its way through different time streams, but with two of the episodes directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead—the filmmakers behind the twisty-turny features The Endless and Synchronic, in addition to episodes of the Moon Knight series—the narrative manages to be complex without ever becoming completely confounding.

That leaves Loki himself, and it’s testimony to Hiddleston’s talents that he somehow pulls all the threads of the character’s personality into something cohesive. His chemistry with Wilson’s Mobius brings energy to a simple scene of the two sharing philosophical thoughts over a slice of pie, and his complex relationship with Sylvie—which was always going to play as a little weird, since it basically involves falling in love with himself—still feels like a genuine emotional anchor. But the reality is, Loki is still at his Loki-est, and Hiddleston seems to be having the most fun, when he’s got a bit of the devil in him, as when Loki employs extreme methods to get information out of X-5. As much loopy entertainment as the new season delivers, it’s always going to be at its best when it remembers why the idea of building a multi-episode show around Loki seemed like a good idea in the first place: He is a villain, and he’s good at it.

Loki Season 2 Preview

The preview below does a good job setting the stage for the season. Give it a quick watch: 

Let’s Hear From You

As we’ve delved into the twists and turns of Loki’s Season 2, we’re left pondering a few intriguing questions:

• Do you think the series has successfully maintained Loki’s essence while exploring his role as a protagonist?
• What are your thoughts on the dynamic between Loki and Sylvie? Is their complex relationship compelling or confusing?
• How do you feel about the addition of O.B. and the deeper exploration of characters like Renslayer and Miss Minutes?
• With time constantly on the brink of chaos, do you have any predictions or hopes for how the season will conclude?

Share your thoughts, predictions, and opinions with us in the comments below. We’d love to hear your perspective on the god of mischief’s latest escapades!