Overview
Just seven months in, 2021 has already been a big year for Marvel. Not one, not two, but three streaming series have hit Disney+, and Black Widow is currently both streaming and in cinemas. More silver-screen releases are coming before the year is out, too, courtesy of both Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals. Also big news right now, although it won't actually come to fruition in 2021: a second season of Loki.
The third of Marvel's Disney+ series for this year to focus on characters from the sprawling Marvel Cinematic Universe, this show about the franchise's favourite trickster instantly stood out from its sibling programs. Having Tom Hiddleston (Avengers: Endgame) step back into the God of Mischief's shoes will do that, of course. With WandaVision, Marvel gave the world a nodding, winking sitcom that morphed into an engaging but still quite standard entry in its ever-growing on-screen realm. With The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it opted for an odd couple action-thriller that hit every mark it needed to, but rarely more. But, across its six-episode first season — which just wrapped up yesterday, Wednesday, July 14 — Loki has proven far more willing to toy with its premise and have fun with its central character. It's now going to do exactly that during a second season as well.
News of Loki's second batch of episodes was dropped in the credits for its latest episode, thanks to a stamp that says "Loki will return in season two". That's all the information that's been revealed so far — but if you're a fan of the figure, Hiddleston or both, it's a welcome development.
Across its first season, Loki's charms didn't solely radiate from its leading man. He's as charismatically wily as ever (as he's always been in his scene-stealing big-screen appearances in the Thor and Avengers films), but this series has also been helped immensely by its aforementioned playfulness, and also by the great cast surrounding its star. Teaming up duos is obviously currently Marvel's thing, but Loki pairs its eponymous trickster with a time cop played by Owen Wilson (Bliss), gets them palling around in buddy cop-meets-science fiction territory, and also throws in Sophia Di Martino (Yesterday) as a character that's best discovered by watching.
The setup: thanks to his previous actions with the Tesseract, Loki finds himself in a bit of trouble. The TVA — that'd be the Time Variance Authority — is on his case, which is where Wilson's Mobius M Mobius comes in. But, that's just where the show starts. Here, viewers came for the usual Hiddleston mischievousness, and stayed for everything this quickly involving series built around him — all while charting what happens when Loki is forced to face the consequences of his past actions.
The new season of Loki, whenever it arrives, will join the long list of other upcoming shows that are in the works at Disney+. That includes Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Moon Knight, Secret Invasion (about Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury), Iron Heart, Armour Wars, I Am Groot, a Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and a series set in Wakanda.
Check out the full trailer for Loki's first season below:
The first season of Loki is available to stream via Disney+ now. Exactly when the second season will arrive is yet to be announced — we'll update you with more details when they come to hand.
Top image: ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.