Even if you’re at a place where Marvel fatigue has truly set in, there is one Marvel Studios television project that you ought to revisit before Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters later this year. For the past week or so, Loki has been trending upward in the Top 10 on Disney+ — and that’s not by accident. The Tom Hiddleston-led pivot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is arguably the streamer’s most impressive original series yet, with a novel take on time travel that puts most other attempts to shame.
‘Loki’ Takes Time Travel Mechanics in the MCU a Step Further
Created by Michael Waldron (who wrote both Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday), Loki follows the alternate version of the “God of Mischief” first introduced in Avengers: Endgame. Yes, this is the Loki who slips away with the Tesseract in the alternate 2012. But just as Loki escapes the Avengers, he finds himself in the hands of a new threat in the form of the Time Variance Authority (TVA). Discovering the existence of the branched timeline, Loki aids TVA agent Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) in preventing the collapse of the “sacred timeline” (the main MCU world) from another Loki variant, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), who threatens to wipe out all existence in her quest to bring down the TVA. This ultimately brings the former Asgardian prince face to face with the one who invented the TVA in the first place: the Kang variant He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors). Now, if you haven’t seen the show, that may sound like a lot, but we promise, it’s not as confusing as it seems.
While Hiddleston’s character was developed initially over several films between Thor and Avengers: Infinity War, Loki largely ignores all of that. After all, it’s not even following the same variant. Instead, this 12-episode series masterfully constructs a self-contained narrative driven entirely by Loki’s own self-destructive patterns and deep-rooted desire for glory — and, yes, purpose. After rewriting his entire story since The Avengers, the Disney+ series offers Loki a genuine hero’s journey arc that separates him from the influence of his brother Thor (Chris Hemsworth). Not only is Loki arguably one of Marvel’s finest ventures into television, but it’s among the decade’s best time travel shows. Rather than being used as a gimmick to put characters in outlandish situations or pull in a genre-based audience, time travel is an introspective way to deconstruct who Loki is before reassembling him into something better. There’s a reason that both the first and last episodes of the series are aptly titled “Glorious Purpose.”
Loki reinvents its lead character, and does so as a compelling departure from the usual MCU antics that simultaneously feels both self-contained and relevant to the larger Multiverse Saga. It’s a must-watch before Loki returns in Doomsday later this year, and certainly enjoyable as a standalone sequel to the character’s pre-existing MCU arc. Hiddleston is at his A-game here, and if you already thought he was one of the best parts of the Thor movies, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how well he headlines his own material. His chemistry with Owen Wilson in particular — who feels a bit off-brand for the MCU but plays it so Owen Wilson-like that it somehow works — is off the charts. It would’ve been easy to watch two more seasons revolving around this duo.
Marvel Television Has Never Been Better Than ‘Loki’
Part of the reason Loki was so well-received is that it felt like such a big departure from the usual MCU brand of superhero stories that end with a big third-act battle sequence. Even WandaVision, which was likewise a serious shift in tone, still ended with a battle between heroes and villains that could’ve been cut and pasted into just about any Marvel movie. Loki doesn’t fall into this same trap. The multiversal stakes are high, but so are the personal ones. Loki’s relationship with Sylvie informs his hardest choices, and Mobius’ own struggles with the higher-ups at the TVA complicate his choices as well. The series thrives in its meditation on character and the true meaning of self-sacrifice, ultimately giving Loki a much-needed self-reorientation that transforms him into the antithesis of who he was before.
Loki is far more character-driven than it is anchored by the larger plot needs of the MCU, and this is still at a time when Kang the Conqueror was being set up as the next Avengers “big bad.” Even Majors’ role here feels specific to Loki itself rather than simply the foundation of something bigger — no doubt, it is that, but the series thrives on its ability to tell a complete story that needs no epilogue. That is perhaps what sets it apart from the rest of the Marvel TV brand. It’s an exceptional departure from the norm (with a truly brilliant ending) that doesn’t require the viewer to look elsewhere for answers, content exploring all of them on its own.
