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Loki: What to know about the sly Marvel series ahead of its June 9 premiere on Disney+
If there's one thing Tom Hiddleston's Loki has taught us, it's to always expect the unexpected. The MCU's biggest trickster is finally hitting the small screen next in his very own series titled — what else? — Loki!
Created, written and executive-produced by Rick and Morty veteran Michael Waldron (also the scribe behind next year's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), Loki marks the third Marvel Studios TV project to debut on Disney+ after WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Kate Herron (Daybreak, Sex Education) directed all six episodes.
With its introduction of the Time Variance Authority and multiple realities, Loki promises to get all weird and metaphysical in the vein of Wanda Maximoff holding an entire town in New Jersey hostage. Before the Asgardian deity of chaos and mischief takes center stage however, we've got a handy rundown of everything you need to know about the character's timeline-hopping adventures.
How to watch
Originally slated to premiere on Disney+ on Friday, June 11, the six-episode series will actually drop its first episode earlier on Wednesday, June 9. New episodes will arrive on the streaming platform every Wednesday after that (past MCU TV episodes have usually dropped around 12 a.m. PST / 3 a.m. EST). As always, you'll need a Disney+ subscription to watch.
"I've noticed that in these long superhero montages, Loki tends to get a bit left out, even though, arguably, he's incredibly heroic himself [as well as] cunning and charming," Hiddleston said when the new date was announced last month. "I could go on, but maybe ... why don't I just prove it to you? Wednesdays are the new Fridays."
The setting (or lack thereof)
It's kind of hard to give Loki a proper setting. To be fair, it takes place outside the normal time-stream and therefore, doesn't exist on any recognizable plane of existence. Here's what we know, though: The story picks up just as the 2012 version of Loki (the version that nearly conquered Manhattan with a Chitauri army backed by Thanos) steals the Space Stone in Avengers: Endgame. This seriously messes with the fabric of the time-space continuum and the sneaky trickster is forcibly hired by the Time Variance Authority, an Adjustment Bureau-esque agency tasked with repairing broken timelines.
Who is who?
Once at the TVA, Loki meets his handler, a mustachioed bureaucrat named Mobius (played by Owen Wilson), who knows all about his new charge. Oh, and we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the TVA's peppy mascot, a talking clock known as Miss Minutes (you may have seen her on the teaser poster featured below).
Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Judge Ravona Renslayer), Wunmi Mosaku (Hunter B-15), Sophia Di Martino (role is TBD), and Richard E. Grant (role is TBD) co-star.
What to expect story-wise
Well, like we said earlier, you can't expect anything. As the ever-changing Loki title treatment suggests, the main character is always plotting and shifting allegiances. His lust for power, especially in the 2012 timeline, is insatiable — and he'll take out anyone who gets in his way.
"There's very little self-awareness at this point," Hiddleston told Empire for the magazine's June 2021 issue. "I want to preserve the freshness of the show for when it emerges, but something to think about is the [show's] logo, which seems to refresh and restore. The font of how 'Loki' is spelled out seems to keep changing shape. Loki is the quintessential shapeshifter. His mercurial nature is that you never know whether, across the MCU, he's a hero or a villain or an anti-hero ... I think the shapeshifting logo might give you an idea that Loki, the show, is about identity, and about integrating the disparate fragments of the many selves that he can be, and perhaps, the many selves that we are."
Of course, the trailers and clips have given us some clues. For example, we know the show pays homage to the 2016 Vote Loki storyline in which the baddie runs for president. Another instance shows Loki jumping out a plane, leading some fans to speculate that he is the infamous D.B. Cooper.
