Traditionally, new series on streaming platforms kick off on Fridays (to better allow for weekend binging). Loki, Marvel’s next TV series release on Disney+, hits the House Mouse’ streaming app this coming Wednesday instead. Based on the first reactions to the show’s opening episodes though, it appears that this is not the only way the return of Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief mixes things up for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Select press in the US got access to the first two episodes of the six-episode series and while full reviews are still embargoed, their social media reactions have begun rolling out. As we learned in the trailers, the upcoming show will follow up on the version of Hiddleston’s Loki who stole the Tesseract during the events of Avengers: Endgame (which revisited the events of 2012’s The Avengers – please keep up) and escaped into the timestream, thereby creating an anomalous timeline. That brings him to the attention of the Time Variance Authority run by Owen Wilson’s Mobius. And by nearly all accounts, the chemistry between the two men is already worth the price of admission, with Hiddleston especially getting to flex his chameleonic thespian muscles as he hops between timelines.
Praise has also been leveled at the overall writing and directing from showrunner/creator Michael Waldron and director Kate Herron respectively. The show’s episodic format reportedly also allows it to do several deep dives on the MCU. It’s not all good news though, as several mention that the first episode is not as fluid as it needs to get through a lot of exposition to set things up, but once the heavy lifting is done it properly soars. Of interest though, are the claims that while Loki gets very weird – in a good way – it’s not as subversive as WandaVision nor does it reach for big statements like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. What it is, apparently, is “most purely entertaining Marvel series thus far”. Check out the reactions below.
Loki also stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Sophia Di Martino, Richard E. Grant, Sasha Lane, Erika Coleman, and Eugene Cordero. It is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ this coming Wednesday, 9 June.
Last Updated: June 7, 2021
CodeDisQus
June 7, 2021 at 03:19
Marvel…..they’re just too good.
The trailers have looked excellent so I expect this to be too….will be interesting to see how this ends considering it is the first series to have a confirmed sequel..
HvR
June 9, 2021 at 15:29
Enjoyed the first episode, nice setup and so far looks like the best of the marvel TV series.
With Wandavision being bit up and down followed by the downhill plunge out of place bromance of Boo-hoo-birdie and Emo boy this is series immediately felt like I was watching something in Marvel universe.
For the strictly movie fans I suspect this series is going to do a lot of the universe building for the next phase of movies.