When Eric Martin started writing the Season 1 finale of “Loki” (together with then-head writer Michael Waldron), he already had a hunch that the Marvel Studios show was going to continue for a second season.
“We heard rumblings of that while we were still in the Season 1 writers room,” Martin explains. “It wasn’t until we were deep into COVID that we knew for sure.”
Martin claims that Marvel Studios president Kevin Wright approached him during the forced pandemic vacation to become the chief writer for Season 2. Martin believes that they had filmed “about a third of Season 1” before the stoppage. After that, we got down to the serious work of deciding the story’s direction for the second act.
This week’s episode, titled “Heart of the TVA,” marked a major turning point in this effort when the titular temporal loom, the mechanism that harnesses the energy of time to power the TVA and thread the Sacred Timeline, exploded under the stress of the infinitely branching multiverse, seemingly engulfing Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and his companions before the episode cut to black.
Sylvie, a Loki variant played by Sophia Di Martino, decides to assassinate He Who Remains, the creator of the TVA (and hence the multiverse), in the season one finale, setting in motion the events that lead to the apocalypse.
Martin warns that anarchy follows the overthrow of rulers and the collapse of established order. “Problems always come up in those situations that nobody could have predicted, because the system was taking care of them, silently.”
In Season 2, Martin explores what happens to the characters and the TVA when they are stressed to their limits. Will humans ever learn? Will institutions be able to adapt? Is there a plan for when that system fails and a new one must be constructed? Says Martin. Indeed, that is the subject of our scrutiny. Because we’re dealing with so much disorder, it ultimately boils down to the concept of chaos against order.
This contradiction fits in well with “Loki” the series’ goal of dissecting one of the most well-known characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), as Loki is the god of mischief.
Martin explains, “We’re bringing back a little bit more of that mischief from the old Loki.” However, Loki is still fighting for a cause greater than himself. As one cast member put it, “Reinvention and discovery of self is really the overarching theme for our whole season.”
In an interview with Variety, Martin detailed the process of putting together “Loki” Season 2, his impressions of the Marvel system, and the unspoken rule that dictated his creative choices.
Read More –