Coming out of Avengers: Endgame, one of the biggest questions was a simple one: where did Loki go? It’s a question that would go a long time unanswered—until now of course.
Loki quite literally starts from the moment Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief escapes his post-Avengers predicament. Of course, the show represents a new beginning for Loki. So it only makes sense that his rebirth begins right where Tony Stark’s did—covered in sand in the middle of a desert.
Right off the bat, it’s easy for viewers to realize that the journey Loki aims to take everyone on is something far different than what WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier provided. In fact, the introduction to the TVA completely flips the entire MCU on its head.
Of course, most of that stems from Miss Minutes’ handy explanation video—setting the ground rules for the show. In doing so, it reveals that everything that has happened to date in the MCU is preordained. That’s a hard pill to swallow. For some, that may say that every choice in the MCU means nothing, and has no meaning—since it was all hand guided by the TVA themselves.
It’s hard to dismiss that hesitancy, as their’s plenty of validity to it. Personally, knowing that there are five more episodes left keeps me from focusing too much on it. After all, who says the TVA is telling the truth? In fact, maybe they don’t even know the truth themselves.
One of the astonishing things about this first episode is the insane amount of character development given to Loki. It’s hard to explain why a God of Mischief is constantly flipping back and forth as a character, but man does the show do so perfectly. Fans get exactly why Tom Hiddleston’s character ticks, down to a tee.
As someone who absolutely loved how Loki went out in Avengers: Infinity War, as it was a perfect completion of the arc at the time, it’s insanely interesting to see the character get to travel an alternate path—especially while taking in that same journey in the matter of minutes.
While Tom Hiddleston may have the spotlight, Owen Wilson could steal it at any moment. He’s fantastic, and his chemistry with Hiddleston’s Loki is explosive the moment it begins. Morbius’ patience and gentleness with Loki are just as unsettling as it is endearing.
As for Morbius’ place in the grand scheme of things, something tells me that there’s something questionable behind the structure that he is so loyal to, a thing that is more maleficent than it seems. After all, Kang the Conqueror is clearly one of those Time Keepers—potentially even all of them. I mean the design is Kang to a tee, not to mention it matches Jonathan Majors perfectly.
There’s obviously plenty of mystery to the proceedings, and almost every aspect of what the TVA does. Something that was, and will be, very intriguing to watch unfold.
Of course, it being the first episode of a show that is introducing a very large number of new rules to the MCU, the premiere is chalked full of exposition. Something that can drag the episode down just a little. It helps though that it was all very interesting and intriguing, especially in how it intwined with the MCU as a whole.
Loki seems to be yet another hit for Marvel, showcasing that their Disney+ streaming shows are easily capable of reaching the heights in quality that the movies have breached time and time again. Fingers crossed that the show only gets crazier, and maintains its current quality all the way through—something that both previous Marvel Disney+ projects have faltered in doing.
