The Loki Season 2 Trailer Is Breaking Records – Can This Show Save The MCU?
Rome wasn't built in a day, nor did its empire collapse in one. The same could be said for the commercial juggernaut that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has struggled to find its footing since bringing the decade-in-the-making story that was The Infinity Saga to a close with "Avengers: Endgame" in 2019.
At first, things didn't seem too disconcerting. After a pandemic preventing any MCU films or series from dropping in 2020 (save for a top-notch final season of the MCU-adjacent "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."), the following year saw the House of Ideas unleash a plethora of films in addition to its very first Disney+ series, many of which were perfectly decent (although there were some significant disappointments). We even got our first legitimate big swing from the franchise with "Eternals" (which is good, actually), along with the first season of "Loki," an overall enjoyable series that used the multiverse to tell a genuinely character-focused story about the God of Mischief.
However, by the time the "Loki" season 2 trailer arrived two years later, things had taken a turn for the worse. After a decidedly uneven 2022 full of both encouraging highs and worrying lows, the MCU has really struggled in the first half of 2023. It's gotten to the point where audiences seem pretty over MCU stuff, with "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" the solitary exception that proves the rule (and even then, as the belated finale to James Gunn's "Guardians" trilogy that started nine years ago, you could argue it was something of a holdover from the MCU's glory days).
Might "Loki" season 2 be the thing that revitalizes the Marvel train and helps get Kevin Feige's house in order (even with the Jonathan Majors in the room)? Well, Loki should be used to being burdened by glorious purpose by now, shouldn't he?
Playing God (again)
"Loki" season 2 finds Thor's trickster sibling (Tom Hiddleston) and the Time Variance Authority (TVA) scrambling to clean up the mess he and his gender-flipped alternate universe variant, the deeply sympathetic Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), made of the so-called "Sacred Timeline" during the season 1 finale. The season 2 trailer has already gotten people buzzing in a way it feels like no other MCU offering has this year, with Deadline reporting it's accrued a whopping 80 million views online (a new record for any series on Disney+). Aiding the cause, season 1 remains the most-watched MCU series on Disney's streaming platform to date and holds scores in the 90th percentile among both critics and users on Rotten Tomatoes.
In his own review of season 1, /Film's Ethan Anderton wrote:
"'Loki' is Marvel's most confident series debut. It wastes no time digging into the complicated world of the Time Variance Authority, and it does so with a familiar but fresh style that echoes the crime thrillers of David Fincher, the sci-fi adventures of 'Doctor Who,' along with a touch of 'Rick and Morty' and Terry Gilliam."
In other words, people love both the God of Mischief's show and the incredibly charismatic actor behind the character, making "Loki" the ideal candidate to lead the MCU out of the extremely rough patch it's been trapped in lately. But will season 2 ultimately deliver on its potential? After all, at one point in the not-so-distant past earlier this year, I seem to recall writing that "Secret Invasion" has the makings of a compelling political thriller and the long-awaited successor to "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and, well, we all saw how that panned out (or, rather, those of us who actually bothered to tune in for that train wreck did).
Is time a flat circle?
Working in its favor, there's been no word of behind-the-scenes problems on "Loki" season 2. That's already a welcome change from "Secret Invasion," which underwent substantial reshoots that led to its budget ballooning out of control — not that you could tell from the actual show. By comparison, whatever money Marvel Studios has spent making "Loki" season 2 seems to have been well-used. The trailer alone is full of richly-detailed and expansive practical sets bringing the interiors of the TVA headquarters to visually pleasing life, along with fantastical imagery of historical locations like the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the Midway Plaisance. Even a shot of Loki "time-slipping" into what appears to be the set of Jordan Peele's "Nope" feels more like a fun visual gag and not an attempt to keep things on the cheap.
While neither "Loki" season 1 head writer Michael Waldron nor director Kate Herron worked on season 2, Marvel has found suitable replacements for them in "Loki" season 1 staff writer Eric Martin (who also worked on the show "Heels") and directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (themselves the indie filmmaking sensations responsible for some of the best episodes of the MCU's "Moon Knight" series). But again, we've been here before, and nobody could reasonably accuse Marvel Studios of not seeking out the best of the best to work on its productions. At this stage, we've all been burnt too many times by MCU projects failing to realize their potential on paper to take it on faith that the franchise won't disappoint this go-round.
That being said, any show that casts "Everything Everywhere All at Once" Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan is doing something right, and for that alone, I'll give season 2 its day in court.
"Loki" returns on October 6, 2023.