Loki Drew Inspiration From Generations Of Sci-Fi Movies
I'm not sure if "Loki" season 1 is Marvel's best Disney+ series to date, but it may be the most consistent quality-wise. While other Marvel Cinematic Universe shows have flown higher before stumbling in the final stretch (not naming names), director Kate Herron was steady-handed in her efforts behind the camera on the God of Mischief's solo outing, as were head writer Michael Waldron and his fellow scribes.
At the bare minimum, "Loki" season 1 is one of the best-looking MCU shows. The interiors of the Time Variance Authority (TVA) headquarters, where the "Avengers: Endgame" variant of Tom Hiddleston's trickster god is essentially taken prisoner after evading his fate, have a stylishly retro-futuristic yet mundane aesthetic. It's like someone crossed the titular city in Fritz Lang's 1927 German Expressionist classic "Metropolis" with your local DMV. Waldron, speaking to The Wrap in 2021, likened the TVA to the Tyrell Corporation from "Blade Runner" (another dubious all-powerful conglomerate full of secrets). In his own words:
"It was a huge inspiration. 'Blade Runner' is one of the, if not the defining sci-fi crime thriller. And it has such style to it. I described the TVA's aesthetic on the page as 'Mad Men' meets 'Blade Runner.' That was all I had to do. It was Kate [Herron], our director, who came in, really inspired by 'Blade Runner' and everything and working in conjunction with our production designer. She brought that idea to life in a really cool way and just made it that much more real, made the TVA feel lived in."
The TVA's whole dystopian vibe perhaps bears the strongest resemblance to that of Terry Gilliam's "Brazil," another '80s cult classic and the granddaddy of sci-fi stories about totalitarian bureaucratic organizations. According to Herron, that and "Blade Runner" were part of but one generation of sci-fi films she drew inspiration from.
Bingo! Multiversal DNA
"I wanted the show to be like a big love letter to sci-fi," Herron told Polygon in 2021. "The font on the [TVA's] computers was inspired by 'Alien.' The time doors you see are inspired by 'Dune.'" As for the TVA's Miss Minutes, Herron confirmed Tara Strong's anthropomorphic clock was directly modeled after Mister DNA from "Jurassic Park," another peppy animated corporate mascot whose job entails making their bosses' suspect way of running things sound far more harmless and scrupulous than it is.
Herron added that she wanted to mix the brutalist sensibilities of the architecture in "Brazil" (where the plainness is practically suffocating) with a more pleasant, upbeat, Midwest sensibility. "With Midwest, you've got this really heroic, classy vibe to it because the TVA is very heroic," she explained, whereas the Brutalist elements are a reflection of the "godlike" Time-Keepers who watch over everything (and, as we ultimately learn, are really just a front for a variant of Kang the Conqueror). "So it felt like a really nice marriage to me of styles."
Like any other dyed-in-the-wool artist, Herron also drew from her personal experiences. "I used to work in a lot of offices as a temp before I was a filmmaker, and I remember, the computers were just old, they were archaic. And I was like, 'How is this still functioning in an office?' but they'd be like, 'Look, it ain't broke. So we're not replacing it,'" she recalled. This would ultimately inspire the "Brazil"-like antiquated look of the TVA's own computers, which appropriately makes the organization feel further removed from any specific time period. After all, is there (sadly) anything more timeless than a bureaucracy that would rather play things cheap than make their employees' lives easier?
"Loki" season 2 premieres October 6, 2023, on Disney+.