Source - The Direct
The king of mischief gets his own series with the commencement of phase four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first episode of the six-episode series “Loki” was released on 9th June on Disney+ Hotstar in English and Hindi. The series is full of references from the previous Marvel movies, and it opens a new world of possibilities with its multiverse theory.
The series begins with Loki stealing the Tesseract and escaping the Avengers after creating a fiasco in New York, 2012. Loki is then arrested by an apparently omniscient agency calling themselves the TVA or the Time Variance Authority. He is charged with the crime of attempting to break the “pre-defined path of time”. The series then revolves around Loki and his exploration of different multiverses.
On the one hand, where previous Marvel Movies emphasized Thanos' conquest to gain the mighty infinity stones, on the other hand, the TVA official doesn't seem to give a damn about infinity stones. One of the TVA officials is seen in a sequence regarding the infinity stones as paperweights in the TVA office. This gives a hint that the future MCU movies will be about powers that are much bigger than the infinity stones.
[*SPOILER ALERT*] As the story unfolds, Loki meets his variants from other multiverses, and apparently, one of his variants is an alligator as well. Interestingly, one of his variants also claims that he has killed Thor, hinting that there is an alternate universe where there is no Thor and Loki is the king of Odin. There is also a variant of Loki played by DeObia Oparei that holds the Mjolnir (Thor's Hammer), indicating that he is some sort of Thor and Loki mixture.
While the other Loki variants are not given much screen time, the female variant of Loki, AKA Sylvie, played by Sophia Di Martino, plays a significant part in the series. Like other Loki variants, Sylvie is also picked up the TVA, and Sylvie is keen to take revenge on the TVA for this.
Image Source - The Independent
In the last episode, Loki and Sylvie reach the Citadel at the extreme end of time, where they meet a seemingly human character of "He Who Remains". He Who Remains tells them how Loki and Sylvie are not the ones finding him. Instead, he has been the one guiding them to meet him. He tells them that there was once a war among all the multiverses to gain superiority amongst each other. He Who Remains managed to stop the war after harnessing the powers of Alioth, but now he is bored, and he wants them to manage the TVA. He gives them an offer to either kill him and end the TVA or be a part of it and control all the multiverses. To find out their decision, you should be watching the last episode of Loki.
The series also features a sequence where romance builds between Loki and Sylvie. This sequence is both hilarious and surprising because Sylvie is Loki from an alternate universe. According to some fan theories, this sequence is an indication that Sylvie is just pretending to be a Loki variant but she is actually the Enchantress from the Marvel comics. If these theories are true, Sylvie could actually be another villain in the MCU.
Source - Screen Rant
Tom Hiddlestone is great throughout the series playing Loki. His performance makes you forget that he is playing a character, rather you believe that you are actually watching the King of Mischief. Playing a Marvel character for the first time, Sophia Di Martino is effortless and stunning in each frame she appears. Her performance also deserves appreciation because she played this character immediately after having a baby.
There is also a famous incident from the sets of Loki where Sophia Di Martino needed to breastfeed her baby during the shoots of Loki. This could really be a problem for her and the baby if the costumes were not easy to remove. The genius costume designers from Marvel added an extra zipper to all her costumes so that it becomes extremely easy for Sophia to breastfeed her baby and focus completely on her performance.
Just like other content from Marvel, Loki makes no budget cuts in the costumes, screenplay, and the VFX. The VFX especially looks spectacular during the entire series. Everything from the TVA office to the Citadel looks grand and all the VFX looks perfect. The costumes, screenplay, and performances make you feel immersed in the authentic Marvel experience.
The screenplay of Loki seems bland in the first few episodes of the series, but it gains pace from the third episode. The series is full of references from the past Marvel incidents. While a die-hard Marvel fan may like Loki, people watching Loki without prior MCU knowledge will surely lose interest. While the series is full of thought-provoking and mind-boggling, the first few episodes could indeed be more gripping. We would keep Loki in the must-watch category for a genuine Marvel fan, and if you are one of them, you should certainly watch it.
