Review | ‘Loki’ season two brings fun, thought-provoking content to Marvel Cinematic Universe

The second season of the Disney+ series “Loki” ups the stakes from its first season, creating a series that is fun, enjoyable, dramatic and intense. Photo collage by SIMRAH AHMAD, Staff Photographer

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for the second season of “Loki.”  

The Marvel Cinematic Universe isn’t as dead as most people make it out to be.

A franchise that once broke world records within days and caused fans all over the world to rejoice upon new releases has, in recent years, been swinging for the fences and striking out more often than landing home run hits. In the years following the climactic “Avengers: Endgame,” Marvel Studios has released stories that pale in comparison to the franchise’s earlier phases with a few exceptions along the way. 

But the second season of the Disney+ series “Loki” proves that it isn’t quite time to call the coroner on Marvel.

The series is one of the franchise’s more well-made pieces of content released recently. Picking up where its first season ended, the second season follows the god of mischief (Tom Hiddleston) and his allies within the Time Variance Authority (TVA) working overtime to save their timestream after the death of He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), the TVA’s creator, in the first season’s finale. 

With He Who Remains dead, Loki’s universe is under possible threat from He Who Remains’ variants from other universes. Different “branch” timelines are constantly branching off from the principal “Sacred Timeline.” This, in turn, puts strain on the TVA’s “Temporal Loom,” a large contraption managing the flow of time across all timeline branches. 

The TVA member who is most knowledgeable about the Loom and spoon-feeds the audience information about the organization’s current crisis is Ouroboros, or “O.B.” (Ke Huy Quan), a new addition to the cast. Quan’s inclusion after his victorious return to the screen in “Everything Everywhere All At Once” is a welcome one. 

The season’s characters stand out as its strongest aspect. Loki now acts more akin to that of a hero than a villain. He can still prove threatening and quick to anger, but his overall goals align with the greater good. Such was the journey the character found himself undergoing in the series’ first season, and seeing his character having fully completed that arc is delightful. 

Much of the season’s enjoyment comes from its story’s character interactions — chiefly, the dynamic between Loki and Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) once again steals the show. The entire series is consistently funny, and this duo feels like true friends constantly quipping. The characters almost always being on screen together emphasizes their growth as a duo. No longer is Mobius begrudgingly trying to get Loki to change as a character; such a change has already come, and that dynamic is behind them. Now, they face the season’s current threats together as a pair of allies. 

Within certain sequences of the series, I was reminded of the infectious ensemble nature found within other streaming hits like “Stranger Things.” Just as Hawkin’s residents plan, divide and conquer when facing supernatural entities from the Upside Down, characters like Loki, Mobius, O.B. and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) talk through strategies on how to fix the Loom.

A few of the episodes (such as the fifth titled “Science/Fiction”) contain shots that stagger its ensemble cast, showcasing every hero lined up much as the “Avengers” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” films do. It feels as if the production team behind the season is proud of their ensemble, and they should be since nearly every character shines. 

In this aforementioned fifth episode, Loki admits to Sylvie that his reason for fighting throughout the episode is because he wants his friends back and that he doesn’t want to be alone. This is again an example of Loki’s growth being clearly detailed to the audience. Being such a drastic change from Loki’s inception within the shared universe, it’s again nice to see, even if it is conveyed through exposition. Hearing him verbally admit friendship is something widely unheard of for the character. 

The series’ second season also keeps itself interesting with the intense questions and themes its characters pose regarding the events happening around them. With He Who Remains having staffed the TVA with innocent timeline occupants whose memories have been wiped, characters constantly raise questions surrounding free will. When branch timelines — which create trillions of new lives — are “pruned” (destroyed), where do the TVA’s hearts lie in relation to such lives being erased? These types of questions are constant in “Loki,” but they’re interesting and thought-provoking in ways that previous Marvel content hasn’t been.

What makes “Loki” most interesting as a series are the settings in which its story unfolds. Like the first season, Loki and Mobius travel time, first looking for Sylvie and later coming across Victor Timely (also Majors), a variant of He Who Remains who becomes an integral part of Loki’s team. In the season’s third episode, “1893,” Mobius and Loki travel to 19th century Chicago, where they eventually seek Timely’s help in fixing the Loom. The episode has an entertaining atmosphere from the setting alone, and the series’ quirky plotlines about time travel and multiversal heroics are one of its standouts. 

The TVA — a strange, skyscraper-like complex existing outside of time — once again feels different from the majority of locations we’ve seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These continuous differences make “Loki” stand out amongst its current plethora of companion pieces. 

The season’s cinematography is also beautiful. Images of characters and locations are striking, especially when taking into account the series’ pleasant color schemes. The TVA is decorated in oranges and grays; Loki’s own colors add green to the palette. Certain shots reminded me of the style of Wes Anderson — compelling framing, with additional attention to color and background. These shots also seemed to be a main consideration when shooting specific shots of the series. 

The second season of “Loki” is an enjoyable watch through-and-through. While it may not reach the heights of prime Marvel Cinematic Universe content, the series offers more than enough fun to be watched and enjoyed.