Throughout the Infinity Saga, Tom Hiddleston"s Loki was a villain whose personal and family woes often put Earth, and the Avengers, in the crossfire.
But that all changed in Loki on Disney+ when the MCU"s God of Mischief landed in the TVA and was forced to confront himself, leading him to find a new glorious purpose and a newfound family.
Tim Hiddleston Talks Loki"s "New Family"
Marvel StudiosIn talking with Marvel conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Tom Hiddleston revealed that Loki views his TVA colleagues as "a new family." Season 2"s premiere episode picked up where Season 1 left off with Loki back at the TVA and dealing with a mounting list of time-related problems.
In addition to the threat of various Kangs, Loki is experiencing "Time Slipping," where he"s suddenly whisked to different points in time within the same location.
At the same time, Sylvie"s Season 1 actions caused the Temporal Loom to overload, endangering both reality and the TVA, including Mobius, Hunter B-15, Casey, and now Ke Huy Quan"s O.B.
In discussing these various threats, Tom Hiddleston summed up his character"s Season 2 motives, saying, "Reality is going to be destroyed including everyone in it and everyone he loves:"
“The stakes are higher, the clock is running down, and reality is going to be destroyed including everyone in it and everyone he loves, so Loki is propelled by this momentum and this urgency to try to put the brakes on the dissolution and destruction of reality.”Hiddleston also acknowledged that his God of Mischief "struggled with family" in the past, such as with his father Odin and his brother Thor, but his "new family" which is "Mobius and his colleagues at the TVA" helped change that:
“Loki always struggled with family in the MCU, but he’s found a new family in the TVA. In the breakdown of understanding himself and having his sense of self opened up, broken down, and rebuilt by Mobius and his colleagues at the TVA, there’s a new awareness and a capacity to connect with other people.”This is a huge character shift since throughout the MCU thus far, Loki has always been "looking for meaning in the wrong places:"
“He’s a character who, as long as I’ve played him has been searching for meaning. Even when he wasn’t aware of it, he was full of grievance and anger and emotional destabilization because he didn’t feel he had purpose or meaning. He was looking for meaning in the wrong places and now I think he’s found a way of giving himself purpose, which is to try to reorganize, to help Mobius and Hunter B-15 and the TVA.”But even though Loki has found purpose with his new family, Hiddleston noted that "there"s more burden and less glory" this time around:
“If Season 1 was about self-awareness and self-acceptance, Season 2 is about taking responsibility and trying to find a new purpose. Maybe there’s more burden and less glory in the purpose this time.”Loki"s Other MCU FamilyWhile Loki may have found a new family at the TVA, Marvel fans are still waiting for him to reunite with Thor.
Not only does the God of Thunder have no idea that a Variant of his brother is out there, but Thor: Love and Thunder established that the OG Avenger has also been in need of family, connection, and purpose.
Whether Marvel plans for an Odinson family reunion on Disney+ - or in a Multiverse Saga film - remains to be seen.
In the meantime, Tom Hiddleston"s claims about Loki"s devotion to Mobius and his found family are significant.
The character arc which began with 2011"s Thor and climaxed in Loki Season 1 is finally and truly complete while another has just begun.
The question now is how will Loki react when his new less-glorious purpose is threatened and what happens if he can"t save his new family?
New episodes of Loki Season 2 drop every Thursday at 9 p.m. ET until November 9.
