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The future looks bright for Loki. So does the past

Disney's latest small-screen Marvel spinoff features winning chemistry backed by cool, retro-future design

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This one’s going to be good.

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When Disney+ debuted WandaVision in January, its nine-episode arc hit Marvel fans like a breath of fresh air. While not for everyone (because really, what is?), the show delivered a jolt of nostalgia for all age groups as it melded various eras of TV sitcoms with an original plot that didn’t require obsessive knowledge of the sprawling cinematic universe – though a little familiarity never hurt.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which debuted in March, felt a bit less novel, a guys-on-a-mission tale that played like Endgame lite. But then trailers for Loki arrived and people went nuts for the chemistry between Tom Hiddleston’s trickster/god and the character played by Owen Wilson, a bureaucrat who goes by Mobius M. Mobius. No points for guessing his middle name.

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And episode one does not disappoint. It opens on the scene from Endgame in which Loki got hold of the Tesseract – an all-powerful doodad, for the uninitiated – and departed to parts unknown. Well, unknown until now. Turns out he was captured by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) for crimes against the timeline.

Summarily judged and found guilty, he is about to be tossed into – the dustbin of history, I’m guessing? – when Mobius throws him a lifeline. If he puts his skills to use helping with a certain case, maybe his sentence will be commuted. At the very least, the job sounds interesting. Or as Mobius says: “I can’t offer you salvation but maybe I can offer you something better.”

What follows feels like an old Dr. Who episode, helped no doubt by the show’s retro-future design – all analogue switches and dials – and bolstered by the presence of British director and self-confessed sci-fi fan Kate Herron, working closely with lead writer Michael Waldron. There are scenes in the first episode that take us to 1549 France, the friendly skies of 1971, and 1858, with the promise of much more to come. (This critic has seen all of episode 1 and 2, but I won’t be discussing the second one here.)

Suffice to say, Loki will find its fans, who will eagerly await each new chapter the way previous generations looked forward to a new Star Trek every week. Or to quote Mobius again: “That’s how it is, that’s how it was, that’s how it will be.” That line seems to be running through my head like a loop.

Loki episode 1 is available June 9 on Disney+ with five more episodes released weekly on Wednesdays.

4 stars out of 5

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