Loki creator Michael Waldron on what to expect in season 2

Most of Marvel’s post-credits scenes point to the future. Loki opted for a more direct approach: the God of Mischief would return in season 2.

Based on the final turn of events, there really was no other choice: Loki (Tom Hiddleston), having traveled to the furthest point in space-time with his variant Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) to meet TVA’s founder, a scientist turned Multiversal-war-survivor known as The One Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), finds himself trapped in a new reality when his own lady kills the omnipresent being. The mind is spinning!

Creator Michael Waldron revels in the endless possibilities of Lokicentral premise. And as a veteran of Rick and morty, he knows what makes for a mind-blowing show and what will keep the character of Hiddleston hurtling through his chaotic, rewritten future. Next, Polygon talks to Waldron about the key options of Loki season 1, what to expect from season 2, and a bit about his next project, the wrestling drama Heels, which will premiere on August 15.

Did you know there would be a second season of Loki from the beginning or was that choice made later in the process?

Michael Waldron: We always knew it was a possibility. We always knew we wanted to push Loki and these characters to the MCU after this, to more stories. But that didn’t really crystallize as a sure thing until we were in production and all. And how we were really figuring out the ending.

So you were still tearing up the ending while filming the show?

There was a hiatus due to the pandemic. So things changed constantly because of that. I think, in general, everything with The One Left and the Sylvie-Loki conflict was always there. But that suspense was the kind of thing that suddenly turned into a really attractive opportunity, a chance for that to lead to a second season.

Which element of the series helped you decipher the macro story of Lokiand made all the other pieces fall into place? Each episode almost feels like a standalone adventure, similar to Rick and mortybut what helped everything click?

The first couple of weeks in the writers room was simply exposing the individual episodes. For me it was very important that each episode was independent, and you could say “This is the episode of Lamentis”, “This is the episode of the apocalypse moon”, “This is the episode of the Void”. I didn’t want it to just be divided into chapters and have a long, continuous story. Obviously, we had to calculate time travel for things to fall into place. I think a great idea for us was the way you move around TVA hiding in apocalypses. It felt like such a great, cool, and exciting idea that it powered the action of Episode 2, Episode 3, and in a way it’s like Alioth is the ultimate apocalypse behind which He Who Remains hides. That science fiction idea opened up a lot to us. I know that after what we had I went home and slept a little easier.

Did adding the multiverse to the Marvel Cinematic Universe feel like blowing up something or expanding it, in terms of narrative possibilities?

In the same way as after the first couple of Iron Man movies, and with the first AvengersAll of a sudden these movies were going into space. Then we had Guardians. I think of the multiverse as another version of that. It’s new ground to cover, and particularly interesting because characters who know other versions of themselves and other versions of people they know is … great. It’s a cool sci-fi concept! But I think with anything, as you expand outward, it only works if humanity remains. It’s exciting to see the characters deal with big, crazy multiversal conflicts because we can see ourselves in them. I think you have to hold on to the humanity that makes these stories work in the first place.

Did you go back to the Thor movies for Loki? Was there something to find in Marvel’s past as it prepared for the future?

Absolutely. I mean, I saw them many times, contrary to what Twitter might think, because I did some parts saying that I had never seen them. Avengers and i bothered some people [laughs]. I’ve seen it many times. “Confirmed: Loki the writer has seen Avengers and I saw it before writing Loki Show.”

In fact, I was watching all these looping movies in the writers room. I learned a lot because you see the evolution of the character. Avengers was particularly informative because our story picks up on Loki right after that, but I also found a lot of inspiration in Thor: The Dark World, a movie that is perhaps sometimes maligned and that I really enjoy. I think there are cool things with Loki being tangentially responsible for his mother’s death, how he reacts to that. That’s the beginning of his journey of that version of Loki’s redemption, so that inspired me.

What is propelling the characters to season 2? Where is it headed in basic terms?

In season 1, you saw many characters considering and questioning their own glorious purpose, and that glorious purpose changing, [characters] realizing that that can change. Everyone except Sylvie. I think he’s clinging to his, that it’s revenge, and perhaps to the detriment of all of us. And we have a Loki who, at the top of our show, has evaluated himself as a villain and, I would say, by the end of our show, has become a little hero. There is nothing more heroic for me than fighting for the right thing and losing. You see that dragging him while he’s there on TVA, after Sylvie hit there. And then he gets up because that’s what heroes do: they keep going. So I think you’re going to see a Loki who sees himself in a different way, certainly on top of this.

Hoping to explore more of Sylvie’s backstory in season 2?

I guess we’ll see. We certainly have our own backstory for her, things that didn’t make it to the show. Elissa Karasik, our writer for episode 2, wrote a lot of amazing backstory for Sylvia and everything. So those ideas exist out there.

And his version of Thor?

Tune in.

How did He who remains come about? Did you bring the character to Marvel or was it a character that Marvel hoped to introduce?

He was pushing and our team pushed early on in the writers room that it should be a version of Kang in that Citadel, a kind of fusion of the mythology of El that remains with a bit of the mythology of Immortus. And that was something we were excited to do. And it became clear that it actually made sense for our story. The only way we were going to do it was if it made sense, but it was like, who had a better argument for creating TVA to prevent other versions of themselves from existing than a guy as evil as Kang the Conqueror?

You wrote the next Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Insanity – Did Marvel hire you for that after Loki? Does the movie feel like a continuation of the show?

Yes, that opportunity came when we were getting ready to start production in Loki. It was a pleasure. I got to work with Sam Raimi, one of my heroes. I was in London for five months making that movie on top of this year. We had a great time. I think it’s a continuation insofar as every Marvel movie is to some extent a chapter in an ongoing story, but these things are meant to be standalone and the most important thing about Doctor Strange is also making the best Doctor Strange. . movie we could.

It is Loki A two-part show now or are you interested in telling a longer story with future seasons beyond season 2?

Time will tell, but I hope Season 1 stands on its own. We always wanted to tell a complete story there. And whatever the next chapter is, it will also stand on its own.

Your next show Heels, already underway. We got a great preview of Comic-Con this year, but I’m curious about the scope of this story. You’re starting out with two brothers running an indie wrestling franchise, but you’ve dropped the “Vince McMahon” name multiple times. Is it about building an empire? Would you compare it to The Godfather or Breaking bad?

I always thought of it as some kind of Scorsese rise, and we’ll see if there is a fall. Starting from humble beginnings and trying to build some madness. Wrestling was not always the empire that it is and that is the interesting thing, seeing the evolution of a family wrestling business from something you do in your small cities and perhaps a national empire, even a global one. That would be a really compelling arc for a show spanning multiple seasons. I’d be excited to explore that.

What’s the most rewarding fighting moment you’ve ever witnessed? What’s the bar for wrestling drama Heels?

It has to be Hulk Hogan turning around in WCW. There was an invasion story, these guys from WWF, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, they came along and they were the bad guys. It was on a pay-per-view and they were hitting the good guys you love, and here comes Hulk Hogan in yellow and red and he’s the hero. Hulk will catch them! The good boy is here! “And then the Hulk just drops Randy Savage’s leg. That was the original Red Wedding. I just think about the audacity of turning it into a heel. For a little kid … He wasn’t even like a huge Hulk fan, but he was such a mythological figure. What a chance Hulk Hogan took as an actor, as a profitable movie star at the time. That was a bold and risky storytelling and it triggered two years of incredible storytelling with Hogan just playing a cowardly, cowardly heel and being so evil. I really respect them so much for doing that. That was a great story.

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