Marvel Studios’ third Disney+ streaming series, Loki, will have the biggest impact on the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet, according to studio head Kevin Feige. The new series debuts on Wednesday, and early reviews already hit social media. Marvel’s first series, WandaVision, saw Wanda Maximoff become the Scarlet Witch. Its second, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, saw Sam Wilson take up Captain America’s mantle. Apparently, Loki will have even more significant consequences for Marvel’s future. Feige teased as much during an interview in the latest issue of Empire Magazine, which also revealed a new image from the show, seen below.
“It’s tremendously important. It perhaps will have more impact on the MCU than any of the shows thus far,” Feige says in the issue. “What everybody thought about WandaVision, and was sort of true, and The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, which was sort of true, is even more sort of true for Loki.”
“You want to see, after six hours or so, characters change and evolve,” Feige adds. “We don’t make these shows to not be radical, right?”
ComicBook.com has been digging into Marvel’s God of Mischief for our Loki Cram. Elsewhere, director Kate Herron expressed some of the show’s core themes.
“In terms of the themes, I love grey areas. The show is really about what makes someone truly good or what makes someone truly bad, and are we either of those things? Loki is in that grey area,” Herron told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s exciting to be able to tell a story like that. As a director and a writer, you don’t necessarily understand why you are making these stories. Something I keep getting drawn back into is identity. [Herron’s Netflix series] Sex Education, we spoke a lot about identity and feeling like an outsider but actually finding your people. I feel the same with Loki. It’s a show about identity and self-acceptance and for me, that’s also what drew me in.”
In terms of Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity, the series begins right after Loki escaped from custody with the Tesseract during the Avengers’ time heist in Avengers: Endgame. “How do we take a character that people love, but from a lot earlier, and send him on a different path? That for me was interesting, getting to unpack that,” Herron said. “Alongside that, getting to set up a whole new corner of the MCU with TVA. That to me was so exciting.”
What impact do you think Loki will have on the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Let us know in the comments. Loki premieres on June 9th.