Marvel’s Loki might be the wildest thing to ever come out of the MCU, complete with murderous interdimensional bureaucrats, time travelling mythological figures, and many more surprises in store.
The science fiction series, which directly follows up where Avengers: Endgame left off, following a past (read: not dead) version of Tom Hiddleston’s trickster Loki having escaped from the clutches of the Avengers now being hunted by the Time Variance Authority, is the brainchild in part of Michael Waldron, who wrote each episode of the Disney+ series now streaming on OSN.
Waldron, who is set for a huge behind-the-scenes role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having also penned Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, is no stranger to wild ideas. He’s a producer and writer on the cult Adult Swim series Rick & Morty, itself one of the most mind-bending pieces of science fiction, full of as many wild ideas as Waldron, Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland and Co. can come up with.
With Loki, the reigns were not actually as tight on him as you may think. In fact, there’s only one idea that Waldron can think of that he didn’t manage to get into the show.
“I tried to get I tried to get armadillos with lasers mounted on at some point. And that is that exists in a draft of the script,” Waldron reveals to Esquire Middle East.
“I’ll tell you one day. Someday I’ll be able to tell everybody where that did not make it.”
According to Waldron, however, it wasn’t because he wasn’t allowed. It was just because he came up with a better idea.
“[The reigns] were not very tight, which is a testament to those guys and to what great collaborators they all are,” says Waldron.
“We as a writer’s room cracked the emotional core the series early on in the process, and then went, ok, let’s break out our individual episodes and everything. Then you’re going through, and you’re writing out beat sheets and everything, and it’s like, alright, we’ve got a story problem, or we need to get from point A to point B, and my philosophy was always just like, ‘what is the craziest way to do it?’
“We are making a Marvel series. Let’s not leave anything on the field here. And Marvel was almost always game for that. I always tried to to go a little bit too far. And make them tell us to pull back like, okay, you can’t do everything. And that was that was fun. But really, it felt like there was no cap on our imaginations truthfully,” says Waldron.
One of the ideas that Waldron had early on was to make Loki into D.B. Cooper, the legendary real-life man of mystery who hijacked Boeing 727 in the United States in 1971, picked up a $200,000 ransom, before leaping out of the plane in a parachute, never to be seen again.
“[The D.B. Cooper thing] is a great example. I wrote that in the pilot, and I’m like, are they going to want to invest in a diversion shooting on an airplane? A guy jumping out of it? I mean, it’s just an example, but the answer was yes. Because it’s cool,” Waldron says.
Figuring out Loki the character was perhaps the biggest challenge, as the chameleonic character has changed a lot over the years through both the Thor and Avengers films.
While Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty is something of a trickster character himself, Waldron made sure not to just write Loki as Rick, as he draws a clear line between what drives the two.
“I think where he differs from Rick is Rick is ultimately nihilistic whereas Loki, I think, very much believes in something he believes in something,” says Waldron.
“He believes in his own glory, his purpose, and in the idea that if he rules, that if he has control, that he’ll finally be happy. I think Rick surrendered to the notion that he’ll probably never be happy long ago,” he continues.
“Loki is not necessarily crass. He’s very proper, you know, he’s the prince of Asgard. This guy’s life has been f*cking great.”
With so many elements to Loki’s character, it was a matter of deciding when different characteristics reared their head in the series.
“It’s just figuring out like, okay, when is he vicious? He’s not vicious just for viciousness’s sake. And when is he charming, when is when is he a rascal? When is he a liar? It’s just identifying that every move he makes is calculated. And so when you’re writing him, you have to really be aware every line of dialogue is probably more weighted because it’s just Loki. he never does or says something without having an ulterior motive with it.”
Loki is streaming now on OSN across the Middle East, with new episodes airing every Wednesday
